Stocks in newspapers rose for the first time in a long time because some feel the purchase of Huffington Post by AOL indicates that the internet needs news content to flourish.
http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9L889O80.htm
Category Archives: Newspaper News
New York Times Ends Publication of ‘The Local’ in New Jersey and Directs its Readers to Baristanet
From the NY Times:
The decision has been made to use the knowledge we have gained from the New Jersey Local and take the experiment in a new and exciting direction. And so today this part of The New York Times hyperlocal experiment has come to an end.
The Times is passing the baton to another site, Baristanet.com. Baristanet is one of the most successful hyperlocal Web sites in the country, and its owners, Debbie Galant and Liz George, both experienced writers and editors, are leaders in the field.
The new and exciting direction of which NYT speaks of is to cease publication… it seems lots of companies these days are trying this new approach to er…business. Publicly traded NYT shut their experiment down because they couldn’t figure out how to make money with it, plain and simple. Just looking at the The Local I could say, “where the hell is all the local advertising”?
Thankfully, Galant and George don’t seem to have any problem making money with their local news style. Their sites content AND advertisements are plentiful and on topic. A statement from their site follows below. Good luck to them and Happy Newsing.
Press Release from Baristanet
Starting tomorrow, July 1, the place we all call Baristaville gets bigger.
We will begin covering Maplewood, Millburn and South Orange with sites for each town as The New York Times today ends publication of The Local in New Jersey and directs its readers in those three towns to Baristanet.
We’ve served Montclair, Glen Ridge and Bloomfield — towns encompassing about 90,000 people — since 2004. Expanding to Maplewood, South Orange and Millburn will bring Baristanet’s coverage area to 150,000.
“Hyperlocal journalism is constantly evolving, and as The Times continues to investigate this arena, we’ll watch with great interest how our friends at Baristanet advance the cause in Maplewood, South Orange and Millburn,” said Jim Schachter, associate managing editor.
We’re thrilled that the Times has passed their hyperlocal baton to us and we will run with it. First and foremost, we are your local homegrown online community. And to that end, we are bringing these new towns into an expanded “Baristaville” by staying local. Journalist and Maplewood resident Jolie Solomon joins the Baristanet team along with community contributors from Maplewood, South Orange and Millburn.
What does this mean for you dear readers? More to love, we hope, and some new voices as we welcome these towns and new readers into the online community you helped create. Thanks for everything you do to make this site an online news and entertainment destination and a true community. And feel free to say hi and interact with your new neighbors in Baristaville.
###
Visit Baristanet.com for more.
comScore Media Metrix Data ranks The New York Times as Top Online Newspaper According to May 2010 U.S.
The New York Times Ranks as Top Online Newspaper According to May 2010 U.S. comScore Media Metrix Data
U.S. Online Newspaper CPMs Nearly 3 Times Higher than Average
RESTON, VA, June 16, 2010 – comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released a report of the top U.S. online newspaper groups based on the comScore Media Metrix service. The newspaper category represents the first site category for which each of the top ten ranked entities has transitioned to the comScore Media Metrix 360 (Unified Digital Measurement) methodology.
The report showed that more than 123 million Americans visited newspaper sites in May, representing 57 percent of the total U.S. Internet audience, as the New York Times Brand led the category with more than 32 million visitors and 719 million pages viewed during the month. The average visitor viewed 22 pages of content on the New York Times, also leading the top ten. Tribune Newspapers ranked second in terms of audience with 24.8 million visitors, followed by Advance Internet (18.1 million visitors) and USA Today Sites (16.8 million visitors). Continue reading
MAYOR BLOOMBERG LAUNCHES NYC MEDIA LAB – Innitiative to Promote Media Innovation
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
PR- 268-10
June 14, 2010
Partnership of the City, Polytechnic Institute of NYU and Columbia University Will Connect Media Companies with Academic Institutions and Drive Independent Technology Research
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg today launched NYC Media Lab, a new initiative to promote innovation within New York City’s media industry. The new laboratory – a consortium of the New York City Economic Development Corporation, Polytechnic Institute of New York University (NYU-Poly) and Columbia University – will drive new technology research and connect companies looking to advance new media technologies with local academic institutions undertaking related research. NYC Media Lab builds on models established at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Stanford University and is the nation’s first government-supported laboratory for media innovation. It will be housed within the NYU Polytechnic Institute campus in Downtown Brooklyn. Mayor Bloomberg made the announcement at the Wired “Disruptive by Design” conference held at the Morgan Library and Museum, where he was joined by New York City Economic Development Corporation President Seth W. Pinsky, NYU-Poly Provost Dianne Rekow, Columbia University Vice President for Intellectual Property & Technology Transfer Orin Herskowitz, and AOL Chairman and CEO Tim Armstrong, an advisor to the City’s MediaNYC 2020 initiative. Continue reading
Clay Shirky on the Collapse of Complex Business Models – Media & Newspapers
…Diller, Brill, and Murdoch seem be stating a simple fact—we will have to pay them—but this fact is not in fact a fact. Instead, it is a choice, one its proponents often decline to spell out in full, because, spelled out in full, it would read something like this:
“Web users will have to pay for what they watch and use, or else we will have to stop making content in the costly and complex way we have grown accustomed to making it. And we don’t know how to do that.”
-CShirky read the entire post on Shirky’s blog.
Advertisers and Readers Return to Newspaper Industry – Profits Up
In a stunning turn of events for the newspaper industry Q1 2010 numbers show that readers and advertisers have returned to this medium. Experts suggest the return is real and that long-term the outlook for newspapers and newspaper revenues look strong. One ratings analyst with April Capital Management was quoted as saying, “look, where else are people going to raise awareness for their brand or read the news? Newspapers seem the best option for both customers”.
No comment from the Google Topeka executives who are now scrambling to unload their digital advertising and data mining enterprises.
Newspaper Association of America Reports Ad Revenue Fell 27.2% in 2009
Newspaper print ad revenue fell 28.6% from last year (which fell 17.7% the year before). Even more alarming is the fact that newspaper Online advertising revenue fell 11.8% (which fell 1.8% the year before).
Total ad spending in the U.S. fell 12.3% to $125.3 billion in 2009, according to a report from Kantar Media (formerly TNS Media Intelligence).
Internet display advertising was up 7.3%, and free-standing inserts, up 3.0%.
While the economy had an impact in the numbers, clearly, the business model is not working.
Newspaper Website Development in 2010
Question:
Why do newspaper website still look like complete data-dump link farms in 2010?
Answer:
??????????
An unscientific poll I conducted at my Community College revealed the best newspaper website, as voted on by me and some college students, is not even a newspaper website… it is the Huffington Post. Why? Because as soon as you land on the homepage you know what the big story of the day is. You don’t have to agree with their bent, but you know what’s going on in the world pretty damn quickly. NPR.org, CNN.com, and BBC.co.uk were in the mix too as were even more unconventional filters like reddit, digg, delicious, facebook and twitter.
