Tag Archives: NYT

New York Times Ends Publication of ‘The Local’ in New Jersey and Directs its Readers to Baristanet

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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.

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Visit Baristanet.com for more.

Everyone is Going Nuts about NYTimes.com Charging for Content in 2011

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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.

Webby Award Winners – News and Newspaper Category

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2009 webby awards

NEWS

Webby Award Winner Agency – Credited Organization

BBC’s News website BBC’s News website
http://www.bbc.com/news – BBC Worldwide

People’s Voice Winner

BBC’s News website BBC’s News website
http://www.bbc.com/news – BBC Worldwide

Nominees

BBC’s News website BBC’s News website
http://www.bbc.com/news -  BBC Worldwide

Salon.com Salon.com
http://www.salon.com - Salon Media Group, Inc.

Spectra Visual Newsreader | msnbc.com Spectra Visual Newsreader | msnbc.com
http://www.spectramsnbc.com - SS+K / Fluid

The Daily Beast The Daily Beast
http://thedailybeast.com - Code and Theory

The Huffington Post The Huffington Post
http://huffingtonpost.com - The Huffington Post

NEWSPAPER

Webby Award Winner Agency – Credited Organization

guardian.co.uk guardian.co.uk
http://www.guardian.co.uk/ – guardian.co.uk

People’s Voice Winner

NYTimes.com NYTimes.com
http://NYTimes.com – The New York Times

Nominees

guardian.co.uk guardian.co.uk
http://www.guardian.co.uk/ - guardian.co.uk

NYTimes.com NYTimes.com
http://NYTimes.com - The New York Times

Observer.com Observer.com
http://www.observer.com -  Observer Media Group

The Independent The Independent
http://www.independent.co.uk - The Independent

Times On Line Times On Line
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/ – SAPIENT INTERACTIVE

Google to offer Premium Advertising for Select News Sites

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Eric Schmidt on Google’s New Plan for the News -from TheWrap

Sharon Waxman who writes Waxword for the Wrap… ugh, we get it we get it, has an interesting interview with Google CEO Eric Schmidt who reveals that in about 6 months Google will launch a premium ad service for “premium content”.  The pilot news outlets to get this treatment will be the NYtimes and WashingtonPost.

The participating news outlets won’t get direct revenue bumps but the theory is that they will enjoy greater traffic from search.

In my opinion and Google’s too, websites need to figure out a way to better connect with their audience to create a community and lessen the reliance on search for revenue generation.

“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?

New York Times Article Skimmer Prototype

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Grid Format User Interfaces All The Rage?

Navigating the home page of most newspaper websites stinks.  There are literally hundreds of links scattered about with very little thought toward user engagement and ease of use.  In the 14 years that most news sites have been in use, it still seems easier to navigate a printed newspaper than a news site.

Personally speaking, I can skim through an entire Wall Street Journal in about 5 minutes before going back and reading entire articles that interest me.  Try doing this on a news site and you will quickly realize that there is no seamless way to recreate the speed and effectiveness.  The New York Times article skimmer and others below attempt to solve this problem.

The New York Times is working on the new user interface prototype for their content called ‘article skimmer’.  Below is a screen shot of their Dining & Wine section in Article Skimmer. It’s a nice clean layout, good for scanning.

Continue reading →

New York Times Super Bowl Commercial? – What Would It Say?

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This commercial for The New York Times is from 1986. Replace the newspaper that the family is holding with an iPhone and / or Blackberry. Does the newspaper’s value proposition still hold true? What is my incentive now to buy a print subscription? How does The New York Times add to my self actualization?

In 1986 I would read the comics and flip through the entire newspaper “window shopping”. Now I can do this more effectively online. So what ‘need’ is The New York Times now filling and what is the value of that need? Is the it valueless?

Chris Anderson, author of  The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More and Free: The Past and Future of a Radical Price, has an excellent article in this weekend’s Wall Street Journal entitled The Economics of Giving It Away. In it he give a great simple example of the economics affecting the pricing power of newspaper content.

Digital goods — from music and video to Wikipedia — can be produced and distributed at virtually no marginal cost, and so, by the laws of economics, price has gone the same way, to $0.00.

If The New York Times had the money, what would their Super Bowl commercial say? Would it say, “Please bail us out. You NEED US!” Has the value proposition changed since 1986?

Why Are Newspapers Paying A Dividend?

