Comments on TEMPLE TALK: How depressing 2: Chicago meeting of newspaper bus...

I'd like to comment with regard to your statem...

2009-06-15T19:38:42.989-10:00

I'd like to comment with regard to your statement about a young business school graduate not wanting to start a career in the newspaper industry. I have been a circulation executive for almost 20 years and have worked for some brand names. I have met very few newspaper professionals who made a conscious decision to launch a career in the industry. Obviously this is not the case with journalists, but with circulation and advertising people, I dare say it's true.

Fifteen years ago I talked our daily metropolitan ...

2009-06-15T15:43:27.876-10:00

Fifteen years ago I talked our daily metropolitan newspaper management into starting a Web site. None of them had heard of the Web prior to then, and they were understandably skeptical.

A year later (1995) when the new Web site's online readership was skyrocketing, I proposed placing the newspaper's classified advertising online, experiment with online auctions and doubling the staff to, um, six.

Instead of seeing opportunity, they saw a distant threat. Not only did they refuse to place their classifieds online, but they countered my proposal by threatening to do away with the Web site altogether.

In the words of the paper's advertising manager, "We're doing a quarter billion dollars worth of business each year from our ad sales, and if you think I'm going to risk that by placing them online for whatever paltry sum that might bring, plus risk undercutting our print product, you're nuts."

It soon became apparent that no one in the newspaper's upper management saw the freight train approaching, didn't believe it to be there, and actively resisted any innovation or experimentation that required them to deal with the issue. Instead, it was business as usual.

Our underfunded, but highly popular, Web site became the paper's dumping ground for newsrooms misfits. Whenever there was a problem employee, he or she was banished to the Web site because, well, the Web site was unimportant.

In 1999 I quit in frustration, went to work for a dot.com, tripled my salary, and have subsequently watched that once grand newspaper lay off 20 percent of its employees over the past year.

Newspaper owners didn't get it 15 years ago, they didn't get it 10 or five years ago, and as I watch their pitiful efforts at trying to duplicate their print product business model online, I'm fully convinced that they don't get it now.

As a longtime observer of the newspaper business, ...

2009-06-13T16:54:06.905-10:00

As a longtime observer of the newspaper business, I think many observers would do well to get the facts right before rushing to judgments. Newspapers are like Microsoft in that both are frequently maligned as entities that didn't "get it" when in fact they did get most of it right, but for a couple of assumptions.

Microsoft saw the value of the Internet -- that's why they made WinSock widely available back in the early 90s. Where they erred was in thinking that Microsoft Office file formats were going to be more broadly used for Internet applications than HTML.

Likewise, newspapers *have* had a long history of innovation and outstanding execution. Newspapers have always been a critical part of the Internet DNA, from AOL to Pointcast and beyond. I've seen that innovation within a newspaper organization is very much like roulette -- a manager has only so many people to dedicate to so many projects. Compare this to Craigslist, where a small team focused on a single mission, over time, can do wonders. Ray Ozzie often made this point when comparing his small, enterprising team at Groove to the Microsoft Outlook group: agile development wins, just about every time.

A newspaper industry professional can only endure the rollercoaster of exuberance and despair so many times before getting off. I met Mark Potts while at @Home over a decade ago and before that wrote code for Media Marketing Materials, which produced automated sales proposals for newspaper teams at Hearst and others. During those years I met a number of outstanding professionals and I mourn what their jobs have become.

As a close, I submit that darose's vision of the future of newspapers isn't too far off...just substitute "News Corp" instead of "CNN". History will repeat itself.

2009-06-13T16:51:32.075-10:00

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Rudolph, You are one of the few. I used to read ...

2009-06-12T20:07:59.487-10:00

Rudolph,

You are one of the few. I used to read the paper to get the news every day. I never read the classifieds though.

At some time in the last ten years, I stopped. I can't remember exactly when, but now I get all of my news online. When I want to read at lunch, I take a book along.

Unless the newspaper industry can come up with a really great idea, they are toast. Forget "innovation", in my experience anyone who uses the word is a fool. Ideas are what drive business, and good ideas are far to rare (and almost never come from the top).

I elaborated on my comment in my blog. See "N...

2009-06-11T13:07:11.670-10:00

I elaborated on my comment in my blog. See "Newspapers Need a Galileo": http://futureforecast.com/blog/?p=217

The API strategy is depressing because it's to...