I think i know what the news is
vs this
so what happened in the world today?
Newspaper website people, please do the following:
1. Use big pictures to tell a story, not because your readers are stupid and can’t read but because your readers are smart and want an engaging multimedia presentation.
2. Stop with the page jumps.
3. Stop with the invasive advertising.
4. Please break your mammoth newspaper website into a bunch of micro sites.
5. Fix your navigation.
6. Fix your navigation.
7. Fix your navigation.
8. Hire a web development company with no ties or experience with the newspaper industry to redesign your site.
9. Take your site down completely and syndicate your content to Google news… or whomever wants to make a deal.
2010 America East Newspaper Conference – Exhibitors List
The Following 2010 America East Newspaper Conference list is correct as of February 28, 2010.
Please check www.america-east.com for updates.
Advance Diagnostics Computer Services
Brainworks Software Development Corp.
Bridgemont Community & Technical College
formerly the Community & Technical College at WVU Tech) Continue reading
Wednesday Sessions – 2010 America East Newspaper Conference
2010 America East Newspaper Conference Schedule – Wednesday:
America East is sponsored by 13 state and regional press associations, News&Tech, Suburban Newspapers of America and Editor & Publisher.
“We close the show with educational opportunities for editorial, packaging and press production.”
Monday Sessions | Tuesday Sessions | Twitter users track and utilize #ae2010 for updates
Wednesday, MARCH 17
7:30 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. Attendee Registration Desk Open
8:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m. Private Demonstrations with Exhibitors
8:30 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. SNA Advertising Symposium and Workshop (Special registration is required.)
8:30 a.m. – 9:30 a.m. Print Quality Judges’ Meetings
8:30 a.m. – 9:30 a.m. Continental Breakfast
8:45 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. Session: Mailroom Issues Roundtable
9:30 a.m. – 10:10 a.m. Session: The Green Side of “Lean and Green”
10:10 a.m. – 11:00 a.m. Session: Production Software Tools for Saving Time and Money
11:00 a.m. – 11:30 a.m. Session: SNAP Survey Results
11:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. Exhibit Floor Open
11:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. Cyber Cafe with Gourmet Coffees
11:30 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. Print Quality Awards Presentations
12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m. PNA Scholastic and Collegiate Keystone Press Awards Luncheon (Special registration is required.)
11:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m. Various Roundtables on Exhibit Floor
1:30 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. Ice Cream Social on Exhibit Floor
MAILROOM ISSUES
Wednesday, March 17, 8:45 a.m. – 10:00 a.m.
Back by popular demand….a session just for mailroom managers. What are your biggest issues in the bustling mailroom of your newspaper? Discuss them with your peers. No topic or concern is off limits so come to talk and learn!
Moderator: Fred Schuerger, Packaging and Distribution Manager, Erie (Pa.) Times-News
Continue the discussion additional roundtable conversations on the exhibit floor beginning at 11 a.m. Packaging vendors will join the discussion.
Production in Lean Times
Wednesday, March 17, 9:30 a.m. – 11:30 a.m.
Part I:
The Green Side of “Lean and Green”
9:30 a.m. – 10:10 a.m.
Sustainability is a three-legged stool with profit, environmental and social commitment as the guiding principles. To maximize profits companies must find new ways to add value for their customers including shorter cycle times, lower costs and improved services. Profit, however, must not be at the expense of environmental responsibilities. Aside from compliance to federal and regional EPA requirements, most companies can actually save money by reducing, reusing and recycling. Social aspects include providing both responsibility and leadership for employees and the community at large.
Speaker: Tom Croteau, Partner, Media Technology Partners
Part II:
Production Software Tools for Saving Time and Money
10:10 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.
Stephen Beals, who spent more than 30 years in prepress, now writes for Graphic Arts Online and many other print and web publications and runs his own web site called Printoolz. He will discuss a variety of ways printers and publishers of all kinds are automating their pre-press capabilities to increase speed and efficiency. Discussion will be oriented to small newspaper publishers who may not be familiar with the many types of automation software available today.
Speaker: Stephen Beals, Founder, Printoolz.com Continue reading
Tuesday Sessions – 2010 America East Newspaper Conference
2010 America East Newspaper Conference Schedule at a Glance:
America East is sponsored by 13 state and regional press associations, News&Tech, Suburban Newspapers of America and Editor & Publisher.
A value-packed day of sessions for advertising, marketing, production and circulation.
Monday Sessions | Wednesday Sessions | Twitter users track and utilize #ae2010 for updates
Tuesday, MARCH 16
7:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. Attendee Registration Desk Open
8:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m. Private Demonstrations with Exhibitors
8:00 a.m. – 9:00 a.m. Continental Breakfast
8:30 a.m. – 9:30 a.m. BONUS SESSION: Part I: The 7 Deadly Sins of Newspaper Marketing
9:15 a.m. – 10:30 a.m. Session: Selling Against the Competition
9:15 a.m. – 10:30 a.m. Session: Utilizing Maintenance to Reduce Production Downtime and Extend Equipment Life
9:30 a.m. – 10:30 a.m. BONUS SESSION: Part II: Key Marketing Lessons Newspapers Should Have Learned But Never Did
10:15 a.m. – 11:45 a.m. I-SCMA Session: Expanding Your Audience Reach
10:45 a.m. – 11:45 a.m. Session: Web and Page Size Options to Reduce Newsprint Cost
10:45 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. Session: Best Practices in Building Classified Revenues in Recruitment and Real Estate
10:45 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. Session: Newspaper Web Sites & The Public: A Study of the Benefits and Risks of User-Generated Content
(This is a Tuesday Bonus Session for SNA Symposium registrants!)
11:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. Exhibit Floor Open
11:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. Cyber Cafe with Gourmet Coffees
12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m. I-SCMA Luncheon
1:15 p.m. – 2:30 p.m. I-SCMA Session: E-Editions
12:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. Various Roundtables on Exhibit Floor
2:00 p.m. – 3:15 p.m. Session: Agency Panel Discussion – What’s in Store for 2010
(This is a Tuesday Bonus Session for SNA Symposium registrants!)
3:30 p.m. – 5:00 p.m. Newsprint Suppliers’ Reception on Exhibit Floor
Special Two-Part Marketing Session
Tuesday, March 16, 8:30 a.m. – 10:30 a.m.
Part I, 8:30 a.m. – 9:30 a.m.:
The 7 Deadly Sins of Newspaper Marketing
Business history shows that disruptive forces within any industry do not favor the established players, particularly if they refuse to refute previous business models. The key word is “refute.” It implies more than adapting to change. It requires a complete change – or disruption to our current business-as-usual. Newspapers are guilty of seven deadly sins that, if not corrected, can mean a catastrophic loss of the entire war for public trust, loyalty and democratic mission.
Speaker: Ed Efchak, Managing Partner, Customers by Design, L.L.C.
