the newspaper business

Newspapers will cut staff covering the political conventions by 20%. This decision wasn’t made in the newsroom, it was made by the bean counters.

I think they got it right. Convention coverage is so highly orchestrated and geared toward television, that staffing could probably be cut by 50% and nobody would notice the difference.

Seems the press is being forced to figure out what the public has long known: Obamamania or not, few made-for-media events are as predictable as the overscripted circus of modern American political conventions. Faced with tough budget decisions, newspapers are making a smart move by trimming back on coverage readers can likely do without.

I’m really not looking forward to all the newsprint that will be used to give the politicos and pundits a soapbox.

Let the AP cover the conventions. Nobody cares about the “local angle” at a political convention. I don’t ever recall saying this before, “hooray for the beancounters.”

PBS.org was looking for “embeds” to write about the “media shift.”

Here’s my first post.

http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2008/08/embedded_in_bowling_greenhow_f.html

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?

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.

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

 I’m anxious to see electronic paper in person. I hope I get the chance since it appears to be the future of newspapers.

Electronic paper technology, one of the newspaper industry’s most exciting innovations, could be available to newspapers as early as 2009. Ryosuke Kuwata, vice president of E Ink Corp’s Asia Pacific region, revealed today in an interview that developers are getting close to unveiling the technology.

I’m not sure I buy this assertion:

Kuwata says US newspaper companies have been ahead of the game, pursuing electronic newspaper technology before Japanese companies. European papers, he says, have “just began to move.”

If they are “ahead of the game” they are keeping awfully quiet about it. Since there is no competitive advantage to being the “first”  seems that news would be pouring out.

If you are interested in how this might impact newspapers, click here.

Rob Curley was the emperor of all things related to newspapers doing cool stuff on the web.

He started at the Lawrence, Kansas newspaper (about the size of the Daily News) and did some very cool stuff. He had one standing order from the publisher (who at that time didn’t even do email.) Don’t loose money.

So he hired a bunch of people and off they went to reinvent newpaper’s online presence. They didn’t loose money.He built a helluva reputation. He was in high demand as a speaker at newspaper conferences. He talked to a lot of people. He didn’t wear a suit - or tie - he usually had on a tee shirt. He said “sucked” and “fuck” during presentations - a practice that was (and is) unheard of coming from the podium at a newspaper gathering.

Curley was a for real guru. Fast Company magazine adored him. The photograph showed him smirking in front of a huge pile of burning newspaper bundles.

Scripps decided he was just what they needed in Naples Florida - and away he went, taking most of his online staff. There he launched a local, daily, web news program that was touted as the model for newspapers everywhere. I suspect the “don’t lose money” guidances was not in effect with Scripps.

Curley soon left for the WashingtonPost.com with a high-flying title. His promise was to make the WaPo online editions “hyperlocal” the hottest buzz word he could think of .

Recently it was announced that he left the WaPo.com for Las Vegas. The WSJ.com is reporting today the emperor has no clothes. Others who fell all over themselves annointing him, have now abandoned his teachings and are pointing out his flawed plan

For believers in the power of rigorous local coverage to help save newspapers, the Washington Post’s launch of LoudounExtra.com last July was a potentially industry-defining event. It paired a journalistic powerhouse with a dream team of Internet geeks to build a virtual town square for one of Virginia’s and the nation’s most-affluent and fastest-growing counties.

loudounextra.washingtonpost.com

Almost a year later, however, the Web site is still searching for an audience. Its chief architect has left for another venture in Las Vegas, and his team went with him. And while Post executives say they remain committed to providing so-called hyperlocal news coverage, they are re-evaluating their approach.

So Rob Curley is off to cash in again with a new employer. He took most of his staff (do you see a pattern here?) Apparently Las Vegas had a pretty good online staff already, and he is taking nine folks to join them.He should cash in whenever he has the chance. Some guys get rich not by what they know, but by what others think they know.

It’s supply and demand. But newspaper publishers need to use the same skepticism with Rob Curley as they do with any other single evangelist. What is his track record? So far, I’ve seen a lot of cool things that don’t make the newspaper money.

If that’s a good criterion for being a guru, drop me a note.I’ve got a ton of great ideas that qualify.

ARIANNA HUFFINGTON, HUFFINGTON POST
The growth of New Media journalism will be a hybrid combining the best aspects of traditional print newspapers with the best of what the Web brings to the table. We’re getting a glimpse into this with the many changes afoot at Old Media places like the The New York Times, and from New Media players like, well, like the Huffington Post.

The online vs. print debate is totally obsolete. It’s as musty as the old barroom argument about Ginger vs. Mary Ann. It’s 2008, why not have a three-way? (emphasis mine) Traditional media have ADD: They are far too quick to drop a story. Online journalists, meanwhile, tend to have OCD—we chomp down on a story, refusing to move on until we’ve gotten down to the marrow.

The shifting dynamic between the forces of print and online reminds me of Sarah Connor and the T-101 in The Terminator. At first, the visitor from the future (digital) seemed intent on killing Sarah (print). But as the relationship progressed, the Terminator became Sarah and her son’s one hope for salvation. Today, you can almost hear digital media (which for some reason has a thick Austrian accent) saying to print: “Come with me if you want to live!”