I think he's right that there's still a void to fill in terms of local/community information, and probably a way to make money off this, but I'm not clear on how he thinks existing newspapers are going to fill that void without going bankrupt.
― this guy's a gangsta? his real name's mittens. (Hurting 2), Thursday, 24 May 2012 21:15 (twelve years ago) link
Yeah, I'm not sure if he knows either.
...Buffett wrote in a letter to editors and publishers of Berkshire’s daily newspapers. "We want your best thinking as we work out the blend of digital and print that will attract both the audience and the revenue we need."
― o. nate, Thursday, 24 May 2012 21:19 (twelve years ago) link
I thought AOL's "Patch" was a perhaps good idea that was ATROCIOUSLY executed. But something like that could work maybe, a sort of national network of local news sites, taking advantage of certain scalable aspects while keeping the content completely local and locally reported.
― this guy's a gangsta? his real name's mittens. (Hurting 2), Thursday, 24 May 2012 21:28 (twelve years ago) link
patch may be good in theory except for the part where huffpo hired a bunch of 23 year olds right out of college to run the sites and expected them to turn a profit immediately
― fapper don (J0rdan S.), Thursday, 24 May 2012 21:53 (twelve years ago) link
I think a lot of Brooklyn and Queens neighborhoods would support more extensive and better quality local coverage, just for example. The big dailies mostly stick to the *trendy* angles on brooklyn and all but ignore queens. No great source for real local news. The Brooklyn Paper seems spotty. Highly literate and interested populace, big city.
― this guy's a gangsta? his real name's mittens. (Hurting 2), Thursday, 24 May 2012 21:56 (twelve years ago) link
patch is terrible in theory too, because the economics just don't work. there's no way to make it add up.
well, it could plausibly work in major cities, everything after that, forget it.
― stet, Thursday, 24 May 2012 23:51 (twelve years ago) link
http://blog.scrapperduncan.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Rupert_Murdoch.jpg
― piscesx, Friday, 25 May 2012 01:28 (twelve years ago) link
http://www.poynter.org/latest-news/mediawire/175122/will-new-orleanians-follow-the-times-picayune-online-after-it-cuts-back-on-print/
analysis--uh maybe
― curmudgeon, Friday, 25 May 2012 11:35 (twelve years ago) link
Dead newspapers, dead Middle American democracy
http://www.salon.com/2012/06/11/dead_newspapers_kill_democracy_dead/singleton/
― World Congress of Itch (Dr Morbius), Monday, 11 June 2012 17:47 (eleven years ago) link
http://www.nola.com/business/index.ssf/2012/06/times-picayune_employees_to_le.html#incart_river
They just canned a bunch of the staff
― curmudgeon, Wednesday, 13 June 2012 04:00 (eleven years ago) link
http://dinersjournal.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/06/12/brett-anderson-new-orleans-food-writer-is-laid-off/
― curmudgeon, Wednesday, 13 June 2012 04:11 (eleven years ago) link
times-picayune pretended the BP oil spill didn't happen until the national media picked it up. seriously. there was a tiny story on the rig explosion and then nothing for like two weeks. in a town/state utterly subject to the sordid whims of energy companies. weird huh.
i know i should be all wringing my hands on the decline of professional journalism or something but if the t-p is an example of modern american newspaperdom just let the whole thing die.
― adam, Wednesday, 13 June 2012 20:32 (eleven years ago) link
Yeah, AEI link, but:
http://www.aei-ideas.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/newspaperads-600x413.jpg
The blue line in the chart above displays total annual print newspaper advertising revenue (for the categories national, retail and classified) based on actual annual data from 1950 to 2011, and estimated annual revenue for 2012 using quarterly data through the second quarter of this year, from the Newspaper Association of America (NAA). The advertising revenues have been adjusted for inflation, and appear in the chart as millions of constant 2012 dollars. Estimated print advertising revenues of $19.0 billion in 2012 will be the lowest annual amount spent on print newspaper advertising since the NAA started tracking ad revenue in 1950.
― Ned Raggett, Monday, 10 September 2012 19:59 (eleven years ago) link
Oof.
― Chewshabadoo, Tuesday, 11 September 2012 00:32 (eleven years ago) link
Surprising that they were doing so well in 1999.
― get you ass to mahs (abanana), Tuesday, 11 September 2012 01:52 (eleven years ago) link
2005 as the start of the steep decline sounds right.
― a regina spektor is haunting europe (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 11 September 2012 01:55 (eleven years ago) link
1999 was right before things really hit an infrastructure tipping point in terms of the Net as high speed delivery, IIRC.
― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 11 September 2012 01:59 (eleven years ago) link
I've mentioned this on other threads, but an indispensible site for following industry triage/amputation/death/autopsy: http://jimromenesko.com/
― Irwin Dante's Towering Inferno (WmC), Tuesday, 11 September 2012 01:59 (eleven years ago) link
Innovative approach from the Irish newspaper industry: demand money from people who link to your content.
http://www.mcgarrsolicitors.ie/2012/12/30/2012-the-year-irish-newspapers-tried-to-destroy-the-web/
― the definite listicle (seandalai), Thursday, 3 January 2013 11:22 (eleven years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5WCTn4FljUQ
"We're probably not going to lose a lot, but we aren't going to make much either."
― REBEL YELL FOR HUGS (Austerity Ponies), Thursday, 10 January 2013 17:21 (eleven years ago) link
My local daily newspaper, The Oregonian, just announced that it will soon curtail home delivery to its subscribers to 4 days a week. Oh, it will continue to print daily editions. It just will refuse to home deliver these printed editions 3 days a week. Lucky subscribers will, however, be treated to full access to the paper's website, while non-subscribers will be given limited access and told to fuck off.
At the same time the publisher announced that the paper will degrade the quality of its product by making even more layoffs to its staff than the massive layoffs already made in prior years, which sure as shit means the website won't have many resources behind it, and the paper will shrink even more.
No reductions in retail cost were announced to accompany these reductions in service and quality. As a longtime subscriber I'm not very impressed with this strategy.
― Aimless, Saturday, 22 June 2013 03:54 (ten years ago) link
http://jimromenesko.com/2013/08/03/red-sox-owner-john-henry-agrees-to-buy-boston-globe-for-70-million/
NYT buys for $1.1 billion, sells 20 years later for $70 million. Ch-ching!
― things are going to get better or worse (WilliamC), Saturday, 3 August 2013 13:03 (ten years ago) link
Meet your new Washington Post owner!
https://si0.twimg.com/profile_images/1563281408/amzn_fb-tw_Icon-global.png
More accurately Bezos himself but anyway.
― Ned Raggett, Monday, 5 August 2013 20:43 (ten years ago) link
Apparently he cashed out a load of stock the other day
https://twitter.com/tcarmody/status/363444171601747968
And there you go.
― Ned Raggett, Monday, 5 August 2013 20:44 (ten years ago) link
Purchase price $250 million.
lol for a min i thought robin was rich
― ..it would have sounded about as heavy as Talulah Gosh. (Algerian Goalkeeper), Monday, 5 August 2013 20:45 (ten years ago) link
holy shit
― Autumn Almanac, Monday, 5 August 2013 22:43 (ten years ago) link
john henry of course also owns Liverpool FC
― ..it would have sounded about as heavy as Talulah Gosh. (Algerian Goalkeeper), Monday, 5 August 2013 22:48 (ten years ago) link
The paper that broke Watergate is worth exactly 1/4 as much as the app that makes your iphone photos look like bad early 80s snapshots. #trenchantsocialcommentary
― HOOS next aka won't get steened again (Hurting 2), Monday, 5 August 2013 23:02 (ten years ago) link
This impenetrable drivel from Montgomery would be infuriating if it wasn't so depressing.http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/content/who-needs-sub-editors-read-david-montgomerys-latest-unsubbed-2200-word-missive-future-local
― stet, Thursday, 21 November 2013 13:14 (ten years ago) link
I honestly don't even understand what he's talking about.
― Matt DC, Thursday, 21 November 2013 13:39 (ten years ago) link
I mean the fact that he uses the phrase "one-stop shop for content" shows he doesn't have the faintest conception of how people actually consume digital media, even at local level.
― Matt DC, Thursday, 21 November 2013 13:40 (ten years ago) link
tl, dr
― http://i26.tinypic.com/2udyu5e.jpg (stevie), Thursday, 21 November 2013 14:22 (ten years ago) link
My old paper, where I spent 7 great years, is no more.
http://www.poynter.org/latest-news/mediawire/275033/another-alt-weekly-folds/
(As noted there, the SFBG also folded this week.)
Not surprising, but sad. Especially because the paper was actually making a small profit.
― something of an astrological coup (tipsy mothra), Thursday, 16 October 2014 18:36 (nine years ago) link
http://www.wired.com/2014/12/new-media-2/
Circa’s entire operation is oriented around mobile speed—both in terms of how long it will take you to consume a story and how quickly it can pump one out and send it wide. Instead of drawn-out articles—and in Circa’s world, seven paragraphs is long—it publishes something it calls points: bursts of facts written in such a way as to be independent of what comes before or after and that can be rearranged based on what someone has previously seen. When readers come to a story for the first time, they may need a bunch of bursts. But as they follow its development, they’ll probably only want to see the latest. This means that, unlike most breaking-news operations, Circa doesn’t have to report and write a complete story before it publishes. It can simply send out the components that it has at the time, then update later with further information.