Part II, 9:30 a.m. – 10:30 a.m.:
Key Marketing Lessons Newspapers Should Have Learned But Never Did
The business sections of newspapers cover all the trends, successes and pitfalls of national and local industries as lessons for other business leaders. Ironically, most papers fail to read between their own lines to see how the lessons apply to their own situations. In this one-hour session, get an objective look at the lessons newspapers should have learned and may still have time to take to heart for surviving in the digital age.
Speaker: Rhona Bronson, Marketing Strategist, Plaza Communications & Consulting, LLC
Selling Against the Competition
Tuesday, March 16, 9:15 a.m. – 10:30 a.m.
This session will cover all the tricks of the trade as we prepare sales reps to sell their own products and services and to position themselves favorably as they sell against the competition. Included will be a description of an in-depth training program on how to take market share through training and contests and how to work with mobile alerts, text to win and other programs and devices that produce a winning team.
Speaker: Jim Ottinger, Advertising Sales Training Specialist, The (Allentown, Pa.) Morning Call Continue reading
Monday Sessions – 2010 America East Newspaper Conference
2010 America East Newspaper Conference Schedule – Monday:
America East is sponsored by 13 state and regional press associations, News&Tech, Suburban Newspapers of America and Editor & Publisher.
Valuable sessions…lunch….exhibit floor….welcome reception! Who said Mondays are bad?
Tuesday Sessions | Wednesday Sessions | Twitter users track and utilize #ae2010 for updates
Monday, MARCH 15
8:00 a.m. – 6:30 p.m. Attendee Registration Desk Open
10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. PA Associated Press Online Managers Meeting
12:00 p.m. – 1:15 p.m. Keynote Luncheon and Presentation
1:30 p.m. – 2:45 p.m. Session: Top Five Legal Issues for Newspapers in an Online Age
1:30 p.m. – 2:45 p.m. Session: Friendemies – Newspapers and Social Media Sites
3:00 p.m. – 4:15 p.m. Session: New Media for the Newspaper Industry – How and Where Your Audience Will Find Their News
3:00 p.m. – 4:15 p.m. Session: Cutting Through the Clutter
4:00 p.m. – 6:30 p.m. Exhibit Floor Open
4:00 p.m. – 6:30 p.m. Cyber Cafe with Gourmet Coffees
5:00 p.m. – 6:30 p.m. Welcome Reception on Exhibit Floor
Lunch and Opening Keynote Address:
Journalism 2010 and Beyond
Monday, March 15, 12:00 p.m. – 1:15 p.m.
One of the most respected journalists of our time will share his message about journalism as we know it today and what we can expect in the future. Long a proponent to preserve journalism’s core mission of truthfully reporting the big issues and stories of today while exploring ways to rebuild the industry’s business model, Martin Kaiser wrestles with these issues daily both in his role locally at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and nationally with the American Society of News Editors. He will share his insight and his desire for “news literacy” – teaching citizens the value and values of newspapers.
Top Five Legal Issues for Newspapers in an Online Age
Monday, March 15, 1:30 p.m. – 2:45 p.m.
Are the rules for online the same or different than for print? Are there new traps for unwary reporters and editors? Two First Amendment attorneys, Craig Staudenmaier and Robert Clothier, will hit the top five online legal issues facing papers. For example: When are papers liable for what’s posted online? What about internet-accessible archives? How should reporters preserve electronic information (emails, drafts, etc.)? Can papers publish Facebook photos? These issues and any others raised by attendees will be covered.
Speakers:
Robert Clothier, Partner, Fox Rothschild, LLP
Craig Staudenmaier, Partner, Nauman, Smith, Shissler
& Hall, LLP Continue reading
2010 America East Newspaper Conference – Sessions
2010 America East Newspaper Conference Schedule at a Glance:
America East is sponsored by 13 state and regional press associations, News&Tech, Suburban Newspapers of America and Editor & Publisher.
The event takes place at The Hershey Lodge in Hershey Pennsylvania. You can register for the event through the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association website.
Twitter users track #ae2010 for updates. View Exhibitor List.
Monday, MARCH 15 view detailed listing
8:00 a.m. – 6:30 p.m. Attendee Registration Desk Open
10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. PA Associated Press Online Managers Meeting
12:00 p.m. – 1:15 p.m. Keynote Luncheon and Presentation
1:30 p.m. – 2:45 p.m. Session: Top Five Legal Issues for Newspapers in an Online Age
1:30 p.m. – 2:45 p.m. Session: Friendemies – Newspapers and Social Media Sites
3:00 p.m. – 4:15 p.m. Session: New Media for the Newspaper Industry – How and Where Your Audience Will Find Their News
3:00 p.m. – 4:15 p.m. Session: Cutting Through the Clutter
4:00 p.m. – 6:30 p.m. Exhibit Floor Open
4:00 p.m. – 6:30 p.m. Cyber Cafe with Gourmet Coffees
5:00 p.m. – 6:30 p.m. Welcome Reception on Exhibit Floor
Tuesday, MARCH 16 view detailed listing
7:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. Attendee Registration Desk Open
8:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m. Private Demonstrations with Exhibitors
8:00 a.m. – 9:00 a.m. Continental Breakfast
8:30 a.m. – 9:30 a.m. BONUS SESSION: Part I: The 7 Deadly Sins of Newspaper Marketing
9:15 a.m. – 10:30 a.m. Session: Selling Against the Competition
9:15 a.m. – 10:30 a.m. Session: Utilizing Maintenance to Reduce Production Downtime and Extend Equipment Life
9:30 a.m. – 10:30 a.m. BONUS SESSION: Part II: Key Marketing Lessons Newspapers Should Have Learned But Never Did
10:15 a.m. – 11:45 a.m. I-SCMA Session: Expanding Your Audience Reach
10:45 a.m. – 11:45 a.m. Session: Web and Page Size Options to Reduce Newsprint Cost
10:45 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. Session: Best Practices in Building Classified Revenues in Recruitment and Real Estate
10:45 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. Session: Newspaper Web Sites & The Public: A Study of the Benefits and Risks of User-Generated Content
(This is a Tuesday Bonus Session for SNA Symposium registrants!)
11:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. Exhibit Floor Open
11:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. Cyber Cafe with Gourmet Coffees
12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m. I-SCMA Luncheon
1:15 p.m. – 2:30 p.m. I-SCMA Session: E-Editions
12:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. Various Roundtables on Exhibit Floor
2:00 p.m. – 3:15 p.m. Session: Agency Panel Discussion – What’s in Store for 2010
(This is a Tuesday Bonus Session for SNA Symposium registrants!)
3:30 p.m. – 5:00 p.m. Newsprint Suppliers’ Reception on Exhibit Floor
Wednesday, MARCH 17 view detailed listing
7:30 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. Attendee Registration Desk Open
8:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m. Private Demonstrations with Exhibitors
8:30 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. SNA Advertising Symposium and Workshop (Special registration is required.)
