Tag Archives: Convergence

What Google Maps and Everyblock’s iPhone App means for Established News Media

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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

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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.

Steve Buttry’s Blueprint For News Media Companies

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A Blueprint for the Complete Community Connection is exactly what it sounds like.  Steve Buttry is editor of The Gazette and GazetteOnline a news source for eastern Iowa, Cedar Rapids, and Iowa City. On his blog he graciously shares his detailed 38page blueprint for the path ahead for Gazette Communications.

This is a must read for all news media professionals.  The document is insightful and creates great potential for reflection on business practices. I’m not saying his blueprint is THE best, but even if you hate his ideas, there are lots of salient points to build on. One obvious forehead-smacking point he raises is that the details of his blueprint, “will be determined not by my decree but by the needs of the marketplace and by the creativity and abilities of the staff”.  Did you catch that?  THE NEEDS OF THE MARKETPLACE.  In the internet paradigm, what needs are you now filling?  I love it.

Something I wish Steve would have addressed more clearly is the distinction between geographic communities and communities of interest.  Does he agree there is a distinction?  Why or why not?  Can print and online serve both communities equally well? How does his blueprint address these distinct communities?

I emailed Steve and asked about the above points.  Here is his response:

Robert, absolutely there is a difference between geographic communities and communities of interest. However, the local media organization has its strongest opportunities to appeal to communities with at least a geographic tie. For instance, we attract attention of Iowa Hawkeye fans around the world. They are a community of interest, but they have a geographic tie. The blueprint details plans to help countless communities of interest within and overlapping a geographic community – the family/friends of each high school graduate or engaged couple, congregations, etc. Print can serve some communities of interest (we have a business magazine and a magazine geared for young adults), but because of the cost of transportation, print is quite geographically based. Thanks for asking.

There you have it metaprinter readers, ask and you shall recieve.

RELATED:

How are you going to make money? By changing your relationship with your community -from OJR.org

PricewaterhouseCoopers Releases Newspaper Outlook 2009 Report

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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).

TweenTribune Signs Up Another Newspaper

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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.

Metaprinter Tries Out Printcasting

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What is Printcasting?  From their site:

Printcasting is a first of its kind online tool that assists users in dynamically creating customized newspapers and magazines comprised of information gathered from local news sources such as blogs, newsletters, news organizations, user content, and other Contributors.  Creating your own publication is as simple as adding the elements you want included in your publication through the easy to use Printcasting.com interface.  Without having to hire a team of editors, graphic artists, or authors you will be able to create your own, professional publication for distribution.

Publishers will also be able to allow Advertisers to place targeted advertisements in their publications and, in the future, receive a portion of revenue generated from those advertisements.  Publications created by the user may then be available for print, download, and distribution to Subscribers.

I wrote about the years-ago-created RSS to print application FeedJournal and it’s potential for a digital newspaper application last year, so Printcasting’s claim to be the “first of its kind” in this realm isn’t necessarily true, what is unique though is their attempt to monetize the resulting product with a simple ad creation tool (among other things).

Printcasting is a Knight News Challenge winner and their website is inviting so I decided to give it a try for Metaprinter.  I want to emphasize that the Printcasting site was in open Beta / preview mode when I did this so don’t judge too harshly.

Step 1. Definitely watch this instructional video before doing anything. Continue reading →

Web-Only Newspaper Map is up on Erica Smith’s PaperCuts Blog

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Web-only newspapers
Newspapers that have stopped publishing a print edition and have moved to the web

This map and project was inspired by Metaprinter — let Erica know if you have an idea for a project.

How did this turn into a project?

Metaprinter reader Eric Cox director of national sales for PNG Laboratories LLC was looking for a list of related information.  I started the list, then started a google maps mashup, realized it would look and act much like the one Erica Smith already has on her papercuts blog.  I contacted her about collaborating on the project and she was all for it!

The result is a dynamic map which will provide information about newspapers who have switched to online only publication. Hover over the markers to find detailed info about the newspaper.

“People are used to reading everything on the net for free, and that’s going to have to change,” Rupert Murdoch

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News Corp. Investing In Larger Mobile Device

Murdoch also predicted that the New York Times Co. (NYT) will have to charge online for access to its flagship newspaper.

“The inventory of display advertising on the web is doubling every year,” said Murdoch. “They’re never going to make money on an advertising model to replace what they’re losing.”

This is a paid article available only to subscribers, ironically, if you access this article through google news, you don’t have to sign in to access it.  I’m sure that will change too though.

