September 2009
16 posts
Non-profit news ventures go big time →
First of two partsThe founder of the Chi-Town Daily News, a pioneering grassroots journalism project, happened to phone last week shortly before word got out that a wealthy businessman had donated $5…
Size matters in non-profit news →
Second of two parts. The first part is here. The five-member staff of the Chi-Town Daily News was laid off after Labor Day when its founder could not raise the $300,000 necessary to fund the balance…
Only 5% in UK would pay for web news →
U.S. publishers planning to erect pay walls may want to take note of a new poll that found only 5% of newspaper site readers in the United Kingdom would be willing to pay for interactive content.In a…
S.F. gets biggest-ever local news non-profit →
A $5 million grant from a single philanthropist will fund the launch in the San Francisco area of the most ambitious project yet to build a non-profit news organization to fill the growing vacuum…
‘It will take unions to save newspapers’ →
A number of readers disagreed sharply with my suggestion that newspaper unions may be losing their relevance. One of them was Andy Zipser, the editor of The Guild Reporter, the official publication…
Are newspaper unions becoming irrelevant? →
Union members at the Sun-Times Media Group never have been more powerful than they are today, but the power they wield is a weapon of mass self-destruction.The unions can continue voting – as they…
The paper that ‘invented’ foreign news →
In a captivating and inspiring new book, John Maxwell Hamilton, a former foreign correspondent who now is dean of the Manship School of Mass Communications at Louisiana State University, gives a…
Inflated traffic stats cloud pay-wall plans →
Newspapers trying to assess the financial impact of potential paid-content schemes are starting with a wildly inflated sense of the size of their online audience that could come back to bite them in…
Ideal pay-wall fee may be less than you think →
If the willingness of consumers to pay for online news turns on how much it will cost, a bit of early research suggests the ideal price may be less than some pay-wall proponents might hope.In work…
Only 51% of pubs think pay walls will fly →
A bare 51% of the newspaper publishers in the United States believe they can charge successfully for access to their interactive content, according to a survey released today. The other 49% of…
ViewPass update →
After the New York Times last week dubbed the ViewPass project “dormant,” a number of people have asked what happened to my proposal for an industry-owned solution to do a better job of monetizing…
AP didn’t have to run dying Marine’s photo →
While I defend the right of the Associated Press to distribute the controversial picture of a mortally wounded Marine in Afghanistan, I can’t support its decision to do so.The controversy came to…
Sun-Times can be saved, says CEO →
The money-losing Sun-Times Media Group can be turned into a modestly profitable business by the end of 2011, says the chief executive who took the company into bankruptcy court and plans to stick…
Can latest savior save the Sun-Times? →
More cuts, more drama and more trauma almost certainly lie ahead for the Sun-Times Media Group now that a civic-minded businessman has stepped forward to buy a company that probably could not…
Yelp: Don’t leave home without it →
I just got back from my first fully Yelp-enabled vacation and it was the best ever. As the late, great Karl Malden said in his American Express pitch: Don’t leave home without it.Although tens of…
Zell straps on his dancing shoes again →
Sam Zell may (or may not) be headed for the exit as head of the Tribune Co., where he personally lost $325 million as the result of his recklessly financed acquisition of the company. But it looks…
August 2009
9 posts
Newspaper ads tracking to $10B sales drop →
In round numbers, total newspaper advertising sales are likely to drop by $10 billion in 2009, which would put them roughly one-third lower than they were in the prior disastrous year.Based on the…
How publishers can make web content pay →
Third of three parts. Parts one and two. If publishers are blocked for the most part from charging for content in the inherently open and unruly interactive marketplace, then what can they do? Go…
What stops publishers from charging for news →
Second of three parts. Part one is here. Fear, in a word, is the reason why publishers are treading so cautiously when it comes to charging for the valuable interactive content they have been giving…
Why aren’t we paying for news? →
First of three parts With their backs against the wall, 2009 was going to be the year that newspaper publishers finally got together to charge for the content they have been giving away for free for…
How did newspapers lose Everyblock? →
How could MSNBC.Com have scooped the newspaper industry by buying Everyblock.Com?If ever there were an application designed to fast-forward newspapers into at least the late 20th Century, then this…
How long should dead paper linger on web? →
There is a special drawer in my house containing a neatly wrapped copy of the final edition of the Chicago Daily News, where I worked until it ceased publication on March 4, 1978.So, I understand the…
Modest newspaper sales bounce predicted →
Newspaper advertising sales are likely to bottom out after four straight years of decline in 2009, but they aren’t headed back to where they used to be, according to a new projection from Borrell…
Current TV cheers after 140 days of silence →
After remaining scrupulously silent for the 140 days that two of its journalists were held captive in North Korea, Current TV pulled out all the stops today after receiving word that Laura Ling and…
Sun-Times sags in Chi-town showdown →
Like a pair of proud but over-the-hill prizefighters, the Sun-Times and Tribune are slugging it out in a deadly duel to determine who will remain standing as the sole daily in Chicago.Both newspapers…
July 2009