8:30 a.m. – 9:30 a.m. Print Quality Judges’ Meetings
8:30 a.m. – 9:30 a.m. Continental Breakfast
8:45 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. Session: Mailroom Issues Roundtable
9:30 a.m. – 10:10 a.m. Session: The Green Side of “Lean and Green”
10:10 a.m. – 11:00 a.m. Session: Production Software Tools for Saving Time and Money
11:00 a.m. – 11:30 a.m. Session: SNAP Survey Results
11:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. Exhibit Floor Open
11:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. Cyber Cafe with Gourmet Coffees
11:30 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. Print Quality Awards Presentations
12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m. PNA Scholastic and Collegiate Keystone Press Awards Luncheon (Special registration is required.)
11:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m. Various Roundtables on Exhibit Floor
1:30 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. Ice Cream Social on Exhibit Floor
*This is a tentative schedule and is subject to change. Please check www.america-east.com for updates.
Everyone is Going Nuts about NYTimes.com Charging for Content in 2011
I heard through Twitter that NYtimes.com was going to start charging for access to their content if you read too many articles on their site… what?
Forbes is calling it “Meter Madness At The Times” and goes on to report-
Greg Mitchell, E&P’s former editor, termed the plan “vague.” Content Bridges’ Ken Doctor called it “a big bet.” Social media critic Mathew Ingram, blogger at GigaOm, wrote, “Why is the NYT waiting until 2011? This isn’t exactly rocket science to implement.” Reuters’ media blogger Felix Salmon minced no words, calling it “a sad day for online journalism.”
I confirmed it by doing a Google News search and then reading an article about it from the Free site Paidcontent.org where they also published the entire NYT memo to the staff.
I wish NYTimes.com all best I’m curious to see how this grand experiment (Round 2) works out. Remember Times Select was a failure, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, you can’t charge for general interest news in the internet paradigm.
Who Declared Newspaper’s Editor & Publisher, “The Bible”?
I was looking for more info about the recent purchase of Editor & Publisher by Irvine, Calif.-based Duncan McIntosh Co. Inc. and became completely baffled by the recurrence of Editor & Publisher being referred to as The Bible of the newspaper industry. Did I not get a memo on this? Is it in the tagline? A Google search for “newspaper industry bible” kicks back no less than 6300 results for god’s sake… hmmmm.
Who’s the source of this blasphemy and why is it parroted around the internet from blogs to Big Media with citation of the source? The Bible chronicles the history of ancient Israel… does Editor and Publisher chronicle the history of the ancient newspaper industry?
Someone enlighten me on the source please.
ps. I do not practice any form of organized religion I just think this is really funny.
Dave Eggers – favorite things about newspapers
“Last month, near the end of a decade that’s seen most daily newspapers practically hurling reporters, designers, and editors out the windows, the quarterly literary magazine McSweeney’s morphed into a Sunday-sized newspaper for one issue.” – read the Onion AV Club interview with Dave Eggers
Newspaper Industry Market Cap Year End 2009
Related: Newspaper Industry Market Cap Year End 2008
Newspaper Industry Market Cap Year End 2009
2009 newspaper industry market cap
Change from 2008 to 2009: Continue reading
Comscore presents The Internet: Past, Present and Future
It’s a comscore commercial / 10th anniversary video, but they do a good job of showing The Internet: Past, Present and Future in 6minutes. The video includes soundbites by John Battelle, Andrew Braccia, Mark Cuban, Esther Dyson, Wenda Harris Millard, John Markoff, Dave Moore, Tina Sharkey and Fred Wilson. I was not available for comment at the time of this filming.
My tip for the next decade is get your business online and mobile ready – if you are not already (what the hell are you waiting for?). If you have money to invest, put it in the big usa internet stocks, they are the new USA blue chips.
Number of Murdered Journalists in Mexico Hits New Record
“Censorship increases as killings become routine. “I don’t want to die young,” says one reporter.” – By Ioan Grillo – GlobalPost
Published: November 14, 2009 09:46 ET Read The entire story on their site.
Bill Wyman Tells Us Why Newspapers Are Dying
Five Key Reasons Why Newspapers Are Failing – Bill Wyman via SpliceToday
Bill Wyman is the former arts editor of Salon.com and NPR. This is an in-depth article on the demise of the newspaper industry. Bill can now be found blogging at Hitsville.org.
Interview With NYC.is Founder Susannah Vila
After receiving the following email Tip, I approached NYC.is founder Susannah Vila for an interview.
“…a friend of mine who’s a grad student at Columbia University launched a kind of localized New York City version of Digg. Rather than using the editor curator approach — like Huffington Post — all the users of the site are New Yorkers that submit NYC-related stories and vote up and down on them to get them to the front page. The site also allows users to publish their own blog posts into the news stream, so it’s also becoming a place for community journalism:
Anyway, I thought this was neat and interesting because this isn’t your typical VC-funded start-up, but rather a grad school student who’s working on all this stuff from scratch. And I think it’s a cool approach to more localized news. I thought you and your readers might find it interesting.
Thanks for the Tip! Keep them coming. The following interview took place in the form of an email Q&A between Susannah Vila and metaprinter founder Robert Ivan. Enjoy!
RI- Are you studying journalism at Columbia?
SV- I study political science and public policy.
RI- What got you interested in journalism?
SV- I became interested in how people get the information that allows them to be active citizens. I wanted to be a journalist because I wanted to inform and engage people. I want to work towards engaging more people with their government and their communities. I will probably be doing many different types of things with that goal in mind.
RI- Are students still clamoring to get jobs with traditional media outlets?…or is there something new to reach for?
SV- I think it depends on the student, and on the j school they came out of. CUNY and Medill are doing great things to foster innovation and an entrepreneurial attitudes. But while there are indeed many exciting new prospects for journalism in play right now, they do not offer a steady paycheck, so the understandable attitude among a lot of people my age is that they should do whatever they can do to get a full time job.
RI- What do you think of Jose Antonio Vargas leaving the Washington Post?
SV- I do think that it, at least to some extent, reflects larger trends in journalism. HuffPo is constantly innovating and adding new features; it mixes the work of paid, professional bloggers and reporters with unpaid and, not necessarily formally trained, ones. They’re growing while the Washington Post shrinks. And it’s because of this the Vargas will be able to start his own thing from scratch, which is always exciting. Continue reading
John Gruber’s take on David Simon’s Call for a Newspaper Paywall
I want to pass along a good article from Daring Fireball’s own John Gruber. In Pay Walls, Gruber dissects ex-Baltimore Sun journalist and The Wire creator David Simon‘s call for newspapers to collude on a Newspaper Paywall.
I couldn’t agree with Gruber more. Pre-internet, general interest newspapers made money because they were effective advertising solutions on a cheap and convenient distribution platform, not because they won Pulitzer Prizes. As soon as internet access became ubiquitous, newspapers didn’t look so cheap and convenient.
Newspapers need to adapt to the new information paradigm by exploring NEW revenue streams. The Washington Post or NY Times should have bought Avenue A/ Razorfish a long ago. There is the future. There is the new advertising solution. There is the new revenue.