I’m not sure why newspaper publishers are attempting to create their own eReaders though.  Can you imagine having a Hearst reader for their titles, a newscorp reader for their titles, a cell phone, and Ipod and a laptop to carry around?  Crazyness.

RELATED:

The fundamental problem of newspapers on the internet – The Krugman Paradox

News Media Innovation, Convergence and Sustainability – Interview with Don Carli

Murdoch says papers should charge on Web

Podcast – Video Game Revenue Models To Save The New York Times?

News Media Innovation, Convergence and Sustainability – Interview with Don Carli

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Interview with Don Carli Executive Vice President of SustainCommWorld LLC, and Senior Research Fellow with the Institute for Sustainable Communication.

Don has been a leading researcher, author, educator and speaker addressing the sustainability of media supply chains for the last decade, and for over 25 years has been a respected media technology and marketing strategy consultant to major advertisers, agencies and publishers.

RI- Why are newspapers and other traditional publishers pushing the issue of eReaders as a communications medium when something like less than one third of one percent of the reading population of the United States owns these products? Is it a paper sustainability issue? Is it a cost issue? What’s the justification?

DC- Other than pushing the “cool” factor, one of the main selling points being made by marketers of eReaders is that they are greener than print. It is little surprise that the common view held by consumers who don’t know the backstory is that going digital means going green and saving trees. Many are in for a rude awakening. When subjected to “cradle-to-cradle ” Lifecycle Analysis eReading is not nearly as green as many naively assume it is.

There is no question that print media could do a better job of managing the sustainability of its supply chains and waste streams, but it’s a misguided notion to assume that digital media is categorically greener. Computers, eReaders and cell phones don’t grow on trees and their spiraling requirement for energy is unsustainable. Continue reading →

Find us on Twitter – Chicago Tribune Masthead

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Nice find from Joey Baker‘s blog

Newspaper and social media convergence.  I have never seen any other newspaper put twitter addresses in their masthead, have you?  To learn more read the following Q&A with Bill Adee, Chicago Tribune editor/digital media.

RI – Introduce yourself (name, title, specialty)
BA – Bill Adee, editor/digital media

RI – Does the masthead in the printed newspaper have the twitter addresses or is it just visible via the link above? What am I looking at? Where does this appear?
BA – That is the masthead as it appeared in last Thursday’s newspaper, on the Editorial page.

RI – Does the Chicago Tribune feel that twitter is better at contacting those in the masthead than email? Why use twitter?
BA – We wanted to make a statement about our digital efforts, but at a practical level it also is a great way to communicate with our readers and learn more about what they are reading and thinking. Continue reading →

Steve Greenberg’s Farewell to The Seattle P-I

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Editorial cartoonist and graphic artist Steve Greenberg says goodbye to the Seattle Post Intelligencer, a newspaper he called home for 14 years.

Hearst has pulled the plug on the paper, which had a circulation of about 200,000 and was the biggest morning paper in Washington when I started there in August 1985. It had clunked along as the junior parter in a JOA, surrendering its printing, advertising sales. marketing and circulation to the larger Seattle Times. But having agreed, for a bigger split of the profits, to let the Times move into its morning monopoly, Hearst saw the paper’s circulation plummet to about 117,000 and its finances go down the toilet between the recession, a strike in 2000 (shortly after I’d left) and the bleeding of newspapers in general.

The Seattle Times was richer, more elite, centrist-to-conservative, and smugly superior, selling far better in the well-to-do suburbs. The P-I was looser, more liberal, more blue collar, less-esteemed but generally a match for the Times in quality, and had the feel of being the more historic “voice of the Northwest.” It gave itself a wonderful symbol of a giant rooftop globe straight out of Superman and the Daily Planet, with the words “It’s in the P-I” cranking around its equator.

Read the entire article on his blog.  Below is the front page from today’s Seattle P-I printed newspaper.  It is the last one you will ever see as the operation moves to online only. The move is being closely watched as it is the first time a large daily newspaper has switched with no transition to online only.  I can guarantee that if the operation turns profitable (even marginally so), there will be a stampede of newspapers following suit. Continue reading →

The Rocky Mountain News Lives… maybe

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A group of Rocky Mountain News journalists with support and backing from three Denver entrepreneurs launched a subscription drive Today for the online news site INDenverTimes.com.

Their goal is to get 50,000 subscribers by April 23 — the 150th anniversary of the first edition of the Rocky Mountain News — in order to launch the full site by May 4.

