the newspaper business

When People Are Your Most Vital Assets

Especially when every trade mag I pick up is announcing new/expanded layoffs.

It’s a lie. People are an asset. Like most assets, sometimes you must choose to dispose of them. Hopefully you have gotten a good useful life from the asset, sometimes not.

But, please, employees are smart enough to see through this “most vital” label. Stockholders are the most vital asset. Keep the stockholders happy and life is good.

Keep the employees happy at the expense of the stockholders and watch out.

And every. industry. says. it. even when they announce layoffs.

H.R. Conference highlights: - (and my unauthorized cynical subtitles)

• Legal updates of current labor laws and looming legislation - (how to layoff people and not get sued)

• Medical costs controlled with consumer-driven health care plans - (how to reduce health care coverage costs)

• Union contract negotiations and the Employee Free Choice Act - (Unions? Are they still in newspapers?)

• Compensation costs and alternatives for allocating rewards. - (How to cut commissions and keep sales reps)

• Managing transition in our changing industry - (Feel better about “it’s either them or me.”)

The Daily News and a lot of other papers, still run a box in some stories that say “On The Net” with URL’s for the links to the subject that is the focus of the story.

For example, today the hot story is the jet pack demonstration. In the 32 inch AP story (with photo) we ran there were three URL’s listed:

• www.martinjetpack.com
• www.jetpackinternational.com
• www.tecaeromex.com

True, only two inches were devoted to the URL’s. It was the only story in the A Section that had URL’s listed. Seems kind of silly…

1. Everybody knows how to find more information via search engines
2. Only one story was deemed worthy of this special treatment.

Television stations are much smarter. Anchors will refer viewers to the television station’s website for more details. The details are usually just a bunch of links.

The Daily News didn’t even have the story on our website because aside from an AP widget that pulls headlines and some video feeds, we only post local stories.

Isn’t that a disconnect? Our online newspaper doesn’t have the story, but our print newspaper is sending people online?

Here’s an email I got today. It pretty much speaks volumes about how stupid newspapers are perceived by some scammers.

I am contacting you today regarding one of our largest clients. The majority of their advertising budget is dedicated to direct newspaper placement. Normally, we run a test ad for the client, and should the ad produce a sufficient ROI, the client will continue to run indefinitely.  The test ad can be any size, from a line ad to a 1/4 page to a full page ad, any day of the week that the paper runs – we would like that ad to be at no cost or very low cost to the client.

Please understand that we are interested in building a relationship with you, working with you to in order to help both organizations increase print sales.

Should you have any questions or should you have immediate space available, please contact me as soon as possible. 

Thank you

Matt

Matthew Montoya

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WWW.ACCESSTOMEDIA.COM

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“All beings tremble before violence.  All fear death, all love life.

 See yourself in others. Then whom can you hurt?

 What harm can you do?”

- Buddha

Bruce Lunsford was sitting at the right hand of one of the richest guys in Warren County. He invited a few of his closest friends to meet with a candidate that has a real shot at knocking off Mitch McConnell for his Senate seat.

“We are a grass-roots campaign, from the bottom up, because we know Mitch is going to run a campaign from the top down,” Lunsford said from a seat next to Garvin’s desk.

Nice start Bruce and David. Leave the little man out of the meeting. Did you all have cigars to create the prototypical smoke filled room?

Forget that Obama doesn’t have his “listening” campaign anywhere near the fourth largest population center in the state. Lunsford says the area is “important.”

So they announced he may return to Beech Bend in six weeks.
In Garvin We Trust? I don’t know Garvin, I don’t know Lunsford. I would like to meet Lunsford, but because it was a private meeting, I didn’t get the chance.
“Well, you know me, don’t you?” Garvin told her (a person at the meeting). “I’m telling you that he’s a good man.”
Nope, not good enough.

It’s just not worth much of my time and effort to respond to such immaturity and ignorance of youth sports.
With one broad brush, the sports editor has condemned every parent who is involved in their child’s activity as being insignificant. He personifies why newspapers are perceived as arrogant and uncaring about the community.
He can add all the disclaimers he wants about it being his personal opinion. A mature person knows when to keep their trap shut.

Daniel Pike, Sports Editor of the Daily News:

What I’ve got to say is this: Little League, at any age level, at any stage of competition, should not be considered news. Period. 

Somehow Advertising Age started showing up uninvited at my house. I used to be a faithful reader, but it just became so irrelevant to the newspaper business, I quit reading a couple decades ago.

Just a couple issues convinced me I’m still right in my assessment.

Here’s what the Editor-in-Chief Rance Crain wrote in commenting on a moratorium on big pharma consumer advertising:

And we’re going to see ads for diseases we never knew were a problem (restless-leg syndrome, anyone?)

and…

Take Avodart — please. Apparently, some “guys” (as they are always called) have the problem of an enlarged prostate, which forces them to make frequent trips to the bathroom. The ads for the drug show some poor guy interrupting important work, such as making scaled-down versions of planets (to go with a scaled-down prostate, get it?), to rush for the bathroom, to the annoyance of his fellow workers. My take on this problem is if nature wants you to relieve yourself on a frequent basis, maybe it’s not a bad idea.