Can you imagine NYT and WPO and Gannett and Advance and MNI each offering this type of advertising solution to their new and existing advertisers? Cox Ohio publishers, via their AD Studio, are the only ones I know that do it, and they consider it their most important revenue stream going forward.
RELATED:
OH… just google “newspaper paywall”
The Stand Alone Comics Section – via Subtraction
NYTimes.com design director and Subtraction’s own Khoi Vinh published a great little piece on two recent attempts at Newspaper comics remaining alive via newsprint. Read the article on Subtraction’s site.
My favorite quote, “…Wednesday Comics ships as a free insert to the mid-week edition of USA Today, though I don’t know anyone who reads that paper unless they’re staying at a Holiday Inn…”
Great Communications Move You
SAJA 15th Anniversary Convention & Career Expo NYC
Dear friends and colleagues:
Next weekend, we are hosting the SAJA 15th Anniversary Convention & Career Expo (July 10-11) in NYC. If you join SAJA for $20 (you don’t have to be South Asian!), you can attend all the workshops, panels, the job fair, three receptions and gala dinner for just $50.
Details below and at http://www.saja.org/convention
The South Asian Journalists Association, SAJA, is celebrating its 15th
year with a convention July 10-11, in New York City.
The kick-off event is a reception at Bloomberg News on July 10, followed by a full day of programming at CUNY and a gala reception at Columbia University on July 11.
To attend the reception at Bloomberg News on July 10, you MUST
register by Monday, July 6.
Register today for this special convention at http://www.saja.org/convention
Professional members of SAJA or an affiliated group pay only $50.
Other attendees pay $100.
(or you can sign up for SAJA membership to avail of the discount: $20 for journalists, $40 for non-journos, $10 for students)
Despite the low registration fees, you will still have access to a loaded program, including workshops, panels, two receptions and the Awards Dinner at Columbia (Dr. Reza Aslan, one of the world’s leading experts on religion and author of “How to Win a Cosmic War: God, Globalization, and the End of the War on Terror” is going to be our gala dinner keynote on Saturday, July 11 – see his appearance last week on The Daily Show here: http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=231561&title=reza-aslan ).
Meet recruiters from The Wall Street Journal, NY1 News, Thomson Reuters, Dow Jones Newswires, Bloomberg News and more at the Career Expo at CUNY on July 11 between 11 a.m. and 4 p.m.
For additional details and to register, go to SAJA’s home page http://www.saja.org/convention
Game Changer – HP Introduces World’s First Web-connected Home Printer
(from yesterday)
HP today unveiled the world’s first web-connected home printer: The HP Photosmart Premium with TouchSmart Web.
HP is bringing the power of the web directly to the printer and combining it with HP’s TouchSmart technology to give people quick, easy, touchscreen access to popular digital content.
Designed for the digital generation and connected households, the HP Photosmart Premium with TouchSmart Web features an entirely new web-based printing platform with HP applications (apps). Similar to other Internet-connected devices, these apps, which are viewable on an extra-large, intuitive-to-use TouchSmart panel, allow people to connect instantly with fun, informative and personal content.
Dave Eggers is Enthusiastic About Print
Dave Eggers, philanthropist, teacher-at-large, and author of You Shall Know Our Velocity among other things is pretty confident about the future of print. So much so that he will return anyone’s email if they have doubts about print media’s viability. Here is an Excerpt from an email Gawker published:
“As long as newspapers offer less each day- less news, less great writing, less graphic innovation, fewer photos- then they’re giving readers few reasons to pay for the paper itself. With our prototype, we aim to make the physical object so beautiful and luxurious that it will seem a bargain at $1. The web obviously presents all kinds of advantages for breaking news, but the printed newspaper does and will always have a slew of advantages, too. It’s our admittedly unorthodox opinion that the two can coexist, and in fact should coexist. But they need to do different things. To survive, the newspaper, and the physical book, needs to set itself apart from the web. Physical forms of the written word need to offer a clear and different experience. And if they do, we believe, they will survive. Again, this is a time to roar back and assert and celebrate the beauty of the printed page. Give people something to fight for, and they will fight for it. Give something to pay for, and they’ll pay for it.
We’ll keep you posted throughout the summer about our progress with this newspaper prototype, and any other good news we come across.” Read The Whole Email
Video below, Dave accepting his 2008 TED Prize, author Dave Eggers asks the TED community to personally, creatively engage with local public schools.
Newspaper Association of America Abandons Its Members
NAA sent me a letter with this month’s Presstime magazine letting me know that this is the last print edition I will be receiving. They are moving online only. Truth be told, it was probably the last print edition I would be getting anyway you see I graduated from NYU in January and NAA wants proof that I still qualify for their student rate. I do, but you know what NAA, I’m not wasting my time to send you the appropriate paperwork.
Why is NAA, the NEWSPAPER Association of America, eliminating their print publication and moving online only? The reason they cite in the letter is “to adapt our organization to the realities of today’s newspaper business”. I’m calling bullshit on their reasoning. The real reason I suspect is because NAA is too big a coward to try something innovative and instead is hoping to just hang in there a little longer like everyone else and hope for the best.
According to NAA’s website, here is the association’s purpose:
Today, NAA serves the newspaper industry in strategic efforts to:
. Serve as a catalyst for industry growth
. Identify and disseminate examples of industry innovation
. Provide tools to exchange information and ideas
. Advocate and communicate industry views and interests to the Federal Government and to third-party standards and measurement bodies
. Communicate the vitality of newspaper media to external constituencies including the advertising community, Wall Street and the news media.
Did you read the first and last bullet points? What an awful message eliminating print sends to NAA’s advertisers, NAA’s members, and to the advertisers who spent roughly 34 Billion dollars in PRINT advertising last year. Continue reading
How UPS Saves Millions on Delivery Costs
I remember writing about this a while ago, but can’t find it and now the issue has come up again. United Parcel Service UPS saves millions of dollars a year on fuel costs by avoiding left hand turns and idling. Here are the details.
In 2007, UPS route planning technology, which minimizes left hand turns:
- shaved nearly 30 million miles off already streamlined delivery routes;
- saved 3 million gallons of gas; and
- reduced emissions by 32,000 metric tons of CO2 – the equivalent of removing 5,300 passenger cars off the road for an entire year.
Perhaps newspapers can follow suit? It won’t save the industry, but if physical distribution is part of their business model, they must implement these policies.
Big Screen Kindle – What’s It For?
It’s for Textbooks
Amazon plans big screen Kindle: Textbook margins are the real aim not saving newspapers -from ZDnet
Editor in Chief of ZDNet, Larry Dignan convincingly writes that the new Big Screen Kindle’s are designed and marketed to serve the $8.6 Billion college textbook market.
It’s for Newspapers
Looking to Big-Screen E-Readers to Help Save the Daily Press -from NYTimes
“…it is Amazon, maker of the Kindle, that appears to be first in line to try throwing an electronic life preserver to old-media companies.”