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The news-wire services were all abuzz today with the news that McClatchy (MNI) would suspend its dividend indefinitely following 2009 Q1.

The purpose of paying a dividend it to reward shareholders by telling them something like, “our company is so mature and profitable that in lieu of retaining our earnings for growth, reinvestment, or acquisitions we are going to give it to you”.  Some companies have never paid a dividend.  They feel that they can better grow the money for stockholders better than the stockholders themselves.  Berkshire Hathaway, for example, has never payed a dividend and will most likely never pay a dividend.

Why did it take MNI until 2009 to realize the money in their coffers would most likely be better used to pay down crippling debt?  Why is NYT still paying a dividend?  Is it only because the Sulzberger family needs income?  What about GCI?  Why do they think their company is better off shedding cash than using the money to pay down debt and restructure?

I don’t get it.  Paying a dividend is not fooling anyone into thinking your newspaper is strong.  Do everyone a favor, retain those earnings and pay down debt until you figure out how to become economically sustainable.

Want to learn more about dividends?  Here is an intro from Investopedia:

One of the simplest ways for companies to communicate financial well-being and shareholder value is to say “the dividend check is in the mail.” Dividends, those cash distributions that many companies pay out regularly to shareholders from earnings, send a clear, powerful message about future prospects and performance. A company’s willingness and ability to pay steady dividends over time–and its power to increase them–provide good clues about its fundamentals.

Continue reading at Investopedia.com

Economic sustainability through Micro-payments at NYTimes.com

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I cancelled my print / online subscription to the New York Times back in 2006 or maybe early 2007. Either way, I could no longer justify the cost even though I was a Graduate student at the time, getting a student discount. For my interests, I could get everything I needed for free online at NYTimes.com and I wasn’t even stealing! NY Times was offering their content for free and when Times Select died, it was ALL free.  At that point, for me, the print version made no sense at all.

I stopped paying, and the content kept flowing.  How hell is this possible?  It isn’t.  So we get this: Continue reading →

Newspapers hoping to Cash in on Obama Inauguration

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When Barack Obama won the presidential nomination back on November 4, 2008 the demand for November 5th newspapers was astronomical and seemed to catch newspaper publishers off guard. This time around, the newspapers are prepared, but will the demand be as high?  I’m sure it will be high, but will it be as high as the November 5, 2008 newspapers?

In this report, Newspapers to Cash in on Obama Inauguration Demand, Bloomberg lists many papers that are ramping up production in hopes of making a quick buck.  We’ll know in a few hours what the demand is.  Can newspapers hit the lotto twice with Obama?  Yes we can?  Forget the newspapers, The cool kids will be wearing these shirts:

..

UPDATE:

refute the following illogical statement: “Newspapers will never die, you can’t make a scrap book out of interactive products…” -thread on ask.metafilter.com

The New York Times – The Future Looks Slim

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New York Times Co. in Talks With Carlos Slim on Preferred Stock Investment -from WSJ.com
“The talks are ongoing and may yet fall apart but one of the options being discussed is a preferred-stock issue.”

A set up like this would make the Mexican Billionaire one of the largest shareholders of NYT stock.  He already own 6.4% of the common stock.  The preferred stock would make Slim more than just a common shareholder, but a stakeholder with leverage.   MXTimes.com here we come?

Which begs the question: Why are Americans investors not interested in The Grey Lady?   Why is Slim the only one seeing opportunity here?

UPDATES:

Will Carlos Slim Save The New York Times? -from BusinessWeek.com
How independent will these publications remain?  KGB? WTF?

” London’s 171-year-old Evening Standard is nearing a deal to sell a controlling stake to Alexander Lebedev, one of Russia’s richest men (and a former KGB agent). Lebedev has also discussed the possibility of buying British national newspaper The Independent as well.”

UPDATE: January 20, 2009
Slim Lends New York Times $250 Million as Sales Fall -from Bloomberg

“While it provides some breathing room, this investment doesn’t solve the longer-term issues facing the newspaper industry,” said Fitch Ratings analyst Mike Simonton in Chicago. “It will be even more challenging for the company to generate positive free cash flow in 2009 with this new, heavy interest burden.”

