41 thoughts on “Are You Ready To Win Some Prizes? The Metaprinter Giveaway Begins!”

1. If I owned a newspaper I would spend most if not all of my available resources to make my publication relevant to my community, whether online or in print, I would make sure that the content being generated was vital. I would do everything in my power to not cut out coverage and reduce reporting staffs. Don’t know how I might afford to do that, but it seems from the papers I read, that those cuts just start a death spiral. Less coverage means less readers, which means less ads, which means even less coverage … repeat until broke.

2. If I owned a newspaper I’d be getting rid of debt as fast as possible while also hiring the best sales people i can afford.

3. If I owned a newspaper, I would sell all of my printing presses and go completely digital. And then, I’d fire any senior managers who do not understand (and appreciate) social media. I’d give them a test – pass, you are safe – fail, you’ve chosen the path of the doo doo bird and dinasaur!

   I’d explore new advertising models beyond CPM and PPC and embrace the power of social networking and Pay Per Action advertsiing.

4. If I owned a newspaper, I’d sell it now while i can still get something out of it before this biz becomes obsolete.

5. If i owned a newspaper, I’d switch to digital printing.

6. If I owned a newspaper I would turn to the entertainment section to see if there was anything good on tv. Hey you said newspaper not newspaper company.

7. Thanks for the clarification Jeff. previous answers are acceptable, but now the statement reads “if I owned a newspaper company…”

8. If I owned a newspaper company I’d hire “a list” bloggers as consultants.

9. If I owned a a newspaper company I would buy stock in Yahoo and short my own company (if I were a public newspaper company, that is)

10. I’d close down most of my brick and mortar overhead and go virtual.

11. If I owned a newspaper company I would take the money and run for the border. I guess I would make front page on all the other newspaper companies…

12. I’d hire my monstrously talented friends and acquaintances at exorbitant rates to remake the paper in a cool image.

    We’d have cake when someone new started, not just when someone old left. Copy editors and clerks and classified folks would get the windows; senior management would get desks in the middle, where everyone could keep an eye on ‘em and make sure they weren’t goofing off on the Internet.

    We might go digital. We might turn it into a ‘Facebook’ for news.

    It wouldn’t be easy, but we’d try to be honest about our biases.

    We might build the news section entirely out of infographics.

    My paper would stand out from the herd, and we’d have a blast as long as the money held out.

13. Speaking in terms of small town newspapering – I would beef up my newsroom and put more emphasis on local hometown news coverage. Go ahead and cover the Little League and Babe Ruth baseball teams and write a 10 inch story on each game, listing as many local names as possible. I would publish wedding and engagement photos and submitted wedding stories and I wouldn’t charge for bridal photos. Tell your readers “Go ahead and cut it out of the printed product and put it on your refrigerator much like your mom and dad did when they were kids.”

    I would not charge for obits – big mistake in my eyes, newspapers charging for obits. And my obits would be flowery – tell their life story – it’s OK.

    I would list community happenings and events and make a big deal out of it.

    I would of course cover the hard news, but I would be sure to drive people to my printed product by using all the tools available through the Internet..

    I would be a friend to everybody but also keep those responsible in check.

    Most of all, I would be proactive instead of reactive, which is the state of many newspapers. If community newspapers would get back to connecting with their readers including youngsters, then I believe the next generation would learn to appreciate and value newspapers, much the way their grandparents did.

    But – I understand that all of this comes at a cost and it depends on if I am corporate owned or family owned. Corporate owned worries about the bottom line. Family owned worries about the bottom line but knows the importance of connecting with their community.

