the newspaper business

Thanks Newscoma

One of the tightest newspaper owners in the biz has just lost his marbles. This is the same owner who built a new building for a press on the strict guidance that it not be built for the long term. He asked for a cheapo building.  At the same time, these newspaper companies are reducing staff to cover LOCAL, meaningful news, the owners are going whole hog to impress the party bosses and elite that newspapers are still relevant.

The Minneapolis Star Tribune in the past 18 months has trimmed its staff substantially through buyouts and layoffs and has frozen wages for some workers. The Rocky Mountain News has lost more than 12% of its weekday circulation in the past two years. Both MediaNews and Avista Capital, the private-equity owner of the Star Tribune, are laboring under steep debt loads.

“You forget about the P&L for this,” said Dean Singleton, chairman of MediaNews Group, which publishes both the Denver Post and Pioneer Press, among its 54 daily U.S. newspapers. “This is a week to really showcase what we do best.”

The no-holds-barred coverage comes even though broadcast and cable news television, national newspapers and a cadre of political bloggers — an estimated 15,000 people in all — are planning to blanket the proceedings at both conventions. Critics also say the proceedings are news-free events hardly worth all the media attention.

Put me in the category with Jon Stewart and that last sentence above. Political conventions are not news.

Jon Stewart took after the “established” media for getting too cozy with candidates and regurgitating campaign spin when it comes to political coverage.

Stewart said politicians in recent campaigns are “animatronic” because all of the “humanity has been managed out of campaigns.” He referenced the back-and-forth during the Pennsylvania Democratic primary over Obama’s lack of bowling skills.

Of course, I won’t be reading the Denver or St. Paul newspaper coverage, but here’s what they should do: focus on the impact locally. Forget the politics of the event.

CNN Grill (across from the Pepsi Center) Was Packed After the Convention Shut Down for the Day

Treat it like a four day siege of the city.

• Traffic can’t move,
• restaurants overflowing with undesirables,
• armed patrols on the street,
• dissent is stifled.

To quote my favorite weather cliche: It’s a War Zone.

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.”

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. 

Agency wants bigger bus fleet
GO bg seeks $878,000 in grants

Agency wants bigger bus fleet
GO bg seeks $878,000 in tax money

Which is more accurate? I wish the Daily News would stop referring to money obtained from taxing citizens as “grants.”

Earmarking is starting to gain some traction as being a no-no at the federal level.  Earmarks are special projects slipped into highly important,  sure-to-pass legislation at the last minute. But these “earmarks” at the federal level become grants at the local level.

The transition from “bad” (earmark) to “good” (grant) is made possible by your local newspaper.

BTW: neither of our Senators are disclosing their earmarks, nor revealing if they have any earmarks.

In his last story for the Post,   staff writer Linton Weeks started the first paragraph of his story with these letters…GOODBYEREADERSMust have gotten the buy-out he was looking for.   

Myrtle Beach thinks those little ads in the back of the paper use up too much newsprint, so they are dropping them from their editions on Monday and Tuesday.

“the region’s largest classified inventory available anywhere” will be available on MyrtleBeachOnline.com. 

Says the V.P. and Editor Trisha O’Connor.

What? The editor decides to drop advertising?  Those little ads are usually sold for multiple day runs - 7, 14, 30 days, etc. There is some lost revenue in this plan. Unless her classified department is a dud and doesn’t have ANY ads on Monday or Tuesday.

Not hard to believe that an editor doesn’t think those little ads are readership items either. When the rest of the newspaper is very small, the importance of those little ads as readership is multiplied dramatically.

Before I’d kill classified ads in Monday and Tuesday in print, I’d give them away. Unless readership isn’t important to Editor O’Connor.

I’ve written emails to six newspaper reporters over the past two weeks and have not gotten one response. Not one.They have been small to mid-size newspapers. (20-50,000 circulation.) I’m not talking about a blog post comment, I’m talking about a personalized email about a subject they have written about.They all can’t be assholes can they?I think it’s just laziness. Here’s my tip: If you are a reporter and get an email from a reader.Reply: Thanks for reading and writing. Send.  

The editor at Yankton South Dakota is taking the falling bull by the horns and hoping s/he can prop it up with a secret weapon. S/he is adding more comic strips.

Showing what editors are made of, and as per the requirement taught by all the best J-schools, the editor will let the readers decide by vote.

The comics being tested include “Baby Blues,” “Bizarro,” “Mother Goose and Grimm,” “Mutts,” “The Pajama Diaries,” and “Pardon My Planet.” All are with King Features Syndicate.

Hertz said the paper’s goal is to attract more younger readers while retaining the readers who like its current comics lineup.

Obviously this editor is attuned to the marketplace in Yankton. It’s more comics people want from their newspaper - more comics. Young people are especially interested in comics on newsprint. I read it in the blogs all the time. Xers want Comics. Millennials want comics.

It’s been right there in front of us the whole time!

Sheesh.

A 3G and WiFi compatible reader is being tested in France. It’s called Read&Go.

French telecom company Orange has announced a new e-book reader, entitled the Read&Go. While most such readers — like the Kindle — are meant to be universal devices, Orange’s machine concentrates almost exclusively on newspapers.