Bobby Rifle

The Unraveling of Newspaper Economics

Tim H. makes some great points.

The future is in niche markets. Where newspapers are going wrong is by jettisoning their local content generators (i.e. reporters), but keeping all the national/international... that people can find anywhere else.

Cut the AP wire before you cut your reporting staff. Cover local businesses before bothering with the day's action from Wall Street.

What's the Boston Globe Worth? About a Buck

So explain why the Boston Herald still trails the Globe.

Explain why the San Francisco Chronicle has lost about 20% of its circulation in the past few years.

Explain why the Washington Times still (badly) trails the Post.

Furthermore, explain why conservatives are so narcissistic now that they think it's all about them, and nothing to do with the broader changes of all forms of media splintering into niche markets.

On Jun 15 09:09 AM NP Refugee wrote:

> I continually wonder just how much the liberal bias does, in fact
> hurt the newspaper industry. It has to be taking a toll. Perhaps
> the growth and Fox News and the decline of CNN may be indicative
> of the effects of liberal bias in media. One really must ask just
> stupid an entire industry can be to alienate what is 50% of the populace--a
> percentage of the populace that is more likely to read deeply and
> delve past the headline in Yahoo! or Google news.

Saving Newspapers: Put Humpty Dumpty Back Together

Yeah. And Amazon wants to take 70% of the revenue from newspaper stories on Kindle AND have the right to distribute those stories to any other digital platform. Yep, that's a partnership all right.

As far as AP goes, newspapers pay a shit ton of money to the wire service. So much so that at least a few are balking at the fee and giving their 2-year opt-out notification.

That might not be all bad, because then maybe they'll use the money for local staffing (yeah, right. Not with the managerial beancounters who ran them into the ground by piling up debt for acquisitions while cutting local content). Then they can provide the info that CNN/Reuters/Fox don't provide, which is news about the communities these papers exist in. Go hyperlocal.

Of course, that's a problem for advertisers who don't recognize that all sections of the media are fracturing into niche markets. That's a process that's been going on for 30 years now (see the difference in audience shows for primetime televisions shows between 1980 and now). Advertisers think they can still get a mass media audience, and haven't figured out that you're going to have to go to places where you may only get a thousand pairs of eyes. And that's even before you're challenged by DVRs that allow people to fast-forward through your ads, or ad-blocking software on people's computers.


On Jun 04 07:35 PM FullMetalPhotographer wrote:

> What's true for the group is also true for the individual. It's simple:
> overspecialize, and you breed in weakness. It's slow death.
> -(Major Motoko Kusanagi) Ghost In The Shell
>
> Humpty Dumpty not only fell down but was turned into an omelet and
> was served up.
> Newspapers have been living in fantasy since the 90's. Numbers were
> declining before then. By 2001 Newspaper invested heavily in the
> internet or I should say the bubble. As far as Google goes the Genie
> has left the bottle. To be blunt Google and Yahoo are not the issue
> here. Newspapers retro economic model and news distribution model
> is the problem. I hate to say it but a pay per story model will not
> work because there are so many other sources. Even if you put a gag
> on AP. You still have Reuters, CNN, FOX and many more willing to
> fill those shoes.
> Newspapers need to think differently. They need to realize they are
> not in the printing business but in the information business. Gather
> and delivering information. They need to lose the the Deadline mentality
> and think of a constant flow of information. They need to look at
> partnerships such as Amazon and Apple for news distribution. If they
> do not adapt then they will join the dinosaur as a marker in history.

Newspaper Ad Sales Go from Terrible to Terrifying

PastTense hit it dead on.

There is secular change going on, yes, but the bulk of newspaper troubles now are due to borrowing a ton of money right before the economy fell off a cliff.

Take a look at Gatehouse Media for example: www.boston.com/busines.../

Can Traditional Print Newspapers Survive Creative Destruction?

Except studies (which to be fair have a small sample size because so few have done it) are showing that newspapers that discontinue their print editions to go digital-only actually see a *decrease* in their online readership. For better or worse, the print edition is acting like a billboard for the digital product.