    It would be easy to sum this up by saying – less doom and gloom and more postive, local community news…

14. If I owned a newspaper company, I would always make headline news.
    Sweet and simple.

15. If I owned a metro daily, the first thing I would do is check my ego at the door in order to make unbiased decisions regarding direction. In a perfect world, I would redirect 110% focus on the core product, placing significantly more emphasis on local news. I would shed the fringe products, like niche pubs for instance, that tend to dilute company focus and strain already tight resources. And I would make every attempt to partner with competing companies who out-perform my paper in some areas where I am losing considerable monies (think inserts). I would look to partner with Red Plum for instance. And if it were unwilling, then I’d strongly consider the investment to distribute at the sub-zip level so as to offer advertisers a better targetted delivery. I would also think long and hard about how best to leverage both my printer capabilities and, moreover, my delivery capabilities. I think both of these are oft-overlooked revenue sources. Finally, I’d look to lead development on an internet portal capable of handling micropayments for content. I would solicit other newspapers to join this portal, the caveat being that if content were supplied to the portal, it could not be made available to the Google’s of the world free of charge. If all newspapers banded together and wrestled content away from Google, Yahoo, etc, then the modle would flip. Google, Yahoo, etc, would starve for content a bit and “this site” (whatever it be called) would begin to play the portal giants’ own game. Who knows, maybe down the road Craigslist would come in and partner as the classified component. Anyway, we are unfortunately a long way from this type of thing happening. It’s unfortunate really. I remember a quote that used to be part of the image on the fabric of the undersid of my bunk bed as a child… United We Stand, Divided We Fall. Truer words are seldom spoken. Newspapers are dying one by one because they cannot think beyond their immediate problems and focus on a meta solution; one in which we all win. Oh, and lastly, oust the unions… at least in the sales department. Has anyone ever heard of merit raises? There are far too many protected sales people “phoning it in” and/or “riding the pine”. If my newspaper were in serious trouble, I’d strongly consider chapter 11 in order to break the union. Its time in newspaper has come and gone. This jobs-program has developed into a full-fledged albatross. What is their usefulness these days anyway except to protect non-performers? They have no leverage and are only in position to bargain our concessions. Whoopie. Lance and lavage…..

16. I would focus on really understanding the consumer (aka reader) and create numerous well defined and segmented news/information vehicles across print, Internet, cellphone, and any other information giving channel that I can think of. In the process, I would also start dismantaling the current “all-purpose” newspaper that believes one product can serve all readers within a given community. For those consumers that wanted more sports, I’d look for ways to give them more sports. For those that are local news buffs, I’d give them local news. etc.

    I would distribute multiple newspapers at one time with each targetd towards a different reader segment, each with a set of content targeted to the needs and wants of that segment. I would train the staff to dedicate all of their immense journalistic capabilities towards focussing on the needs of their reader segment.

    I would also figure out ways to stop distributin sections of the newspaper to those people that don’t want them. I would get the entire organization to believe that the only path to survival of the industry would be to give every consumer in my trading area all the information they want, when they want it, in the media vehicle they want and only give them that information and nothing more.

17. If I owned a newspaper company, and after several unsuccessful ebay auctions to unload it, I would find a niche in my local market and own the information gatherers for it. Any unpurchased issues would be donated to rescue aviaries in the US.

18. I’d focus on quality within the newsroom, pushing for more and better local coverage. I’d make sure there was enough space in the paper for the news and get rid of things that aren’t relevent anymore in the print world (TV listings, stocks). I do more analysis (what does this mean to me?) for the readers. I’d make sure editors knew how to spell and had a concept of good grammar before I hired them. I’d hire designers who could make a page sing. And I wouldn’t give the product away for free online, especially if I was in a small community with limited news resources.

19. What are newspapers?

20. If I owned a newspaper company… i would be a very, very happy guy! I’d shut it down and change all structure to a web based format :D

21. If I owned a newspaper company I’d make a few changes that would continue to make my company a vital for delivering news.

    One change I would NOT make is prevent the text of my articles from being indexed from search engines such as Google and Yahoo. I would however render the articles as videos read by a reporter either as a narrator over action scenes or in traditional desk anchor format. I’d integrate micro commercials (3-5 seconds) just before, perhaps in the middle of and upon ending the videos. The length and quantity all depend on the length of the article and video.

    I would begin reaching out makers of digital print readers like Amazon and immediately try to support as many products as possible negotiating for early adopter long term deals with minimal loss of licensing fees. I would continue to charge monthly subscription fees. I would also allow for a la cart pricing on sections of the newspaper.