VistaPrint Revenues Will Exceed New York Times Advertising Revenue in 2011

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In a December 5, 2008 interview with WhatTheyThink.com staff, VistaPrint CEO Robert Keane expressed his opinion that he is “extremely pessimistic about the economy”.  VistaPrint (VPRT) is a leading online supplier of high-quality graphic design services and customized printed products to small businesses and consumers to 16 million customers worldwide with over $400 million in annual sales as of the last fiscal year.  They cater to small businesses and their average order generates just $33 in revenue. I recommend reading the entire WTT interview here but to summarize Keane’s comments, Continue reading →

“Save New York Times” Facebook Group Raises $0

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Some poor misguided soul has taken it upon himself to save the $ulzbergers from a paradigm shift. That the company is still paying a dividend is reason enough not to donate. But I could think of many more. Some other person is trying to “save” the industry one tshirt at a time.

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New York Times to Offer Developers API Key For Data Mash-Ups

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The New York Times’ chief technology officer Marc Frons and Aron Pilhofer, editor of interactive news spoke recently with New York media blog fishbowlNY.  The topic of discussion was their API and the desire to open the code up to, “programmers, developers, and others”.  The timeline is weeks to months. Below are a few excerpts.

The goal, according to Aron Pilhofer, editor of interactive news, is to “make the NYT programmable. Everything we produce should be organized data.” Continue reading →

Spotting a Trend, and Realizing It?

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The New York Times announced yesterday 100 newsroom jobs will be eliminated. People who purchased the stock this January 22nd would now be up about 32% at $18.69 The New York Times has by far the most people working for it compared to other American newspapers. Expect more layoffs in the near future as their Edison NJ plant goes completely off line later this year. Global Press Sales Inc. of Lambertville New Jersey is already selling 4 Goss Colorliner presses from that facility.

This article could very well have been called, MY MISSED OPPORTUNITY. I recently visited the NY Times College point facility and saw the renovations they were doing there. Very impressive. Couple this with their move into a new headquarters in Manhattan, their consolidation efforts, their increasing use of outsourcing labor, and their strong brand. The New York Times has an award winning website and although it has yet to eclipse the print model for revenue it is by far the best of the “big” newspaper websites.

In addition to the previous facts, the stock is being bought up by Harbinger in its quest for a board seat.  The increased volume and interest have pushed the stock price on an upward trajectory since the low…  This I could not have predicted.

Media Stocks Near 52 Week Lows. Any Buying Opportunities?

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The world is going to hell in a hand basket, the economy is in the dumper, movie stars are dying, and there is a heated election process going on in the free world. One would think this is a glorious time to be operating as a news organization, but the market told us otherwise today.

Publicly traded shares of The New York Times sank to a 52 week low today at $14.17 which I believe is the lowest this stock has gone since December of 1996. If anyone out there thinks this company can figure out how to monetize their potential, then this is a big buying opportunity right now. Me? I don’t own any NYT, nor do I plan on buying any.  I will change my mind however if i see the Times create new viable revenue streams.

The Washington Post Company is more diversified in its holdings and thus better able to handle the newspaper market declines at this point.  Their shares are trading at 52 week lows as well around $725.  What I like about WPO is that their Kaplan division has taken over as their main revenue stream and is performing well globally.   If you are interested in going long with media stocks, this is a buy.

I firmly believe newspapers serve a need in people’s daily lives it is just a matter of re-aligning the business model with a new paradigm.  When considering pure play Newspapers, there are just too many other buying opportunities out there with better fundamentals. And keep in mind that the financial sector rebounded 50% within 6 months of the 1990 bottom.

NY Times Offering Internship For Tech Savvy Journalists

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NY Times Job Site

“Candidates must have a strong, demonstrable interest in journalism and experience in a variety of multimedia technologies includingFlash, Photoshop, audio editing, HTML and XML. An understanding of how to integrate databases into multimedia presentations, knowledge of Flash AS2 and AS3 scripting and a familiarity with JavaScript frameworks and libraries are all highly desirable.”

McClatchy On The Front Page… is it a signal or a sign?

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Usually when stories appear on the front page of a large distinguished newspaper like the NY Times or the Wall Street Journal, it is because the content of that story is of political or economic importance. On Wednesday December 26th, 2007 McClatchy Co. was on the cover of the Journal and the front page of the business section in the Times. Why now? Is it a signal? We already knew newspaper circulation figures were down and publicly traded newspaper stocks are getting beat up. What’s the story here? Is this just another case of newspapers covering newspapers (ad nauseam)? As I reported earlier this year, after the mid year media review, the investment community was quite concerned about McClatchy’s purchase of Knight Ridder and the overall stock performance of the company. Several months later and the company is in worse shape now, or at least their stock price is; ” since the beginning of 2006, Mr. Pruitt’s company has lost $1.46 billion and seen its stock price plunge 78%, exceeding the carnage at most newspaper companies.”(WSJ) So do we extrapolate this info to all other newspaper companies or is this just a story about McClatchy? (As a side note, individual company brands are often associated with their industry brand. You can be the best seal-clubber in the world, but you’re still a seal-clubber, get it?)