11 posts
Newspaper rally? Curb your enthusiasm →
After some notable newspaper publishers this month reported better-than-expected gains in their second-quarter net profits, Wall Street responded by bidding up their battered shares. But let’s not…
Texas Trib, one man’s journalistic mitzvah →
Looking at the news business from the hard-nosed perspective of a venture capitalist, John Thornton rapidly concluded that “serious journalism is never going to be a good business again.”But that…
Realtors repudiate newspaper ads →
If the near-term prospects for the housing market are grim, the outlook appears to be even worse for an eventual recovery for real estate advertising in newspapers.That’s the impresion left from a…
Why there won’t be another Cronkite →
There never will be another journalist with the stature, authority and power of Walter Cronkite.We were lucky to have him at the CBS anchor desk during the 1960s and 1970s, two of the most turbulent…
Not BusinessWeek as usual →
The newsweekly model is so badly frayed that operating BusinessWeek as usual probably won’t be possible for whoever coughs up the putative $1 it will take to acquire the magazine.Assuming a buyer…
Papers shouldn’t shy from for-profit events →
The dicarded plan to sell seats at dinner with the publisher of the Washington Post shouldn’t be taken by newspapers as a reason to avoid hosting profit-making events that deliver journalistic and…
Jacko-mania tarnished media credibility →
The mainstream media may have covered the bejabbers out of the death of Michael Jackson, but they hardly covered themselves in glory.The sudden death of the pop star overshadowed all manner of truly…
Inland issues ‘reworked’ profit study →
The Inland Press Association today reissued an online summary of a newspaper-profitability study after questions were raised about it.The original summary of the findings was the basis for this…
Hardest hit: Profits slid 100% at big papers →
The bigger newspapers are, the harder their profits fell in the last five years, according to newly revised data provided Monday by the Inland Press Association.Profits fell 100.1% since 2004 at…
Macy’s halved newspaper spend since ’05 →
Macy’s has cut in half the amount of money it spends on newspaper advertising since 2005, depriving the struggling industry of some $616 million in sorely needed revenues.The drastic plunge has hit…
Enough already with ‘mediums’ →
Hey, fellow armchair copyeditors, do you see anything wrong with this sentence at the Los Angeles Times website?“Two senior Los Angeles Times editors were given new responsibilities today as part of…
June 2009
7 posts
Can grassroots journalism do the job? →
My doubts are growing about whether we can rely on volunteers to produce credible journalism for a sustainable period of time.Although a number of do-it-yourself ventures have embraced modern…
Now Twittering, if you happen to care →
There is a new Twitter feed here to alert you to every future post on Newsosaur, if you happen to care.But there is strong evidence that you may not, according to a new Harvard Business School study…
Sarah Snyder, spunk you could love →
“You got spunk,” barked Lou Grant at Mary Richards on the old Mary Tyler Moore show. “I hate spunk.”The quote came to mind today when I read the obit of Sarah Snyder, a much beloved and talented…
Facing up to life after print for newspapers →
There are many unsettling parallels between newspapers and General Motors, the iconic American corporation struggling to regain its financial health and vigor as a consumer brand.But there is a major…
Can you still trust me? →
Now that I have offered newspaper publishers a potential solution to building revenues and improving their strategic position in the interactive age, some commentators have raised the legitimate…
What I recommended to publishers in Chicago →
Yes, it’s true. As reported today by the Nieman Journalism Lab, I was one of the three people who presented ideas to newspaper publishers at the (formerly) under-the-radar meeting to explore ways to…
Worst quarter for newspapers: Sales dive $2.6B →
In the worst quarter in modern history for American newspapers, advertising sales fell by an unprecedented 28.3% in the first three months of 2009, plunging sales by more than $2.6 billion from the…
May 2009
13 posts
Could BBC-style ‘news tax’ save U.S. press? →
Amid growing economic distress at newspapers and magazines, a number of folks have suggested imposing a BBC-style tax on American households to rescue the struggling print media.Could the idea work?…
No local without us, says start-up web newsman →
Working for free and doing just about everything at his bootstrap local website, veteran journalist David Boraks has become the sole source of news for his community in Davidson, NC. In this guest…
Car dealer closings will crunch local ad sales →
The shutdown by Chrysler and General Motors of roughly 10% of the surviving auto dealers in the United States could cost newspapers and local broadcasters millions in annual revenues they can ill…
Washington papers paid dearly for tax cut →
Newspapers sacrificed their moral authority and compromised their credibility in exchange for the gift of a token tax break from the governor and legislature in Washington State.While the 40% tax…
Don’t forget Laura Ling and Euna Lee →
As we celebrate the liberation of journalist Roxana Saberi from prison in Iran, don’t forget that two other innocent American newswomen are being held on similarly trumped-up charges in North…
The best man won Berkeley j-dean search →
They looked high and low for two years for a new dean for the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California at Berkeley but it turns out the best man was there all the time: Professor…
Why feds can’t – and shouldn’t – rescue press →
Apart from whatever modest cathartic effect it may have provided participants and observers, the qvetch-in over the fate of the newspaper industry hosted by Sen. John Kerry was pointless.Two days…