We don’t know who it’s for
Will Anybody Buy The New Large-Format Kindle? -from wired
Wired is owned by Conde Nast who is owned by Advance who owns many newspapers like the Staten Island Advance and Newark Star-Ledger so this is an interesting take on the situation. Where’s the market demand?
What Google Maps and Everyblock’s iPhone App means for Established News Media
EveryBlock’s iPhone app -from Everyblock
If you live in an EveryBlock city and have an iPhone you can now have more news access than you ever thought you needed. The app is available for free at the App Store.
Here’s how Everyblock explains the features of the app: The EveryBlock iPhone app lets you explore news that’s happened recently in your immediate area. We publish dozens of different categories of local news, drawing from hundreds of sources. Much of it is updated every single day. Examples of the information we publish: Continue reading
Alan Rusbridger on the Future of Journalism
Alan Rusbridger at the Institut für Medienpolitik in Berlin on April 22, speaking on the future of journalism and explaining how the Guardian opened up its site to a wider pool of contributors.
Alan Rusbridger on the Future of Journalism from Carta on Vimeo.
Guardian editor-in-chief Alan Rusbridger’s (@arusbridger) sharing some thoughts.
IBD Editorial Slams Major Media
Dying For An A -from Investors.com
Investors Business Daily has a short article in their editorial section today entitled “Dying for An A”. The article starts out with this line, “From once-revered print institutions to formerly dominant TV giants, the major media are crumbling. And the White House press secretary just told them why, “grading” them a “strong A” — A for acquiescence.”
The article then goes on to explain that “White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, who recently took it upon himself to give the White House press corps a collective report card affixed with a gold star, telling reporters he was awarding them “a strong A” for their coverage of the administration’s first 100 days”.
Zing!
IBD has an agenda and people usually either love IBD or hate it, but you have to respect their ridiculous number of revenue streams, and print circulation… growth! IBD generates approximately $10 million in annual revenue from its seminar business.” as reported recently in TheBigMoney.
2 More Papers Join TweenTribune
Sandy Sanders, the publisher of the Valdosta Daily Times in Valdosta, GA gave TweenTribune the green light this week. Here’s his page of local content on the site: http://tweentribune.com/valdosta.
David Leone, the publisher of the AmericanNews in Aberdeen, SD, told TweenTribune owner Alan Jacobson that he wants to move forward with TweenTribune. Here’s what Dave said:
“I like the content, the look and I have some ideas on how we can utilize it, not just for NIE purposes but to market it towards that tough age and frankly, the age where many kids have no clue about newspapers or newspaper websites. I do think there is a good opportunity to sell local advertising also.”
Local news from both papers, as well as Norfolk, Bakersfield and Wilson can be seen beneath the “your town” topic at tweentribune.com
RELATED:
Interview With Alan Jacobson – TweenTribune News Site -metaprinter
Teens Love Aggregation and ‘Free’, Newspaper Study Finds -wired.com
Online newspapers: Where’s the revenue? -BrassTacksDesign
PricewaterhouseCoopers Releases Newspaper Outlook 2009 Report
Outlook for newspaper publishing in the digital age | 2009 report -from PWC.com (pdf)
56 page report on the outlook of the industry ask lots of great questions the industry should be asking itself like “What does your audience want from you – and do you
know what they will pay for?”, many newspapers have not honestly asked themselves this question because if they did they would be the largest creators of business websites in their DMA.
Newspaper Outlook 2009 Related Video (sorry PWC doesn’t allow embeds at this point).
Wikipedia Founder To Newspapers, “Give Up”
Wikipedia Founder: How To Save The Newspaper Industry -from MediaPost.com
News is widely syndicated — and that’s one reason why it’s difficult to charge for the content, Wales said. “If you went into Google News and didn’t see 600 copies of the same story, but just one, that one could make money — and spreading it everywhere doesn’t make sense”.
I personaly feel that newspaper are too worried about damaging their credibility and cache to just give up something like the sports section to local sports nuts, but if phased in properly I can see it working. Look at Seeking Alpha (I’m a contributing media writer, though I haven’t contributed anything in a while) as a model. I don’t know what their balance sheet looks like, but I know that people trust the site enough that it has formed partnerships with companies including Yahoo! Finance, Dow Jones MarketWatch, E-Trade, and CNET. The company is backed by Benchmark Capital, a firm that funded eBay.
The key to launching successful user generated content and sections is #1 visibility: Get the authors in front of lots of people and they will usually do their best to look good and do good. #2 selection: Get the most enlightened and fanatical users onboard. #3 strict enformcement of guidlines: to give readers a sense of security.
But Robert, you just laid into Topix in a recent blog post for being a big useless, flame war inducing, data dump. That site is user generated. Yes, and one of their big problems is ignoring rules #1-3 above. When Wales said “give up”, he was refering to newspapers’ attempt to move their business model online. Clearly the internet paradigm demands new models and revenue streams.
Topix Creators Brag about Creating a Large, Useless News Site
Topix is a news aggregator which categorizes news stories by topic and geography. Topix LLC is a privately held company. Gannett, The McClatchy Company and Tribune Company own a 75% stake in the company.
Today Topix announced that Topix becomes #1 news site of Gannett, Tribune & McClatchy Internet Portfolio -from Topix blog. I have a few problems with this:
1. This sounds like a made up category, ie. Metaprinter is the #1 news site of the Metaprinter Inc. portfolio!
2. Topix is ranked #32 in the news category on Alexa.
3. Compete doesn’t show Topix beating USAToday as stated in the above article.
4. I don’t know anyone who uses or likes Topix. In fact, reading through the comments at the above post, it seems most people suspect the site is full of flame wars, trolls and hate speak.
5. For their size, Topix does not have a vibrant hyperlocal online community.
6. Where are the local advertisers?
I’ve contacted them for an interview. We’ll see if they can clear some things up.
UPDATE:
An anonymous tipster has revealed to me that some news sites use Topix for their article comments section. See for example this Gannett owned news site: citizen-times.com
Note the ‘comment on Topix forums’ option directly below the social bookmarking tools in addition to the Pluck Sitelife comments option at the end of the article.
“If you choose the Topix comment option, and enough discussion is generated on topix, it presumably bubbles up the story on Topix and the inbound links to the news site generate page views and more discussion”.
A little more digging on my part revealed that Tribune is using Topix.net to link to “Related News From the Web” as here below the Google Ads box in the body on their Baltimore Sun site. The purpose here again is to increase pageviews and links. It seems that Topix is nothing more than a solution for member newspapers to game the system and/or get more Google Juice.