If I had to guess, I think that at least for a generation you're going to have print and digital sitting uneasily with each other. You may have a print edition for the longer-form articles as suggested in the OP, breaking news posted to the Web, alerts sent to cell phones, etc.


On May 28 09:24 AM PeakOiler wrote:

> I don't know how anyone can justify the selfishness of cutting down
> trees, expending vast amounts of fossil fuels in the process of cutting,
> pulping, paper rolling, and delivery of an individual newspaper.
> Clearly these processes have no future in the delivery of digital
> information.

The Journalism Bubble

Waterboarding is a minor issue?

We prosecuted Japanese officers after WW2 on the grounds that it was a war crime. Even executed some.


On May 22 11:59 PM Missing_Link wrote:

> "People — particularly if they’re under 40 — have news priorities
> other than those of the editors of The New York Times or producers
> of the 'NBC Nightly News.' "
>
>
> Well put. I find it unfathomable that the media seems to be hyperfocused
> on minor issues like waterboarding while the biggest economic crisis
> in 75 years is causing massive loss of jobs, homes, and savings across
> the country.

The Journalism Bubble

> Wrong. I ended up being very well-paid because I worked in news

You must be the only one.

Study: Newspapers Must Cross ‘Digital Abyss’

>While Pwc concedes that some newspapers are finding success by developing “hyper-local” or “local-loop” sites that address content at the neighborhood level, findings show that advertisers still want and need to reach mass audiences.

Great, so we've got a total disconnect. Newspapers have to focus on content that you can't get anywhere else, which means hyperlocal and niche level reporting (especially now that we've pretty much reached the point that anybody can be a content provider thanks to YouTube, blogs, etc., reaching an audience of maybe a few thousand people). But the advertisers want newspapers to continue being the big general interest, mass media, mass consumption concept.

Yet it's the newspapers that have to "reinvent their business model."

Buffett: I Wouldn't Buy Newspapers 'At Any Price'

Here's my question: why can't critics see their own biases? You don't want "news," you want something that tells you you're right, that confirms your biases.

Why else are Fox and MSNBC now 1-2 in prime time?


On May 03 05:47 PM iel76 wrote:

> Newspapers are getting what they deserve. Most no longer convey "news"
> but instead the editorial opinions of their "reporters". Local news
> consists of murders and auto accidents; local business coverage is
> de minimis. I'll find my news on the web thank you.
>
> Newspapers are going?? Good riddance!

Newspapers: Give Us More Creativity Please

And yet the WSJ has had layoffs, just like every other newspaper.

mediamemo.allthingsd.c.../

The Speech Newspapers Need to Hear

I still have yet to hear any revenue plans from Mr. Jarvis that don't come down to panhandling.

The End of (Most) Newspapers

>my base case is a last-man-standing scenario in which the big boys (NYT, WSJ, Guardian, BBC, Reuters) win, and most smaller publications lose.

Depends on what field you're talking about. Community newspapers are doing relatively well, better tha n the big boys, although they may be dragged down by their corporate parent (such as in the case of Lee, which is still posting a 19% operating profit. It just ain't enough to cover all the debt they took out to swallow Pulitzer)

The shakeout is more likely to be specialization. Maybe McClatchy shuts down its DC bureau and relies on the NYT instead, for example, while focusing on local news. Similarly, perhaps Dow Jones divests its Ottaway division and focuses on the WSJ and national/business news.

Newspapers: Defensive, Depressed and Desperate?

>Fox is the only one that actually made an effort to be fair.

I'm am laughing here. Fox "terrorist fistbump"/"Barack Hussein Obama" News fair?

Calling yourself "fair and balanced" doesn't make you so.

Fox targetted an audience of conservative Republicans. They've been successful at that, and laid the template (I think MSNBC is an example following the Fox template, just going for liberal Democrats) for the direction the media will go. Niche programming/publishing is the future.

www.reason.com/news/sh...