INDenverTimes is an effort to reinvent the newspaper for the Internet age, featuring many of the reporters, editors, designers and other journalists that the Denver community has come to depend on for coverage of local and national news, sports and the arts. News will be free, but the subscription will invite readers inside the newsroom as never before through news analysis, insight, online chats and other features.

Former Rocky staff involved in effort so far: Sam Adams, Tom Auclair, Lisa Bornstein, Mark Brown, Tim Burroughs, Mary Chandler, Mark Christopher, Kevin Flynn, Tillie Fong, Steve Foster, Scott Gilbert, Chuck Hickey, Cindy House, Kevin Huhn, Kim Humphreys, Jay Lee, Aaron Lopez, Gary Massaro, David Milstead, John Moore, Alex Neth, Melissa Pomponio, Bill Scanlon, Hank Schultz, Marc Shulgold, Ed Stein, George Tanner, Chris Tomasson, Bob Willis and Mark Wolf.

To learn more about INDenverTimes or to subscribe, visit INDenverTimes.com.

To read their current blog go to IwantMyRocky.com and visit their twitter feed at http://twitter.com/iwantmyrocky

SXSW09 The Future of News SBJ

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Old Growth Media And The Future Of News

The following is a speech Steven Berlin Johnson gave yesterday at the South By Southwest Interactive Festival in Austin.Can we expect the general public to navigate the new ecosystem with the same skill and discretion?

Let’s say for the sake of argument that we can’t. Let’s say it’s just too overwhelming for the average consumer to sort through all the new voices available online, to separate fact from fiction, reporting from rumor-mongering. Let’s say they need some kind of authoritative guide, to help them find all the useful information that’s proliferating out there in the wild.

If only there were some institution that had a reputation for journalistic integrity that had a staff of trained editors and a growing audience arriving at its web site every day seeking quality information. If only…

Of course, we have thousands of these institutions. They’re called newspapers.  continue at link above

Here is the Qik video of his talk. You can read along at the link above.  The recording starts in section 2, paragraph 3, line 4 here:

or the print newspaper business: the future of news itself. Because there are really two worst case scenarios that we’re concerned about right now, and it’s important to distinguish between them. There is panic that newspapers are going to disappear as businesses. And then there’s panic that crucial information is going to disappear with them, that we’re going to suffer as culture because newspapers will no long be able to afford to generate the information we’ve relied on for so many years.

Steven is bullish on news and I like his take on the situation because it raises some new points and turns newspapers role into that of a filter.  Is he right? Who knows but hey, at least he’s thinking it through giving people ideas to knock down, manipulate or affirm.  He did give me one great idea so I fired off the email below to my local police and fire departments.  I look forward to their response.

To my township officials,

My name is Robert Ivan, I am an aberdeen-matawan local and run news media blog metaprinter.com.  I am writing to request a meeting with someone at your offices to set up an RSS feed for fire and police information.  I feel this would be a great service to our community and serve as a yardstick by which all other public service announcements will be measured.

The idea came about when I drove past the train station today to find a building had partially burned down.  Had I not driven past the building I would have known nothing about it.  It made me wonder what other crimes or disasters were occurring in my town, around my home, that I did not know about.

I hold an MA in Graphic Communications management and technology from NYU, have over 9 years experience in online media and web design, and am a member of the local chamber of commerce.  I would love to speak to someone about this.  I am not looking to profit from this enterprise, just get our community better connected as traditional media becomes increasingly less relevant.  My contact info is below.

Best,
Robert Ivan

NPR Wins 2008 Scripps Award for Excellence in Radio Reporting

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NPR NEWS WINS 2008 SCRIPPS HOWARD FOUNDATION

NATIONAL JOURNALISM AWARD

FOR FOUR-PART SERIES “DIRTY MONEY”

 

NPR’S JOHN BURNETT RECEIVES JACK R. HOWARD AWARD,

MARKING EXCELLENCE IN RADIO REPORTING

 

March 13, 2009; Washington, D.C. – NPR News has been honored with the Scripps Howard Foundation’s National Journalism Foundation Award for “Dirty Money,” an enterprising four-part series investigating the drug money that flows along America’s highways from NPR News correspondent John Burnett.  Burnett shares the 2008 Jack R. Howard Award for “Excellence in Radio Reporting” with National Desk Editor Quinn O’Toole, National Desk Producer Marisa Penaloza and Digital News Editor Tanya Ballard-Brown.  The Jack R. Howard Award recognizes and celebrates the year’s best work in journalism.