The five year chart below depicts the company’s problems.

go to finance.yahoo.com for more

So what does this all mean? Are we now seeing what Warren Buffett famously stated in 2006, that newspapers appear to have entered a period of “protracted decline”.

Buffett:  It may be that no one has followed the newspaper business as closely as we (Charlie Munger and Warren Buffett) have for as long as we have—50 years or more. It’s been interesting to watch newspaper owners and investors resist seeing what’s going on right in front of them. It used to be you couldn’t make a mistake managing a newspaper. It took no management skill—like TV stations. Your nephew could run one.” From Hypergene MediaBlog

Is this the decline? I’m sure this is part of the bigger story, that is, a paradigm shift in information streams. A re-arranging of media mediums is afoot and the only one winning is the new guy (digital) right now.

As someone working in the newspaper industry and keenly interested in its viability, I can only hope that we are near a bottom. We must now more than ever go where our customers are going, provide them with an unparalleled, quality experience, and things will work themselves out. It is imperative we harness the buying power of the well established customers and markets. Revamp your websites often, and get all manner or digital mediums involved; audio, video, mobile. Monetize these with your printed product for highest impact…

Contrarian investors should be snatching up newspaper publishing stocks right now. Why? The companies are NOW SUPPOSEDLY doing the right things to align their operations with the market. From what I heard at the mid year media review, they actually are. The American economy is at zero growth, can we have negative growth? Possibly, but at that point you may have other things on your mind like converting your dollars into Euros or Swiss Francs. Zero is a good starting point to go up. Crude oil is overpriced and for seemingly no reason. Expect energy costs to decline by the end of 2008. Lastly, the Domestic Auto and Housing markets are in recession. When these turn around they will positively impact newspapers bottom line. It is an election year, and that usually means more ad spending. So load up now and ride the coaster back up! Things are bound to get better. Right?! (frantic grin)

What should you buy? Buffett (through Berkshire Hathaway) still holds a significant interest in the Washington Post Company. So just because newspapers are having it bad right now, doesn’t mean he’s unloaded his stock. He’s holding on. But also think of this. Buffett avoids companies which behave as commodities. He owns Coke, not joes cola. He owns Geico, not bob’s insurance. He owns Fruit of the Loom, not tom’s underwear… you see the trend? These are formidable brands with established strongholds in their areas. There are high barriers to entry when attempting to knock these companies off their pedestals. Buffett famously said at an MBA lecture, “give me 10 billion dollars to challenge Coca-Cola, I can’t do it. That’s a good company. I’m buying Coke”. So do yourself a favor. If you are going to buy a beat up newspaper, make it one that stands out, a name people know and trust.

signs? signals? only time will tell. I can’t wait to see!

If The Wall Street Journal Online Becomes Free, Why Should I Renew?

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Sources state that Rupert Murdoch is strongly considering opening up the online arm of the Wall Street Journal for free to the public. The thinking is that it will increase revenue more than the subscription fees account for. I’m in a situation right now where my print subscription will expire in a few weeks. So do I let the subscription lapse and wait for my free content or do I renew and hope for refund? I’m leaning towards lapse…

Since the inception of its online website the WSJ has been a paid format. To date there are approximately 980,000 paid subscribers paying about 80 dollars each so I figure they make 80million dollars a year off paid subscribers alone. Conversely, the New York Times (who’s website is totally free after canning TimesSelect) receives approximately 400 million dollars a year from advertisers on its site NYT.com. It is a tough call giving up guaranteed money, but I know that WSJ stuck its foot in its mouth for even mentioning it. I believe they now MUST provide the content for free online. Expect it soon.

So, where does this leave me? I certainly don’t want to be the last idiot who renews his subscription moments before the service is terminated. Sure I’ll get a refund, but the emotional implications… just kidding. Seriously though, I get the student rate for a 1 year print subscription which includes unlimited online access. I commute into NYC two to three times a week and I love having the paper with me on the trip. Also, my eyes can only take so much from a back lit display, so… I’m keeping my subscription. You get my money for one more year Rupert.

