Newspapers and the Unthinkable

Check out a fascinating piece by Clay Shirky (a media consultant and adjunct professor at NYU's Interactive Telecommunications Program) on newspapers and the Internet at http://www.shirky.com/weblog/2009/03/newspapers-and-thinking-the-unthinkable/.

Coming out a week after the infamous "10 Major Papers That May Fold or Go Digital Next" piece on Wall St. 24/7, this thoughtful item harkens back to the mid-‘90s warnings of New Directions for News head Jean Gaddy Wilson and provides some much-needed context on what’s happened since. It manages to connect the enormous societal transformation that took place with the advent of printing (“we’re collectively living through 1500”) to the approaches that newspapers took to the Internet throughout the 1990s (“they were, at base, all the same plan: ‘Here’s how we’re going to preserve the old forms of organization in a world of cheap perfect copies!’”). It concludes:

“For the next few decades, journalism will be made up of overlapping special cases. Many of these models will rely on amateurs as researchers and writers. Many of these models will rely on sponsorship or grants or endowments instead of revenues. Many of these models will rely on excitable 14 year olds distributing the results. Many of these models will fail. No one experiment is going to replace what we are now losing with the demise of news on paper, but over time, the collection of new experiments that do work might give us the journalism we need.”

Read the full story

How to save newspapers?

Huffington Post has an interesting piece by Sally Duros on how a new kind of business structure - the L3C - may provide a lifeline to solvency to newspapers.

The L3C is a low-profit limited liability structure that encourages foundation investment while allowing a profit. The idea then is for daily papers to tap into foundation support for sustenance. Her piece is focused on papers in the Chicago area, and she references a bill creating the L3C hybrid introduced to the Illinois legislature Feb. 4 that apparently has good prospects.

For more, click here:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sally-duros/how-to-save-newspapers_b_164849.html.

Read the full story

Newspapers of the Future

Check out this entertaining clip, produced in 1981 by KRON, about how newspapers might be available by computer. At $5 a pop, shouldn't be much competition for the 20 cent street edition, the anchor notes.

Read the full story

Change At The Top of Nation's Leading Papers

The New York Times has a piece on turnover at the top spot in the nation's largest newspapers. All have had new editors, and most new publishers too, in the past few years. Whether the departure is friendly or forced, the leading newsroom position is more and more about finances, and all too often about cutting positions and doing more with less. Read at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/19/business/media/19paper.html?_r=1&8dpc

Read the full story

Loss of Daily Reporters Hurts Great Lakes

In his turn as Guest Speaker for The Great Lakes Town Hall (www.greatlakestownhall.org), David Paulson of the Knight Center for Environmental Journalism at Michigan State University makes an eloquent case for the role of the daily reporter. And his or her impact on the Great Lakes.

"When a sewer fails, water suffers. Level a forest and the critters flee. A purple loosestrife invasion chokes a wetland in weeks. But what's the impact on the Great Lakes environment of a failing system of news and information?
Huge..."

See Paulson's posting here:
http://www.greatlakestownhall.org/opinion/guest.php?forumid=3&topicid=1225&sid=124a03fd020c4a77fd24de10b6219fba#starttopic

Read the full story

It Hurts To Laugh

"What's black and white and completely over?" The answer is (ouch) "Newspapers." Jon Stewart on newspaper industry woes...
http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=213347&title=clust

Read the full story

Are Newspaper Ads Going, Going, Gone or Just Going?

Interesting discussion on Jeff Jarvis' blog at www.buzzmachine.com. Are newspaper ads vaporizing altogether or are just moving elsewhere to reach customers? According to Jarvis, "...Papers in top markets are down tens upon tens of millions of dollars each in classified revenue that has disappeared."

This conversation comes a week after the nation’s newspapers reported a collective 3.5% drop in daily circulation. Some of the more savvy newspapers have overhauled their sales strategies in hopes of finding profitable digital niche. However, Jarvis has doubts on how successful these efforts will turn out.

"If papers are smart, they can use online and its laser targeting to serve a new population of hyperlocal advertisers that never could afford high-priced papers before. But as I can tell you from first-hand experience, papers are not built for high-volume, low-cost advertising like this. So those advertisers will go to Google and local blogs."

Read the full story

Numbers Guy Says Online Picture Less Rosy for Newspaper

The Wall Street Journal's Numbers Guy, Carl Bialik, claims in a recent blog posting that newspaper Web site audiences really aren't growing at the banner pace claimed by the Newspaper Association of America (NAA) - at least in the context of growing overall Web surfing by Americans.

The NAA recently released a press release touting the record growing audience for newspaper Web sites in 2007 (http://www.naa.org/PressCenter/SearchPressReleases/2008/Online-Newspaper-Viewership.aspx). According to the trade group, average monthly unique visitors for newspaper Web sites grew by more than 3.6 million last year.

But Bialik wanted a little more context for these numbers given the general rise in Internet usage and engagement seen in the U.S. Using his famed mathematical tricks, Bialik consulted usage numbers (monthly average unique Internet audience, page views, etc.) from the NAA and Nielsen online to figure out that newspapers "were losing share of the average reader's total Web activity."

During 2007, adults spent a lot more time online (the average user loaded 51 percent more pages in 2007 and spent 23 percent more time online) in general, Bialik notes. But newspapers only saw a rise of 24 percent in increased web page loading and a 20 percent increase in time on newspaper web sites, so comparatively they’re losing share.

For the full explanation, check out: http://blogs.wsj.com/numbersguy/how-good-was-2007-for-newspaper-web-sites-276/?mod=googlenews_wsj

Read the full story

More Bad News for Newspapers

If the message hasn't gotten through yet: Newspapers are in big trouble. Countless stories have chronicled the different editorial and business woes, but The New York Times' media writer Richard Perez-Pena did an excellent trends piece on the situation recently. He provides a good overview of the different market forces affecting revenues (Craigslist, anyone?), while providing some context for the whole shift.

The bottom line? Newspapers are hemorrhaging profits at an alarming rate, slashing staffs and trying to ride out the problem of not adapting to online markets fast enough. Factor in the regular recession tide and fall, and you've got a wave of newspaper sell offs.

To read "An Industry Imperiled by Falling Profits and Shrinking Ads," visit:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/07/business/media/07paper.html?_r=1&scp=3&sq=newspapers&st=nyt&oref=slogin

Read the full story

Suprise Finding: Reading the Newspaper is Good for Kids

Youth who read the newspaper through school assignments and peruse teen-related content are more likely to volunteer, vote and be civically engaged when they grow up, according to a recent study by the Newspaper Association of America Foundation (http://www.naafoundation.org/NewspaperInEducation/Life-Long-Readers-Contest.aspx).

"Lifelong Readers: Driving Civic Engagement" - which surveyed more than 1,500 25- to 34-year-olds - supports the common-sense notion that reading the newspaper both at home and in school is linked to being a good citizen later in life. The study looked at three newspaper influences: newspapers in the classroom, newspapers as homework assignment and exposure to "teen content."

For more, visit: www.naafoundation.org

Read the full story