    I would sell my printing presses to some poor sucker, while negotiating a usage contract for the next 3 years so that my paper subscribers can ween off of the paper.

    .. just some of many ideas.. do I get an iPod now??

22. If I owned a newspaper company, I would put more emphasis on local coverage. Readers can get national and international stories anywhere on the Internet. I would give them some local news on the web, but then charge a subscription rate if they want all of the news.

23. @Buster .. just some of many ideas.. do I get an iPod now??

    You are in the running Buster! The winners will be selected on Friday and contacted via email. With their permission I will share their names, however if they want to remain anonymous that’s cool to.

24. I would do what we have been doing where I work. And, it’s very different from what most newspapers do. We home deliver the printed newspaper for FREE. We only print local news. We publish once a week. We ask for bids to print our newspaper to keep the cost low. We have and are adding more features to our web site that complement our weekly newspaper (weather, photo reprints, paid archives, yellow pages, classified ads, paid e-Edition, etc.) instead of competing with it. We don’t charge for obits, wedding announcements, anniversaries, award notices, etc. – these items are LOCAL NEWS. You won’t find the vast majority of our local news on the Internet – we won’t post it there for free and the out-of-town metro newspapers don’t cover our local cities very well.

25. If I owned a newspaper named the New York Times, I would be very proud of it and I wouldn’t change a thing.

26. I would publish a weekend edition only with articles, commentaries and less time sensitive coverage of local events, issues, tradeoffs while moving the immediate daily coverage online and supplement with community bloggers.

27. WOW there are some really creative ideas and I guess people really would like to win the IPOD. Oh well here goes my attempt.
    Papers have inherently too much debt, too much overhead and in this digital world a shrinking presence with Facebook, Myspace and Twitter. The paper is seen as a dinosaur. If costs can be controlled there is a business model in there. I would immediately make everyone accountable from Editors, to writers, the people running the press and selling ads. Capitalism is about empowerment and empowering people to run a business and take responsibility for that operation is a powerful tool. Most people at papers are “employees” doing what they can to keep their job in this environment. That will not save a dying industry. So here is the quick version hit list:
    1.) Reorganize the structure of the paper into business operating units giving them control of the P&L. Give the operating units the ability to make more than just employees.
    2.) Revamp the current distribution model to make the paper available to the people who want to read it. Home delivery is almost outdated.
    3.) For mainstream news use AP, Rueters, Dow Jones etc. so that there is not that massive overhead with staff writers regurgitating the same information available.
    4.) Focus on localized content that appeals to the community in a similar way the various business journals currently operate.
    5.) Give the subscriber a value proposition. Such as a free email account with specialized web news delivery both to email and mobile platforms.
    6.) Have the audience contribute in a community based format such as “Seekingalpha.com” for business. It is easier for two or three seasoned newspaper people to field and clean up content from readers and people on the street. Similar to a Facebook social media site.
    7.) Make sure that everything done to add value protects and builds the brand, ala Yahoo. The large tier internet companies first and foremost protect and promote the brand and they do that by adding value and functionality to their site.

    The paper still has a place and a use, even if it is to clean windows and wrap fish in.