The series, which aired in June 2008 on NPR News’ Morning Edition, All Things Considered and Weekend Edition, examined law enforcement’s pursuit of suspected drug money, which they can confiscate without filing charges against the person carrying it.  Local police and sheriffs get to keep a portion of the cash.  Complete audio of the award-winning series is available at:www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=91856663

With reporting in Texas, Alabama and Georgia, Burnett revealed that some local law enforcement agencies have become more interested in seizing money than stopping the flow of drugs. Burnett found case after case of misused forfeiture funds, with departments using the money to pay for awards banquets and Christmas parties, leases of vehicles and a margarita machines.

Burnett is no stranger to covering the drug war.  In 2007, he was the lead reporter on NPR News’ 7-part series “The Forgotten War,” which examined the state of America’s war on drugs.  His “Cocaine Republics” series in 2004 detailed the emergence of Central America as a major drug smuggling region.

The 55th annual National Journalism Awards will be presented at a ceremony on April 24 in Washington, D.C. The National Journalism Awards are granted by the Scripps Howard Foundation, recognizing and aiming to advance the free press through excellence in journalism.  This is the second National Journalism Award for NPR.

 

-NPR-

Google Takes Out Newspaper Ads to Find Authors

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A Google Search of a Distinctly Retro Kind -NYTimes.com

Google was recently sued in federal court by a large group of authors and publishers who claimed that its plan to scan all the books in the world violated their copyrights.  As part of the class-action settlement, Google must locate the authors and grant them the opportunity to opt out of their scanning ambitions, but first they must be found.

Since the copyright holders can be anywhere and not necessarily online — given how many books are old or out of print — it became obvious that what was needed was a huge push in that relic of the pre-Internet age: print.

Google is reportedly spending millions of dollars taking out print newspaper ads in every single country in the world.  Crazy.

Newsvine CEO Reflects as Seattle Post-Intelligencer Fails

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Mike Davidson is founder and CEO of Newsvine, which was recently acquired by msnbc.com, invented sIFR, a technology which has enabled tens of thousands of designers to beautify the web with tens of thousands of typefaces, led the redesign of the first major media site to support web standards, ESPN.com in 2003, has no tolerance for the intolerance of imperfection on the web, and went to school with Leonardo DiCaprio and appears adjacent to him in their 3rd grade yearbook!

That’s one hell of a resume.  In his blog, MikeIndustries, Mr. Davidson recently recounted the akward situation where, “while we were toiling away, our friends upstairs at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer received their unemployment orientation in advance of being laid off two weeks from now”.  Newsvine and the Seattle P-I apparantly shared the same building.  This interesting blog post also touches on Mr. Davidson’s personal belief that he’s “not super optimistic about the future of a lot of these newspaper companies, but I really would love to see them at least replaced with something better”.

Mr. Davidson also offers tips on saving, not newspapers, but long-form journalism and local reporting.  Check out the entire post entitled Last-Rites on his site.

Newspaper Industry Advice Via Smithsonian 2.0 Gathering

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Substitute the name “Smithsonian” below with the name of your favorite Print Newspaper and we may have something to work with towards effecting positive change in the newspaper industry.  *Note my hyperlinks and bolding added for emphasis.  Note also that not once do they whine about the destructive or disruptive nature of the internet on their business model, they embrace it and seek to leverage it for furthering their mission.

Smithsonian 2.0: A Gathering to Re-Imagine the Smithsonian in the Digital Age

Twenty-four million visitors come through the Smithsonian’s doors each year to view our collections and to learn about science, technology, history, art and culture. We host 175 million (more than seven times the number of our physical visitors) through the Web. As digital technology accelerates and the Web becomes an even more essential part of our everyday lives, that number will grow, possibly reaching billions.

As part of Secretary Wayne Clough’s strategic planning initiative, the Institution will host “Smithsonian 2.0: A Gathering to Re-Imagine the Smithsonian in the Digital Age”—a two-day conference on Jan. 23 and 24, supported by the Smithsonian National Board. Smithsonian 2.0 will bring more than 30 creative leaders from the Web, digital and new media worlds (chosen for their engagement of large audiences, including youth) to meet with a core group of Smithsonian staff to look at our vision, our challenges, and our current level of achievement in Web and new media. This group will try to identify how to move the Smithsonian forward toward a “Smithsonian 2.0.” Continue reading →

Hearst eReader Fallout

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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.

What Newspaper Websites Can Learn from Darren Rowse and ProBlogger – First Impressions

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It’s really getting frustrating reading about newspapers getting bailed out by questionable individuals, newspapers suing each other over… linking? really? Linking?  uh… ok,  and just the overall death of newspapers as the major source of news and investigative journalism.  So lets focus on something positive like the title of this post: What Newspaper Websites Can Learn from Darren Rowse and ProBlogger – First Impressions.