2009-06-11T12:37:31.241-10:00

The API strategy is depressing because it's too little too late to save what once was. The reality is that even the best newspapers have been operating under 10 to 30-year-old assumptions.

But putting my optimist's hat on for a second, I do think there is lots of opportunity for local journalism and media. In my opinion, the worst assumption of all has been that people prefer one big brand to meet all their information needs. That goes beyond "print vs. online" and straight to the core value of the product, or products, that you offer. When most people go online to get news, they either use a portal like Yahoo, or they search. The links take them all over the place. This indicates that people prefer choice to a "walled garden.

Thus, whether your medium is in print or the Web or mobile or magazine stands, you need to have your brands out there where your audience is. In this context, keeping everything walled inside your single daily newspaper, or even your newspaper Web site, is futile. The only winning content strategy with a future is niche publishing, and a network of niche audiences that you can advertise to across all media.

Here's another thought I've had re: the fu...

2009-06-09T04:47:24.096-10:00

Here's another thought I've had re: the future of the newspaper business:

I looks like it’s getting to the point that most newspapers can’t exist as an independent entity anymore. But that doesn’t have to mean that a newspaper shouldn’t exist at all. I had an idea about how one could stay alive (below). Can anyone tell me why this wouldn’t make sense?

If a newspaper inists that it can only exist as a standalone company, then yes it’s probably dead. But a newspaper would have significant value as part of an integrated multi-media news organization.

Let’s say CNN, for example, bought the NY Times, as well as Time or Newsweek, and, say, something like the Huffington Post. The resulting organization would have significant value and reach, across all segments and media of the news business, from the most immediate (the Web, via a consolidated site combining the best of all of the proprties’ online content), to TV news, to printed news in both daily and monthly formats.

Though they’re no longer financially viable, printed news and magazines still have relevance to many people and could still be successful with a lower cost structure. The key is to have all the properties held within such a conglomerate share a single news-gathering organization. In this way, the cost of news-gathering could be spread across all 4 forms of media, leading to significant cost savings, and thereby providing the potential for the print properties to be profitable once again.

Any idea why this couldn’t work? I suppose the reason it hasn’t happened up till now is because it would have been to expensive to buy each of the individual properties and make such a merger viable. But given the huge drop in market value of print properties - due to their flagging business, as well as the current recession - I would think this is an idea that’s much more viable now.

Thoughts anyone?

Agreed - newspaper execs still don't realize e...

2009-06-09T04:43:04.037-10:00

Agreed - newspaper execs still don't realize exactly what it would mean for them to really *innovate*.

If they want a good example of who to emulate, they should try taking a look at Hulu. Hulu was a big-media-company-coalition effort at facing reality and truly taking on the web on the web's terms. The whole idea was mocked by the web media outlets right from the get-go. (They were routinely referred to as "Clown Co." before they came up with a name for the site.) Fast-forward a year and Hulu's a hot site that's attracting audience. Why? Because they're delivering content that people want, and receiving compensation for it in a way that doesn't involve a large cost or inconvenience for the customer (advertising vs. pay for access).

Newspapers need to follow Hulu's lead if they want a place in the Internet-enabled world.

I must be really stupid then. I pay for newspaper ...

2009-06-08T18:52:52.042-10:00

I must be really stupid then. I pay for newspaper content all the time. When I realize I've gone to lunch again without anything to read, I go looking for the Wall Street Journal. First, I try to get a free copy in the lobby of a hotel near my workplace that gives it away to its guests. If they're out, I pay $2 at a nearby coffee shop. Just for something to read at lunch! Gee, I must be really stupid. I didn't realize that no one else does this.

You nailed it. Fossilized "leadership" c...

2009-06-08T15:09:37.587-10:00

You nailed it. Fossilized "leadership" crippling newspapers.

I totally agree with "Douglas" that clas...

2009-06-08T14:23:08.861-10:00

I totally agree with "Douglas" that classifieds are content. He's right that it's too bad newspaper people largely saw them as advertising, which was strange given that most market research showed ads were important content. We tried to make them "content" in our YourHub.com initiative in Denver and basically failed because it was too hard to imagine giving up any revenue. By the way, I've seen it written that yourhub.com is a failure. That's a subjective judgment. But the bottom line, I think, bears out that it's actually a viable venture.