28. If I owned a newspaper company, I would comfort myself in the fact that I have a lot of tax loss carry-forwards

29. If I owned a newspaper, I would be thankful for the opportunity to write my own obituary.

30. If I owned a newspaper, I’d obviously have to have loads of money to spend on a vanity project, so I would blow all my money trying to shake things up and employ the most talented people I can find.
    I’d start by creating new news sections.
    I’d start with an arts section dependent on freelancers who would provide original content. I’d publish short stories or serials, poetry and essays as well as photos, art and cartoons along with the typical staff critiques of movies, plays, music, dance, TV, and Internet (including blogs and youtube).
    And since I’m throwing my money around anyway, I’d use some of the arts section budget to create a showcase area/club in the building where this content and/or performances could be displayed for the public (for a fee, of course).
    Moving on to the meaty stuff, I’d bring back the science section. The section would look at local, national and international issues. We’d have beat reporters on energy, telecom, the environment, health and “gadgets.” This section would focus on how and why things are happening and how to fix them if needed as well as fun gadgets.
    We’d also try to create a partnership or content sharing deal with blogs, magazines and journals.
    Next would come the politics section. We’d look at what’s happening in D.C. and the state capital of the home state as well as neighboring states. This section would also cover the Circuit Court and the Supreme Court as well as education issues (no local fund raiser stories here, this would be about decisions and issues related to education).
    The local section would focus on high school and college sports, local crime trends (no live coverage of Dumpster fires!), and local business trends. This would also be a place for local features on people and non profit organizations and we’d put our most creative writers on that features beat to liven up the writing.
    And since I’m obviously a playgirl billionaire in this scenario, I’d write almost the entire travel section every week because I’d be shirking my duties as editoress in chief pretty regularly to run off to check out Mayan pyramids or cruise up the Nile. But I’d be nice enough to take a reporter and photog or two with me at least once a month (on a rotating basis) so they could do the same.
    The travel section would be folded into a “fun” section of the paper that also includes cooking, gardening, and sports as well as a calendar of local events. We could also have Q&As with top chefs and sports stars and coaches here, plus cooking competitions, garden tips and tours and parties hosted by this section to raise money for local schools and non profits.
    All reporters on the more analytical beats (see politics, environment, energy, health) would be required to write regular web posts so they could build and maintain relationships on their beats outside their long-form stories.
    All of the print content would have prominent Web placement on our Web site. Then there would be a “breaking News box and tab that would allow the curiosity seekers to check out the car crashes, Britney Spears sightings and house fires.
    Our twitter page would be entirely focused on live coverage of things like court proceedings on major cases, sports games, live entertainment events and paper-sponsored events.

    And then, on the seventh day, I’d take a long bubble bath in my gold plated bath and dry off on my $100 dollar bills.

31. If I owned a newspaper I’d explore more new media and social networking options and alternative uses (other than fish wrappers) for old newspapers.

32. If I owned a newspaper company… i wouldn’t be a laid off journalist now

33. If I owned a newspaper I would……………….
    BE IN THE COMICS.

34. If I owned a newspaper I would make sure that I operated it in a small town where I still have a lot of old school newspaper readers that haven’t grasped the concept of free information that can be obtained on the internet and also make sure that I have a monopoly in that town.

35. I would be in much greater debt than I already am. Wow, not owning something, can actually contribute positively to my personal balance sheet!

36. I would approach Google and persuade them to host my digital newspaper on their money losing You Tube property. I would divide my publication into free and subscription driven content. I would scrap the daily paper edition format for a weekly paper magazine. Google could offer this new business model to newspapers throughout the country and provide original content to extract income streams from their current customers.

    Fifty dollars a year for access to your local paper’s premium content. One hundred dollars a year for access to every newspaper in the collection and for any new premium content from Google.

37. If I owned a newspaper company I would make sure to have no advertisements–therefore, no bias towards sponsors and hire the best journalists capable of remaining objective and let them run free without executive pressure and management input.

38. If I owned a newspaper I’d hire mommy bloggers to write for me because when they speak the sponsers listen. The sponsers would be in a bidding war for the ad space.
    I am only partly jesting you know.

39. “Ten Things I Would Do If I Owned a Newspaper Company” (http://deadtreeedition.blogspot.com/2009/04/ten-things-i-would-do-if-i-owned.html) has a list that includes not calling it a newspaper company, putting some content behind ad walls, and being kinder to bloggers.

40. If I owned a newspaper company I would probably be out of business in a couple of years. It’s sad but true that newspapers are closing. I would do eveything I could to salvage it but who knows if I could.

41. If I owned a newspaper company I would focus on the good things going on around the world. It would be called The Good Life. So many of our newspapers focus on the negatives, the tragedies – I understand that is what sells papers but sometimes we all need to hear about the good things going on.