― j., Friday, 19 December 2014 03:48 (nine years ago) link
Bloomberg has been doing that (and better) since the 80s
― stet, Friday, 19 December 2014 11:09 (nine years ago) link
I'm a long-time lurker and recent victim of the rapid death of the newspaper industry. WilliamC posted about this in another thread, so I figured I might as well put it here, too.
In October, the Scripps newspaper chain shut down Metro Pulse, the (still-profitable) alt-weekly in Knoxville, Tenn. It was a good paper, and several ILXors either wrote for it or were written about by it. I was an editor there, and now I'm part of a project to launch a new weekly paper here. The plan is to combine a nonprofit parent organization with a for-profit publishing arm, so it can remain locally and independently owned. Lots of details in this Columbia Journalism Review story:
http://www.cjr.org/united_states_project/knoxville_mercury_metro_pulse.php
and at our new website:
http://www.knoxmercury.com
Shameless plea for help: There's a Kickstarter to get everything off the ground. If you can donate, please do! If you can't, help us spread the word. We think it's a worthwhile effort and a good cause.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/789676771/knoxville-mercury-launch
― mte, Saturday, 20 December 2014 15:00 (nine years ago) link
http://jimromenesko.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/timesoops.jpg
― WilliamC, Friday, 20 March 2015 20:33 (nine years ago) link
ISIS event showcases homegrown talent, great atmosphere
― example (crüt), Friday, 20 March 2015 20:46 (nine years ago) link
All two of the ads in today's USA Today:https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CXeEiQtWkAAN1b7.jpg
― doctor.quiet.intelligible (WilliamC), Wednesday, 30 December 2015 14:37 (eight years ago) link
Not sure a positive politically neutral outlook is what the UK paper industry needs, but I'm all for slightly thicker paper and staples.
http://www.theguardian.com/media/greenslade/2016/feb/22/its-the-new-day-first-look-at-trinity-mirrors-new-newspaper
― Ad h (onimo), Saturday, 27 February 2016 22:22 (eight years ago) link
I'd love it if was a mad success and all the other papers rushed to slightly thicker paper and staples, like when the Independent went tabloid a decade ago.
― Alba, Sunday, 28 February 2016 09:14 (eight years ago) link
the comments on that story - the rote cynicism and negativity from people who probs know v little of the industry, actually - are pretty depressing, regardless of whether or not this paper looks to being a success or not.
― pantsuit aficionado (stevie), Sunday, 28 February 2016 19:42 (eight years ago) link
The negativity extends elsewhere - the FT described it as "a newspaper without any news" today.
Apparently it's being printed in the down-time between Mirror runs so i'd guess it goes to press a lot earlier in the day than other titles.
― On a Raqqa tip (ShariVari), Monday, 29 February 2016 12:55 (eight years ago) link
wasn't the idea that it be longer articles about things in the news, going into the background, rather than actual news? (based on radio4 interview the other day)
― koogs, Monday, 29 February 2016 13:57 (eight years ago) link
thought Spotlight's win prompted it.
― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 29 February 2016 14:13 (eight years ago) link
I saw a copy today and it appeared to be more of a daily newsprint magazine than a paper, almost no conventional 'news' but a couple of longer news features. Seemed to be aimed pretty squarely at the Mumsnet audience, most of the stories were about children in one way or another. That *might* be a smart choice of readership to pitch at, but they're planning on hiking the price to 50p which seems almost insanely optimistic given that the i exists.
I'm guessing there's little-to-no budget for conventional newsgathering, so focusing on features isn't the worst idea in the world. The market for paid news is collapsing but almost every current affairs magazine is increasing in circulation.
There was a general over-reliance on head-to-head debate articles. Also for all the claims about political non-partisanship, the EU debate page published a case for staying in (knocked out in about 10mins by someone in David Cameron's office) plus an 'undecided'. They just didn't bother to get anyone in from the Out campaign.
The whole thing felt pretty flimsy, but it isn't aimed at me. What it mostly reminded me of was an issue of First, Emap's ropey "female-friendly" current affairs magazine from a decade or so ago.
― Matt DC, Monday, 29 February 2016 14:39 (eight years ago) link
The New Day appears to be folding this week.
― On a Raqqa tip (ShariVari), Wednesday, 4 May 2016 19:33 (eight years ago) link
rip we hardly knew ye
― sktsh, Wednesday, 4 May 2016 19:35 (eight years ago) link
fuck that was fast. is that a record launch-to-shutdown turnaround?
― i do not sense the entity ted (bizarro gazzara), Wednesday, 4 May 2016 19:41 (eight years ago) link