So I responded:

Dear EIC,

Your ignorant comment about Restless Legs Syndrome “diseases we never knew were a problem” is just foolish. First, it’s not a disease, it’s a condition. It’s real. For you to make light of it just hacks me off. You further back up your ignorance saying “guys” have enlarged prostates (is this news to you? - you are aware that only guys have prostates, right?) Avodart is not needed according to you because if nature wants you to pee a lot, it’s OK. You want nature to run your body? Have a nice day Cancer Boy!
Cancel my free subscription.
(I guess somebody thought since I was in the newspaper business I would be interested in reading what Rupert Murdoch’s top dog, et al think. I don’t.) And since there were at least three other stories in the same issue that I thought were pretty stupid, I don’t need the grief of dealing with such ignorance and stupidity through your thin little journal.

PS: Are you SO important that your email address doesn’t NEED to appear along with your mug shot or column?

Big pharma’s direct to consumer advertising is wasteful and adds to the cost of drugs. It should be curtailed, just like cigarette advertising was curtailed. That’s not my point at all. RLS advertising direct to consumer IS a perfect point since it’s estimate that only 3% of adults have RLS, so why spend millions on advertising.

But Crain should stick to writing about advertising without his lame asides casting aspersions on medical conditions.

“N² 2.0″
Now I don’t care who you are, that’s funny.

I’ve read a number of tech bloggers who are crying in their beer because U.S. Citizens don’t seem to want “broadband” as much as it seems.

Broadband adoption has kept even pace with previous years, but stalled among America’s poor, according to a report released this week.

or some variation is usually the lead paragraph in the story.

I can understand laypeople (like me) using the term “broadband” to mean fast access. But people like ConnectKentucky use the term as the equivalent to DSL. To ConnectKentucky, there are two kinds of access: dial-up and broadband.

In fact, the FCC recently recognized that if the lawmakers listened to ConnectKentucky and Connected Nation, all seems right in the U.S. internet world. Of course, it’s not. The U.S. is woefully behind other industrialized nations when it comes to moving data.

Of course the FCC was using the definitions most favorable to the telecos.

It was using the definitions the global telecom industry always has used. It’s just that the relevant standards bodies haven’t changed those definitions to reflect what actually is happening in the market.

But things are changing for the better, it’s just that the tech blogs are kinda slow to pick up on it. (Except for the MSM blogger! - a dead newspaper no less!)

The FCC has finally revised its definition of broadband Internet — which had grow, ahem, somewhat outdated.

In the past, the agency said you had broadband Internet if you got just 200 kilobits per second in either direction. From now on, it will use a more ambitious and more nuanced set of definitions:
* “First Generation data:” 200 Kbps up to 768 Kbps
* “Basic Broadband:” 768 Kbps to 1.5 Mbps

And from there, the FCC will keep track of the number of homes that get service in each of six higher speed tiers:
* 1.5 Mbps to < 3.0 Mbps
* 3.0 Mbps to < 6.0 Mbps
* 6.0 Mbps to < 10.0 Mbps
* 10.0 Mbps to < 25.0 Mbps
* 25.0 Mbps to < 100.0 Mbps
* 100.0 Mbps +

The agency will also make ISPs disclose the number of homes they serve at what speed, in which locations. They’ll also have to provide more detailed maps as to where they do and don’t offer service.

This system superscedes one that let ISPs say they “served” a zip code with broadband Internet if they offered more than 200 kbs to any one home in that zip code.

(Emphasis mine.) Hopefully all this crap ConnectKentucky and ConnectedNation has been spreading about how wonderful states are doing in providing internet access to citizens will slow.

My position is that access to the internet is too important to be left to the private sector. Access should be treated like infrastucture: law enforcement, roads, bridges, fire protection, sewer, water, electricity. Cities should move now to buy out existing cablecos and use tax money to provide access to the internet.

Like other infrastruture, some communities will spend more than others. Some may elect to go with the low end, while others (the smart ones ) will realized investing in the highest speed access to the internet is a tremendous economic driver.

Access to the internet is too important to leave to investors who expect an ROI.

Did we mention we don’t have any openings? If we do, the pay will be substantially below what we are paying now? The model for the new newspaper of the future, converging TV and newspaper newsrooms is now on it’s last legs.

Here’s a copy of a memo Tampa Tribune photographers received by email today from management:

“Based on the information that we received yesterday, here is some information you need to be most aware of.

1) ALL photography department employees will need to reapply for their job positions. This will probably take place in the next 2weeks.

2) The photo staffs of WFLA & the Tribune will merge (not surewhat that looks like or means exactly).

3) The Pasco community section will publish 5 days a week(Wednesday – Sunday) not 7 days a week as they currently do.

4) The remainder of the community sections will publish once aweek, not twice as they currently do.

5) 10 individuals will be let go in eight weeks or less. Some of which will likely be management positions.

6) If you apply for a position and are not accepted for that position, we were told that you would still receive the buy-out package.”

Source: Shoptalk

My friend Rick made this video. He did a heckuva job researching the law and offering his opinion in a very dignified way.
If you agree, please link back, or embed the video.