If you don’t know Darren Rowse or ProBlogger and you run a news site or any blog really, it is imperative you start following his blog and take the time to dig through his archives.  Ok, enough of that.

First, watch the video below from ProBlogger regarding the “first impressions” that a blog (or any site) makes on their visitors and what it means for engagement. Then we’ll go through some main points. Continue reading →

Great News Website – The Las Vegas Sun

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Regular readers here know I’m a big fan of Rob Curley and The Las Vegas Sun.  Last October I declared:

I would say that this is THE BEST newspaper site in America however, it is not a traditional newspaper. Only a smaller version of the site is printed and distributed, as an insert, in the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Still, this site kicks ass. It utilizes multimedia news reporting throughout the site, not just features. You’ll notice in the pictures above that the the front page changes every day, there are no rigid templates. The site uses Django and the Ellington CMS to do this as well as the genius of Rob Curley. -read on

Newspapers & Technology has just posted a story:  Web shines brightly on Las Vegas Sun about how great they are.  Check it out.

Charles Baudelaire Refers to Bloggers… err Photographers, as Imbeciles

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Would Charles Baudelaire Hate the Kindle? -from csus.edu via the26th story
19th century French poet and art critic Charles Baudelaire’s famous attack on photography:

“As the photographic industry was the refuge of every would-be painter, every painter too ill-endowed or too lazy to complete his studies, this universal infatuation bore not only the mark of a blindness, an imbecility, but had also the air of a vengeance…” Read the entire thing

This reminds me of certain traditional journalists and their hatred of bloggers.

The Future of Local Newspapers? It’s Shoved in My Mailbox…

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I began receiving a free weekly newspaper jammed in my  snail-mailbox about a year ago called Community Reporter.  The newspaper is published by Gannett’s Asbury Park Press operating in New Jersey. The paper is thin, has 3 sections, and serves up content from 6 towns in my “area”.  It also contains a classified section and usually has a couple inserts from Kmart and a grocery store.

The paper is completely useless to my family and I. There is nothing that the paper offers which I can not get online at my own convenience and without cluttering my mailbox.  I never asked to be sent this junk mail, yet it comes… every week.  I asked my postman if he can stop giving them to me, but he says he’s required to deliver it by law.  He says the only way to stop is somehow get the newspaper to take me off their list. Continue reading →

Clay Shirky – “Don’t Worry About Information Overload”

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“There’s always a new Luddism whenever there’s change.” – interview by Russ Juskalian from Columbia Journalism Review -Go read this interview it is great!

from the interview, “What the Internet has actually done is not decimate literary reading; that was really a done deal by 1970. What it has done, instead, is brought back reading and writing as a normal activity for a huge group of people.”

That’s a great point, and one that newspaper and television owners, I suspect, are terrified of.  People are now “distracted” by doing things other than reading a newspaper or watching television.    

 -Go read this great interview!

Brave News World – The Detroit Newspaper Experiment

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As reported everywhere The Detroit Free Press (GCI) and The Detroit News are going paperless (somewhat) in their quest to remain a going enterprise. There is a thorough story about the specifics on MarketWatch.

Here is Dave Hunke, CEO of Detroit Media Partnership and Publisher of the Detroit Free Press:

“The dynamics of delivering information to audiences has changed forever due to technology. Today, consumers are more empowered than ever before. In order to serve them well, we must find ways to be more nimble. That means we have to change the way we deliver that news – not just in subtle ways, but in fundamental ways.”

I applaud the effort to innovate their business model. I have some serious reservations about their strategy however. Simply going online will not save the news business. Bragging that you’ve had “50 million pageviews” and “won Pulitzer Prizes”, while not being able to become economically sustainable should raise red flags about how inefficient newspaper websites are. Continue reading →

Metaprinter Interview With CSM Editor John Yemma Discussing Newspaper Business Models

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Regarding this post and his comments, Robert Ivan conducted an email interview to let John Yemma state his case.

RI: We seek to interview any person or company doing innovative things in new media or traditional media. We prize innovation here at metaprinter and encourage media organizations to come on and trumpet their achievements. The goal of the interview is to find out a little bit more information than what can be found already online or in print.

JY: Excellent idea. And good for you for seeking that information via interview.

RI: I’m not a journalist. However, some recent interviews I conducted were with Jimmy Leach, Editorial Director for Digital at The Independent and Alan Murray, Deputy managing editor and executive editor, online for The Wall Street Journal.

