NP Refugee

Newsday et al: Too Little, Too Late

Jeff, as usual, your insights are dead-on. The time to change was back when NPs were all in a state of denial and arrogance. So many problems--I don't know whether they can get out of their own way.

Here's my short list recommendations:

1. Kill the AP. It's outlived its usefulness and commoditizes the content of the member papers. While the AP does deals that make money for the AP with the likes of Google, the member newspapers don't understand why their papers aren't able to maximize their editorial content. Wake up, for heavens sake! The AP is, and has been a clear case of the tail wagging the dog.

2. Get rid of debt. Close papers, sell assets. Circle the wagons. Do whatever it takes. Those who continue to borrow money deserve whatever they get. Many of us saw this coming and pointed out the absolute stupidity. But then, they were in denial. Get whatever the market value is. It's not as though they're not taking write-downs on the impaired assets anyway.

3. Take the companies private. I know Tribune wanted to; they were on the right track; I hate that it's turned out the way it has. The only way NPs can reclaim market share is to operate on paper thin margins for which shareholders will have no stomach. The road to reclaim market share will mean cutting rates to rebuild circulation; then the advertising MIGHT have value to the limited number of advertisers who appreciate a mass audience in a world of behaviorally targeted media. Once private, establish ESOPs to retain talent--but keep it in the family. Props to the Newhouses of the world who cared enough to ignore the intoxication of public funding. Their products reflect the commitment as a result.

4. I don't know how much adversity will be necessary to force NPs to work together, but we'll likely find out in 2009. Screw Google and Yahoo! and create a news search engine owned by the NPs. Sell contextual ads for searches. Do it right. Create a whole new entity with its own profit goals. If only 20% of any NP's web traffic comes from search engines, it's really not that big of a sacrifice and will likely pay huge dividends. Over time, many of the searches will return anyway through a news search engine. Gannett has topix that would be the perfect vehicle. What in the world are they waiting for? Google has to be laughing at the money they've made on the backs of all the editorial depts in the country.

5. Take their responsibility seriously. There's a real credibility issue when 60% of readers do not trust the news they read in the local paper to be the truth and absent of bias. It grieves me that we may be witnessing the death of the 4th estate in this country--all due to a combination of laziness that has caused editorial departments to cease to be the watchdog for the common man, satisfied in regurgitating talking points that are fed to them--and blatant sychophantism, becoming fawning lapdogs who are more interested in getting praise from those they are charged in holding accountable than having an insatiable desire for truth. We have all entrusted them to safeguard democracy. They are failing miserably.

Even that, though, may just prolong the inevitable. I've heard it argued that one medium, when introduced, doesn't replace the previous medium. For example, radio didn't kill newspapers, and TV didn't replace radio. That's really limited thinking and is quite naive. Such a position fails to recognize a cumulative effect. Radio didn't kill newspapers--but perhaps radio, TV, cable, and the Internet WILL kill newspapers. Each new entrant erodes all previous media to some extent. The real question is, "how much new media does it take to bury an incumbent?" History shows it takes more than one, but in my thinking, "four" may be answer.