2007 NAA Mid-Year Media Review: Newspapers Report Audience Up, Circulation Down . Internet Continues Growing Strongly.

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The 2007 NAA Mid-Year Media Review produced mostly somber notes this year. At some point each company complained of weak trends such as auto and housing markets as well as weakness in the American retail economy as a whole. I’ll give a rough breakdown of what was said in the order which the companies presented. Links to the complete presentations (their investor pages) appear by clicking the company name where available. Enjoy!

Journal Communications
Their 2007 operating priorities for their publishing division:
1. Targeted local online initiatives
2. Non-traditional revenue growth
3. Cost control
4. Expand community newspaper footprint in target geographies

Their revised second quarter 2007 outlook was bleak:
-Publishing revenues flat to down
-Radio revenue flat to down slightly
-Television revenue down

Part of their cost control effort is web width reduction as was the case for many other newspapers which are all barreling over each other to get to 48inch webs. I asked if they expected newsprint manufacturers to cut output or raise prices to offset their losses and the response was that because of the Abitibi merger and weakness in the market that in fact prices should go down further for newsprint. Also costs associated with the cut down are expected to be recouped within one year and annualized savings from the new web width is expected to be 4%.

BELO
-joined with a consortium of other papers to pursue online initiatives with Yahoo. Many of the companies presenting are involved with Yahoo (and to a lesser extent Google, Careerbuilder, and MSN) to increase their content sharing and advertising reach.
-a headcount reduction is expected to result in $10 million annualized savings.
-a more refined distribution perimeter is expected to save an additional $10 million.
-the company pension plan has been frozen and retirement focus shifted to 401(k) plans.

Looking to the future, Belo is increasing its video presence on their news sites and also looking to outsource as much as practical.

Journal Register Company
Their large presence in Michigan hurt them as the unemployment rate in the area is number 1 and foreclosures are at number 4 in the nation. A bright spot is their online revenue growth rate of 64% however that reflects just 4% of total revenue. The company is seeking to increase online revenue to 6% of total by year end 2007. Cost cutting is another move to keep expenses inline with revenue. The company completed plant consolidations in Ohio.

-Yahoo! HotJobs partnership
-launch new multimedia content platform news sites

Media General
-realized online revenue growth of 40 to 45%
-traditional print revenue was 0 to -3%
-hiring has been frozen most areas except sales
-align expenses with revenue

This presentation really focused on innovative things the company was doing to prepare for the future. Some thoughtful ideas:
-online streaming news and weather video
-photo sharing
-hyper local coverage and products
-making the print edition quicker to read and easier to use
-aggressive use of audience research and branding campaigns
-joined Yahoo!HotJobs newspaper consortium

Meredith Corporation
This company does not print any traditional newspapers or have newspaper websites however they do own some powerful brands which they are successfully expanding online and elsewhere. Brands like Better Homes and Gardens which they still print as a magazine and publish online now has a companion video site at Better.tv featuring video only content and advertising. I really like what they’ve done with that site. It really utilizes the broadband internet connections coming into 75% of people’s homes right now and integrates advertising into their content for more effective ROI which advertisers desire.

Future Growth Strategies:
-increase online presence and develop new revenue streams
-strengthen core publishing business
-capture margin upside in broadcasting
-increase internet derived revenues of total operations from 3.5% to 10% by 2010

The McGraw-Hill Companies
Here is another large media company with no newspaper holdings and ironically enough probably the best performer in the bunch. Compounded annual growth rate between 1996 and 2006 is close to 25% and the company has returned $6.8 billion to share holders in that time.

-education segment growing strongly
-financial segment growing strongly
-information and media segment soft

Citing softness in advertising their BusinessWeek ad pages are down 12.6% for the last 24 issues. The company is looking to transition their print publications to the internet for greater margin expansion. The company’s strong results in education and finance are buoying the decline in traditional print.

DAY TWO

LEE ENTERPRISES
Yet another company with a growing audience yet declining circulation numbers, which they called “circulation erosion”. I liked that they have made it a top priority to nurture employee development and achievement by providing their employees with an online development program.

2007 initiatives:
-Yahoo!HotJobs partnership (do you see a trend here? I might be interested in yahoo stock with all these revenue streams flowing in.)
-accelerate online innovation
-emphasize strong local news
-Grow revenue creatively and rapidly (they have hired a strong sales oriented management team to drive revenues up)
-Exercise careful cost controls

They are confident that no competitor can “match us for our local content” or match them for their audience reach.