John, my intention with the very first post was commentary and analysis of the video interview. I am sorry it displeased you so much. I found that video through Google while researching information regarding newspaper business models. As I said in that post, I admire your consideration in utilizing diverse revenue streams, but I am concerned that they are unsustainable because they rely on:

JY: Robert, it only displeased me because it didn’t seek answers to specific questions. In that video that you cite, Len Witt was asking specific questions to which I was giving specific answers. It isn’t logical to expect that all of your questions would be answered by my answers to Len. At any rate, we’re past that now since you’re asking specific questions and I’m responding below. Peace.

——————————————— Continue reading →

The Newspaper Publishers’ Dilemma – Is $179 Million the New $890 Million?

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Recently, the Washington Post ombudsman Deborah Howell wrote a piece entitled Ten Ways To Keep A Newspaper Strong.  As ombudsman Ms. Howell’s job is to represent the public needs to the paper.  I’ll break down her 10 points here and highlight how pursuing these suggestions put the publisher of the paper in a revenue dilemma.  This is the dilemma of all newspapers moving to the Internet and the subject of my MA Thesis, exploring online economic sustainability.

(1) Exclusivity is a virtue. -she touts the content of the paper as being unique but do KidsPost, the Style Invitational, Federal Diary, In The Loop and Dr. Gridlock generate enough revenue to achieve economic sustainability?  What about the columnists she mentions?  The New York Times found out the hard way that putting their “unique voices” behind a pay wall was an untenable revenue model, Times Select folded after only 2 years due to a lack of paying subscribers (roughly 220,000).  In the age of the Internet where there are virtually unlimited voices, the New York Times overvalued the draw of their columnists voices.

What is exclusive in the current online landscape?  Twitter I suppose, ironically they have yet to develop a revenue stream. They recently turned down a $500million acquisition offer from Facebook.  This tells me they are either attempting to create their own revenue stream (not intrusive advertising, probably selling their user data for analysis), or considering A higher offer as their exit strategy.  Either way, the point is that “exclusivity” online almost does not exist.  A newspaper’s online value proposition should be “fulfilling an unmet need” usually this means just covering news and reporting it.  Where did people go when terrorists attacked Mumbai?  They didn’t go to find columnist commentary and opinion, the sought to find news coverage.

——————————————— Continue reading →

Kansas City Star Newspaper Plant – Invest a Lot to Learn a Little?

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November 10, 2008 “Publisher Mark Zieman said the paper was looking into the possibility of selling, then leasing back the huge $200 million printing plant it began using a little over two years ago. ” -from Editor&Publisher

“Looking to the future I wish the Kansas City Star my best and thank them for taking us on a tour. I hope that their expanded capabilities in the new plant enhance the publication and its reach into the community.”

That’s what I wrote on September 24, 2007 after attending the International Newspaper Group annual conference held in Kansas City.  We were given a tour of this facility.  Very Impressive.  Very New. Very Clean. Very Modern.  But tell me what is the point of building a $200million dollar buggy whip factory?  When they gave us that tour, we were told that the presses were capable of printing and binding other periodicals besides newspapers.  What we apparently weren’t told was that no contracts for printing such things were ever signed.

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The Kindle Needs a Bellows

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As a graphic communications professional, newspaper industry expert, graduate student at NYU, and basic all around 30 year old human being, I do not know ONE SINGLE person who owns a Kindle.

Total Sales as of Today’s date:
240,000 Kindles
1,000,000 Zunes (microsoft’s mp3 player that no one owns)
6,124,000 iPhones
163,000,000 iPods

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Newspaper Job Boards, Reconnect With Your Community in 2009

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In my thesis research I revisited some old stats I had on job listings and was shocked at how little those numbers changed. The US state department predicts another 1million jobs lost in the united states in 2009 if things don’t turn around soon. With that in mind, wouldn’t it be wise for newspapers to bring their job board costs in line with Craigslist?

In 2007 Craigslist was charging either zero or $25 to post jobs depending on the city. A quick look at newspapers sites reveals that 1. They partnered with monster, Careerbuilder, or Hotjobs for their Jobs section. 2. They charge on average $400 to post a job! How the heck is this justified when looking at the reach of craigslist vs. everyone else?

As for Website reach, here is 2007

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Buried Tony Romo Story Inexcusable

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No indication that the Romo story is their #1 draw

The Dallas Morning News, newspaper website Dallasnews.com is running a great feel-good story.  But you wouldn’t know it by visiting their website!  The Wednesday story, “Dallas Cowboys blog: Further evidence that Tony Romo really is a swell fella” is buried in their sports section. This despite the fact that today the story is their Most Read, Most E-mailed, Most Recommended, and second most commented (124).