"Redesign" tells an important story about the innovation that existed online in the newspaper industry. I think the problem had something to do with the Web seeming so small to those running the existing businesses. And it's awfully hard to willingly give up revenue, as some felt they might have had to do with classifieds, to build a new business. Clayton Christensen has it right that it's very difficult to build a new, innovative company from within an existing business. Maybe the best thing to do for newspaper classifieds would be to create independent companies to run the classifieds. Let them do whatever they think best, including buying space/pages in the newspaper. And eliminate their revenue from a newspaper's bottom line. That's what one former newspaper advertising exec suggested to me and I think he made a good point. One thing that's killing the spirit at newspapers is the endless cutting. It would be better to establish a new, very low bottom without the classifieds and build a cost structure on top of that. At least the staff would understand that there's a plan and it's tough-minded, although it would be painful.

I can tell you, having worked in print for 21 year...

2009-06-08T06:10:37.437-10:00

I can tell you, having worked in print for 21 years, that moronic decisions by editors and publishers have created this demise when it could have been nipped in the bud. Papers cut services, provide content that is, at times, 36 hours old, deliver papers that are little more than pamphlets chocked full of AP and canned news and they expect people to pay for that? I live in a depressed town where two factories just closed. We have 4,000 people here and I just had a $4K sales week for my sports websites. If you do a good job and provide good product, people will pay...

Loads gun, shoots self in face. /22-year-old spor...

2009-06-08T05:25:56.919-10:00

Loads gun, shoots self in face.

/22-year-old sports writer

Right on... retaining talented Web folks has alway...

2009-06-08T04:51:10.568-10:00

Right on... retaining talented Web folks has always been a challenge for this industry.

Part of it is the compensation model, part of it is the inept management at the top that doesn't do much beyond pay lip service to innovation.

This industry was innovative at the start of the Internet wave. I was on the founding team of startribune.com and we had many industry firsts: database CMS, entertainment guide. Heck, in the mid-90s we even had a full MLS database with pictures.

Very few of those people are still in the business, much less at startribune.com.

The industry needs to stop trying to turn back the clock. Classified revenue is gone and won't come back. Deal with it.

craig newmark isn't an evildoer. Classifieds were a fluke based on a monopoly over cheap distribution of information. Once the internet made distribution even cheaper, classifieds became a very expensive, user-unfriendly product.

First step in getting people to pay for something is to create a product that adds value.

I had some thoughts on that:
http://blog.agrawals.org/2009/06/07/what-the-ap-must-do-now

Why is it that newspaper have such a hard time wit...

2009-06-08T04:15:48.836-10:00

Why is it that newspaper have such a hard time with craig's list? I guess the problems is simply that many newspaper people continue to see "classified" content as "advertising", while Craig's List has turned classified "advertising" into "content". In other words, classified advertising on Craig's List is the equivalent to "editorial" in a newspaper or on a newspaper site.

Until newspapers begin to understand this they will continue to not understand the new world.

As a former classified ad manager, I know that the days of newspaper classified is over -- forget about it, that is the past.

By the way, great column. If I ever get back into the newspaper business (if there is one in the future) I'd love to work with someone who speaks intelligently about the industry. Oh well.

Good post, John. Words newspaper executives shoul...

2009-06-08T04:14:04.308-10:00

Good post, John. Words newspaper executives should pay attention to. But they won't.

Great post John. I'm sure you were in the audi...

2009-06-08T02:45:52.313-10:00

Great post John. I'm sure you were in the audience at the 2005 ASNE convention in DC when Craig Newmark's mugshot was thrown up on the screen and the collected senior editors were asked if they knew who it was. The paucity of hands raised was shocking. The panel: "The Future of Newspapers." Lather, rinse, repeat.

So right. And so depressing. Thanks for this excel...

2009-06-07T18:59:24.136-10:00

So right. And so depressing. Thanks for this excellent write-up.

Frighteningly well said. Thank you!

2009-06-06T22:36:58.102-10:00

Frighteningly well said. Thank you!

Fantastic post, John. You'd think, after 15 ye...

2009-06-06T15:21:05.414-10:00

Fantastic post, John. You'd think, after 15 years of stupendous mistakes, newspaper executives would have learned something. But no--they seem perfectly content to sail their industry (and its workers, readers and advertisers) right over the edge of the cliff. So sad.