THE McCLATCHY COMPANY
If you recall McClatchy bought out Knight Ridder last year and then sold off the properties it did not want. The move was a terrible one in hind sight because the timing of their purchase was not at the market bottom. The company stock has fallen some 50% since the acquisitions till now.

The near term forecast is unfavorable. Also, they own 15% of CareerBuilder and are unhappy about their relationship with the online job posting site. Neither McClatchy nor CareerBuilder would comment as to what happened however McClatchy is partnering with Yahoo and Google.

THE NEW YORK TIMES COMPANY
They gave a thorough and boring presentation. But the numbers weren’t horrible such as:
-$30 million revenue from new products
-digital revenue is now ~10% of all revenue (was 8% last year, 6% year before)
-reduced costs in the last two years by $120 million and another $30 million coming with the completion of their Edison NJ plant closure in Q2 2008.
-Overall advertising was weak however luxury goods (something they do well) experienced solid gains.
-Partnership with Microsoft for NYT Mobil
-70% of NYT print subscribers have been so for 2 years or more

The New York Times will also be leasing at least 5 floors in their new building and moving non core tasks to less expensive real estate locations around the area.

GANNETT
Susan Clark-Johnson, president of the newspaper division was rather up beat about the future of their newspaper business. She cited a culture change concerning the evolving role of print media and its partnering with multimedia formats to maximize the total experience.

-Hyper local focus
-Bullish on digital video
-Aggressively training editors and journalists on video equipment
-Aggressively training sales to provide multimedia Ad solutions
-Partnering with MSN and CareerBuilder

The future is with Ad partnerships, hyper local content such as floridatoday.com’s little league pages, and niche markets like IndyMoms.com.

THE WASHINGTON POST COMPANY
Wow, I wish you could have been here to see CEO Donald E. Graham give this incredibly brief and candid presentation. While all the other companies ran close to or over their one hour time limits Mr. Graham was done in about twenty five minutes. The Q&A session consisted of him saying things like, “well… that’s not how we do things at the Washington Post” and “who wants to play poker?”.

Highs:
-Post Points
-Idea sharing between Slate and WashingtonPost.com
-Kaplan revenue growth 22%
-Cable One doing well

Some things to think about; WashingtonPost.com revenues were 14.5% of Post print ad revenues. Their newspaper segment expensed $47 million to buy out 193 people. Their fastest growing revenue stream is Kaplan with close to $1.7 billion in 2006. As Mr. Graham states in his letter to shareholders, “It was a poor year… for the business we are named for”.

NY Times Audio Slide Show Captures Pride

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I’ve been away getting married and enjoying my honeymoon, I apologize to all of you who rely on Metaprinter for your daily Newspaper industry updates.

The last time I wrote Anne MacDonald was getting confrontational with the newspapers. Well it seems they had the last laugh, as she was fired from Macy’s quickly after making her “shape up” comments. Macy’s new CMO will be increasing ad spending and coupon printing. I bet those coupons will be printed or inserted into many newspapers.

Printing and Newsroom History:
For those interested in some newspaper printing history check out the article entitled, “Copy” and this New York Times three and a half minute audio slide show. The narrator does not mention it in the slide show, but the new building does not house NYT printing operations. Their flagship printing facility is now College Point Queens, New York. I just wanted to clarify, because the article states it and the slide show does not.

The thing which struck me when viewing the slide show was the look on the faces of those men and women in the photographs. It is pride. Pride in workmanship, pride in their contribution to the final product. These people worked hard, and although they may have grumbled or groused about the conditions or deadlines, I doubt for an instant any one of them would have traded it in for some other profession. I think that look is lacking in today’s pressrooms and newsrooms and I do not know if it will ever return. How do we get it back? We must get it back! It is an important feeling which no one can wrench from one’s grip, the way faith cannot be questioned and the way hope never lacks to motivate. Pride is freedom. It is the swagger in one’s step, and the confidence required to be successful. Pride allows the individual to contribute more that they ever thought they could. Pride let’s you do good work for the work’s sake, because it just feels so good and not because you were told to do so. I long to see that look again…

This is an excellent piece of reporting by David W. Dunlap, and I enjoyed the multimedia presentation of the story immensely.  The New York Times audio slide shows are one of the most innovative applications newspapers have created.