 At the time of this writing the biggest headline on their site is, “City Hall blog: Omni gets nod to run Dallas Convention Center hotel” with zero comments.  ZERO.  

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NPR’s New Leadership – NYT’s Vivian Schiller and USAT’s Kinsey Wilson

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November 11, 2008 Vivian Schiller, the longtime head of NYTimes.com’s digital efforts, has left The New York Times, and has joined National Public Radio as its new CEO.

September 25, 2008; Washington, D.C. – Kinsey Wilson, who has overseen USA TODAY’s combined online and print news operation since 2005, has been named Senior Vice President and General Manager, Digital Media, NPR, it was announced by Mitch Praver, NPR’s Chief Operating Officer.  At press time, NYT has not named a replacement for Schiller.

Listen to NPR’s streaming radio announcement HERE hosted by David Folkenflik.  David seems impressed and happy with the selection.  “this is an opportunity for NPR to become stronger than ever”.

Watch this 2007 interview with Vivian as she talks about her experiences transitioning from producing television to producing for video for the New York Times.

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Part 2-The Best News Reporting Story About The Housing Crisis is Not In a Newspaper

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As noted in part one of this story: This American Life’s Alex Blumberg and NPR’s Adam Davidson—the two guys who reported the Giant Pool of Money episode—are back, this time in collaboration with National Public Radio’s Planet Money podcast. In this episode, they explain what happened this week, including what regulators could’ve done to prevent this financial crisis from happening in the first place. 

Once again, this is THE BEST news reporting going on regarding the housing crisis.  Did you watch CNBC last week?  Jim Cramer is in a panic

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Part 1-The Best News Reporting Story About The Housing Crisis is Not In a Newspaper

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Don’t panic, but don’t change the channel either! We look high and low to find out what the heck is happening to the U.S. economy and how the mortgage crisis started. We look to our traditional news sources for information to use as guidance, to inform us, to make sound decisions, and to put our minds at ease. The broadcast news companies like CNN, and Fox news do a terrible job of this. Their reporting is frantic and seems to be interested only in generating eyeballs for the moment, as Neil Postman would say, “now this…” .

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How are Newspapers Handling The Panic Surrounding The Bailout Vote?

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Screen Shots from top news sites around the nation and world taken at 1:50pm – 1:58pm, moments after agencies monitoring the vote revealed that it could not pass.  Traders in NY watching CNBC’s vote coverage immediately began selling off equities and buying up Treasury Bills.  The Dow Jones Industrial Average responded by dropping 600 points before bouncing and settling down 777.68 points at the close of market trading.  This post shows how the newspaper and news sites anticipated and reacted to this EXTREMELY IMPORTANT vote.

Some Good.  Some Not So Good.  There Should Be Breaking News Notices On All Sites.

As can be predicted, The Wall Street Journal covered this well.  They have a breaking news banner across the entire webpage drawing attention to the incident.  Good Job. Continue reading →

How not to use Twitter… when technology and incompetence collide.

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The Rocky Mountain News tweets the funeral of a 3-year-old, Marten Kudlis, killed when a car ran into the ice cream parlor he was in.

I highly recommend newspapers using Twitter to build an audience while writing/ gathering a story for publication. I think it is great for on-the-scene reporting at breaking news events.

But what is the point of using Twitter at a funeral? This does not add to my self-actualization, it does not inform me or entertain me either. The online editor at the Rocky Mountain News needs to get his head examined for allowing this tasteless stunt.

The Reporter is Berny Morson. John Temple is the editor, publisher and president of the Rocky Mountain News. Links are provided to contact these people. No one has been able to reach these two for a comment at press time.

UPDATE 9-13-2008

John Temple attempts to explain his usage of Twitter for covering this funeral. He claims the following:

  • Helping the community by sending live feeds like for a road closing
  • The reporter was out of the way of the mourners
  • Major funerals are covered by TV and Radio
  • They’ve taken photos of dead babies (for the mother, with the mother’s permission) and had no complaints
  • “We must learn to use the new tools at our disposal”

The problem is that this was not a “road closing”. It wasn’t a presidential debate. It wasn’t done for the sake of the family.

Most importantly, The Rocky Mountain News should learn how to use Twitter before unleashing it at a kid’s (or anyone’s) funeral. You don’t have to be a newspaper editor to know that.