For a Guy Who Writes About Newspapers, Scoble sure is a Good Photographer
“In general, I have very little time for Scoble, and true to form there are about six things in the first half of this alone that make me want to beat the stupid out of him with a shovel. But there’s also food for thought in there this time.” -lifted from a delicious note
Here is the offending article: The newspaper industry just gave away another free meal, er Twitter: do they have any left? -from scobleizer.com
What isn’t explored in Robert Scoble’s article, or maybe what isn’t understood by the author of that article, is that when a disruptive technology comes along, The Internet, in this case, little to nothing can be done to prevent seismic changes in business practices. Mark Federman sums this up way better than I can. Here he is talking about Marshall McLuhan’s famous line “the medium is the message”. Continue reading
TweenTribune Signs Up Another Newspaper
TweenTribune is on a tear signing up their third newspaper, in almost as many weeks, since launching the platform. The North Carolina based Wilson Times is now using TweenTribune for their NIE program and founder Alan Jacobson reports that “ads are running at wilsontimes.com on its homepage and interior pages to promote tweentribune”. If Alan Keeps this pace of new announcements up I’ll have to start charging him for bandwidth consumption on metaprinter.
Read my interview with Alan Jacobson to learn more about “community of interest” news sites and how TweenTribune can monetize a newspaper’s NIE campaign while bringing it into the internet paradigm.
Interview with Journalism Online LLC Strategy Consultant Merrill Brown
BIO: Merrill Brown is the founder and principal of MMB Media LLC, which provides clients with management and strategy consulting, corporate, editorial and program development, business analysis and marketing services. Since the founding of MMB Media, clients have ranged from companies in the news, information and wireless businesses to a large foundation. Brown serves as Chairman of the Board of NowPublic.com, the leading citizen journalism company in the world. (bio provided by Journalism Online LLC)
RI- what is your affiliation with journalism online LLC?
MB- I am the strategy consultant at the moment, this is a start-up so we all have varied roles.
RI- I see in your Bio that you are an advisor to evri.com, a site that looks and feels to me like a news aggregator, does this complicate your involvement with Journalism Online LLC?
MB- No, it’s not an aggregator at all it is a natural language search site that builds related topics pages for new sites and others. Our largest distribution deal is with WashingtonPost.com and if you look at the bottom of every new story page you’ll see our widget there. Continue reading
The Bakersfield Californian to Deploy TweenTribune
The Bakersfield Californian joins The Virginia-Pilot as early adopters of the Alan Jocobson inspired news platform, TweenTribune. Both newspapers are using the site to revitalize their moribund NIE programs. The platform is web based, safe for kids, NIE compliant, and monetizable. If that is not incentive enough to consider it, the Audit Bureau of Circulations will cease to count NIE newspaper copies as a form of paid circulation in the beginning of 2010. The TweenTribune sites will fill that need.
Though TweenTribune is a niche site for kids, Alan’s concept focuses on newspapers publishing many “community of interest” news sites rather than a single geographic community newspaper website. Currently, this is a more common strategy for magazine publishers and blog networks, but the idea is to publish many independent niche news sites to focus readership, drive engagement and command higher CPM’s from advertisers.
In an email with Alan he emphasized that newspaper publishers are interested in the TweenTribune platform as a model for lots of niche sites – “…the number we’re throwing around is 1,000 sites. They want to use TweenTribune to test the efficacy of that strategy”. Continue reading
Steven Brill, Gordon Crovitz, and Leo Hindery today announced the formation of Journalism Online
Media Leaders Form Journalism Online, LLC
Company Will Be Global Platform for Easy Payment Option Enabling New Revenue Models For News In Time of Crisis
‘Strong interest’ already expressed by major newspaper, magazine companies
NEW YORK, April 14, 2009 – Citing “the urgent need” for a comprehensive, immediate plan to address the downward spiral in the business of publishing original, quality journalism, experienced journalism and media industry executives Steven Brill, Gordon Crovitz, and Leo Hindery today announced the formation of Journalism Online, a company that will quickly facilitate the ability of newspaper, magazine and online publishers to realize revenue from the digital distribution of the original journalism they produce …continue reading Media Leaders Form Journalism Online, LLC
Here is what the above press release boils down to:
“…there is an urgent need for a business model that allows quality journalism to be the beneficiary of the Internet’s efficient delivery mechanism rather than its victim,” said co-founder Steven Brill Continue reading
@adrianholovaty versus @steveouting in today’s New York Times? No says Outing.
‘Hyperlocal’ Web Sites Deliver News Without Newspapers -from NYTimes.com
“They rely on pulling data from other sources, so they really can’t function if news organizations disappear,” said Steve Outing
“In many cities, the local blog scene is so rich and deep that even if a newspaper goes away, there would be still be plenty of stuff for us to publish,” said Adrian Holovaty
In a brief twitter exchange with @steveouting he revealed that the single quote in the NYT article is out of context of a long conversation he had with the NYT reporter. So there is no battle between the two. Having read his blog and articles for a long time, I believe him, but the NYT set up his quote and the entire article as a battle of old versus new.
In my interview with Montclair, New Jersey news blog Baristanet.com, cofounder Liz George sees no problem blogging without newspapers. See the excerpt below. Continue reading
Newspaper Publishers – Disallow:/
Google’s Love For Newspapers & How Little They Appreciate It
Let me help you with that, Rupert. I’m going to save you all those potential legal fees plus needing to even speak further about the evil of the Big G with two simple lines. Get your tech person to change your robots.txt file to say this:
User-agent: *
Disallow: /Done. Do that, you’re outta Google. All your pages will be removed, and you needn’t worry about Google listing the Wall St. Journal at all.
User-agent: *
The asterisk (*) or wildcard represents a special value and means any robot.
Disallow:
The Disallow: line without a / (forward slash) tells the robots that they can index the entire site. Continue reading
WashingtonPost.com Membership Wall
Has anyone else noticed the membership wall that the Washington Post website Washingtonpost.com has erected? Visit the site, click ANY headline or navigation link and you are redirected to the page below. It wasn’t always like this and I don’t like it at all. Every time I just click off, and visit NYTimes.com or some other news site where the info is still free.
If I really want to see a particular article I can back into it by copying and pasting the article title into Google news and then clicking through the search result. This works for WSJ paid content too which makes me wonder if these large publisher have an agreement with Google, but at the same time are angry about it.
What has been your experience on their site? I remember being able to read national headlines without logging in. So while others are going to paywalls, The Washington Post is moving to a membership wall? Maybe just for the time being. I’m hoping this is an experiment that will transform into something better. I will never create an account and then log in to any newspaper’s website just to read one article and I suspect that others will not either.
UPDATED ON APRIL 9-2009
Why are they doing this? When newspaper websites do what the washingtonpost site is doing, they are looking for ways to behaviorally target their readers and charge higher CPM’s to their advertisers. Continue reading
America East Newspaper Operations and Technology Conference Day1
This post will be continuously updated throughout the day. Check back often. Just arrived in God’s Country, Hershey PA for the
America East Newspaper Operations and Technology Conference
I’m not sure if the wireless connection will be available in all rooms but I’ll try and update frequently here and at twitter.com/metaprinter. Follow the #AE hashtag for event updates on Twitter.
2009 America East Newspaper & Technology Conference Exhibit Hall from robert ivan on Vimeo.
Also, the conference has it’s own twitter feed at twitter.com/ameast Continue reading
Christian Science Monitor Final Print Edition
The Christian Science Monitor has published its final daily print edition, dated March 27, 2009.