John, I’ve always thought that the purpose of a newspaper is to promote self-actualization by providing readers with quality information. Readers use that information to make better decisions on a wide range of topics, from which road to travel on (road closings), to which candidate to vote for. When readers find these interactions favorable over a period of time, then a relationship is cultivated and readers come to view your paper as a reliable source for news, information, guidance, entertainment, and advertising.

Not very long ago, the industry standard for revenue generated per subscriber was roughly $1000. It is easy to see why this is no longer the case. The product is no longer providing that level of quality, relevant, information.

The Wall Street Journal debuted its WSJ magazine in this morning’s newspaper

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The magazine is targeted to extremely rich people, but us poor folk like to look at the content and ads as well.  Hell, I even went to the Vertu website to find out how much a Vertu Ascent Ti. cell phone costs ($6999.99), pretty amazing. Although I’ll never buy one, perhaps my wife would like that Smythson raspberry croc print leather continental purse for Christmas?
The overall build quality of the magazine is good but not great.  The Magazine is perfect bound and suffers from a coversheet that is too thin (for the glue and ink coverage).  As you can see from the picture below the cover is wrinkled at the spine.

wrinkled cover
Another problem I found was on page 94 with ink lay-down resulting in streaking. Again, seen below.
print defect
Innovation? YES!  Why innovation? Continue reading →

Who exactly is the Star Ledger planning on selling the newspaper to?

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I did a little digging to see how much one would have to pony up for buying The Star-Ledger should they decide to go ahead with their plan on October 1st. I have come to the conclusion that the paper is unsellable in its current business format, check out the links below.

So why would anyone buy this failing newspaper? I suspect a company would only be looking to absorb the intellectual property into their own organization. Everything else, the capital equipment, the people, the business contracts,.. all down the tubes.

I’ve said it once, and i’ll say it again, “if all the Star Ledger does is lay off 200 workers, the paper will fail”. The company needs a major replacement of leadership. How in gods name does the biggest and most powerful newspaper in the state of New Jersey go bankrupt?  I’ll tell you how, failure of planning, severe lack of innovation, and a total disregard for their customer’s needs.  

Having said that, potential suitors include but are not limited to: 

  • Gannett owns a few papers in the state and prints in NJ and upstate NY. I suppose they would be the top contender. I don’t think shareholders would be pleased with a newspaper company purchase right now though.
  • Followed by the New York Daily News with operations in Jersey City.
  • Followed by Sam Zell, because he is pretty unpredictable (which is probably a good thing right now). Hey Sam if you are reading this, email me. I have a really great newspaper business model idea and I think you are just the guy to try it out.
  • Then there is the outside chance Mr. Newhouse sells it to himself, gets rid of all his union problems and does something truly innovative. Be the first Major newspaper to go completely online.
    • If Samuel Irving Newhouse Jr. figures the company is a complete wash anyway, why not turn it into a grand experiment?
    • It could be a litmus test for the 27 other newspapers he owns through Advance Publications

NEW YORK TIMES :WANT to buy a newspaper company? No? You’re in good companyREAD MORE

Newspapers Marginalizing Themselves Online

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“The medium is the message” Marshall McLuhan’s statement is completely relevant when thinking of the ways information is currently displayed on newspaper websites.

The online version of a newspaper should look very little like the printed newspaper and act completely unlike it. A newspaper is a finite, unchanging medium for displaying content. Once the content is paginated and printed, the product has been finalized and that day’s work is over.  Conversely, the online edition of a Newspaper must remain dynamic at all times, receiving content from the company, readers, and advertisers at all times. The Internet is a medium for multimedia interactive environments. Newspapers marginalize their online potential when they maintain the structure and function of a printed paper on their website. I don’t know why this is such a hard concept for newspapers to grasp. There should be more interactive features on newspaper websites.

A newspaper’s online site must be displayed in a format that is appealing to the sense and easy to navigate. Simply putting digitized newspaper pages online is penny wise and pound foolish. People will recognize right away that no effort has gone into the site and will just go elsewhere.

I would like to see more innovation at newspapers’ websites. Something that realizes the potential of the medium. Something more interactive and in-line with the customer’s needs. It’s easy to say that, anyone can say we need something better, but more and more online destinations are coming up with good ideas, unfortunately they are not newspaper companies.

At press time, a great example of innovation in newspaper websites is the Asbury Park Press Data Universe.

The bottom line is that more can be done to steer readers and advertisers to online newspaper sites. How many truly innovative, user-friendly newspaper websites have you come across? These companies have enough money in their coffers to fund an innovative team eager to come up with a great newspaper website. All that is needed now is a commitment from the Newspaper companies to embrace change.