Final Edition
CSM editor John Yemma, “The key words in that sentence are “daily print.” As of today, we are shedding print on a daily basis. But the Monitor itself – the century-old journalistic enterprise chronicling the world’s challenges and progress – is becoming more daily than ever. And with the launch of our new weekly print edition, the Monitor is becoming more vital than ever”… continue to CSM at above link.
Better yet, read my interview with John Yemma from December 2008, at the link below, about his plans for going online and how the paper plans to make money. The paper will continue to exist as a weekly for the cost of US: 1 year for $89.00 USD or Canada: 1 year for $99.75 CAN (includes 5% GST)
RELATED:
Metaprinter Interview With CSM Editor John Yemma Discussing Newspaper Business Models
Steve Greenberg’s Farewell to The Seattle P-I (final front page)
State of the News Media 2009 – Newspapers in Free Fall
The newspaper industry exited a harrowing 2008 and entered 2009 in something perilously close to free fall. Perhaps some parachutes will deploy, and maybe some tree limbs will cushion the descent, but for a third consecutive year the bottom is not in sight.
The Newspaper Industry, The Dip, Seth Godin
Seth Godin‘s book, The Dip
If you work at a big city newspaper, you can see that there’s no light at the end of that career-choice tunnel. Circulation is dropping, and it’s going to drop ever faster. Most papers have little chance of replacing their traditional business with an online alternative. As a result, every day at most papers is going to be just a little bit worse than the day before. Every day you stay is a bad strategic decision for your career because every day you get better at something that isn’t that useful-and you are another day behind others who are learning something more useful. The only reason to stay is the short-term pain associated with quitting. Winners understand that taking that pain now prevents a lot more pain later.
I was reminded of the above passage while flying home after covering NAA’s mediaXchange in Las Vegas. I won’t be back. There were maybe 4 good speakers at the event. Perhaps worse though was the crowd, a listless mob staring into a dark tunnel hoping to see the light at the end (but was there even a light to see?). People weren’t asking good, tough questions, they were just kind of.. there. The annual convention used to be a place where equipment manufacturers showcased their new products and where newspaper execs. came to make sweet deals. That pretty much fell apart in 2008 because of cost cutting in the industry (and finally a realization that equipment doesn’t manufacture customers) and so this year the name was changed to something more EXTREME! like mediaXchange and a more digital spin was put on the entire proceedings. They should have served Brawndo.
How the hell does NAA get away with scheduling Lee Abrams to talk about redesigns for the closing session? And how the hell does no one in the audience ask him a tough question, like “why is a redesign so good if your papers are still failing”? or “is it any bellwether that your only growing print product is the FREE METRO TABLOID, Redeye”? or “do you see a fundamental problem with the newspaper industry operating in an internet paradigm”? Lee Abrams by the way is a retired old man/ radio executive who helped drive XM Radio into the ground and is now the Chief Innovation Officer for the Tribune Company. Are you kidding me Tribune? Employees and stakeholders in that company should be livid at his appointment. Are you kidding me newspaper industry? This is what you “gathered” everyone up for? I wish I had the ability to print out Clay Shirky’s latest blog post Newspapers and Thinking the Unthinkableand stuff it in everyone’s free tote bag. WTF?!
For all the time and money I spent on attending mediaXchange, I leaned a minimum amount of good, new information. I hoped to see sessions on paradigm shifts and accepting new realities, but instead heard mostly product pitches. Hell, I should have been there TALKING to these people. I wanted to bum rush the stage at the closing session and say, “WAKE UP. NEWSPAPER REDESIGNS ARE DEAD. LETS TALK ABOUT NEW MEDIA”. But the problem was that the audience seemed fine and even INTERESTED!!!! in hearing about redesigns from Lee Abrams. Jeez!!! As social media session speaker Kurt Greenbaum (one of the good speakers) followed up on his blog, “5.8% of NAA attendees cared about social media“.
I should have skipped mediaXchange, I should have quit, I should have went to SXSW. That’s where the innovation is happening, and that’s where you’ll find me next year. I hope to find news media execs. there too but I doubt it. Godin says quit a loser, well I just quit mediaXchange.
Hearst eReader Fallout
Hearst’s E-Reader: The Last Stand of a Doomed Industry -Gawker
Dear media companies: Please stop trying to innovate. You’re lousy at it. Hearst‘s supposed “Kindle killer,” an electronic reader for magazines, is just the latest in a series of debacles from the moribund print-media business.
Hearst Media Magazine Company Planning Their Very Own E-Book Reader -Gizmodo
If high costs of producing paper goods are hurting the media, I’m not sure it makes sense to get into the game of something more expensive to read from today — when such a device already exists from Amazon — even if it saves them a few bucks tomorrow. Oh yeah, and magazines are better in color (on LCD or paper).
Cosmo Publisher Plans an E-Reader of its Own -Wired
For Hearst, here’s one way to think about the problem. Can the company convince nail salons, probably the biggest subscribers to its Cosmopolitan and Marie Claire magazines, to buy e-readers instead of print subscriptions?
Hearst to launch wireless e-reader, potentially revolutionize print media -Engadget
I can wait for the future, when I will carry my cell phone, a netbook, a kindle for books, a hearst media reader for that companies articles and a newscorp media reader for the other articles I will need, that wont be available on the web. its gonna be great! pffft. -from commenter Sim
Hearst developing e-reader, charging for e-news -Cnet News
“Our cost base is significantly out of line with the revenue available in our business today,” Hearst’s Swartz concluded, as he noted other advertising initiatives, such as partnering on advertising with real-estate site Zillow and Yahoo, and raising prices for print subscriptions and mobile-phone access to its content. “It is equally inescapable that during good times, our industry developed business practices that were, at best, inefficient.”
Hearst to Begin Charging for Digital News -WSJ.com
A top executive at Hearst, which publishes 16 newspapers including the Houston Chronicle and Seattle Post-Intelligencer, said the company is mulling how much of its online offerings to keep free, while reserving some content exclusively for people who pay.
It seems that no one thinks this is a good idea except Hearst, which leads me to believe that something big is happening behind the scenes. Perhaps the cost of paper is about to skyrocket? I heard this scenario late last year, at an NYU sustainability discussion, where their is little to no domestically produced paper (paper and pulp mills moved out of the country a few years ago), compound this situation with the fact that the Obama administration is moving forward with their carbon cap and trade plan, making “dirty” industries and their products prohibitively expensive. What follows is a situation where the only paper that will be plentiful is expensive eco-friendly paper for notebooks and direct mailers.
With no signs that our depressed economy is turning around, perhaps the publishers are using this as an excuse to think long-term to expand into eReaders? Am I giving them too much credit for this move? Does Hearst really think that a proprietary reader will be better medium than a printed magazine? Personally I’m not sold on the idea of proprietary hardware as a business model for publishers. I think they need to focus on content creation and let the hardware makers fight over how to best display it.