Comments on: Revenue Rebirth for Newspapers?

By: ireport the death of newspapers by andydickinson.net

ireport the death of newspapers by andydickinson.net — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 17:24:43 +0000

[...] Revenue Rebirth for Newspapers? (revenews.com) [...]

By: Pat Grady

Pat Grady — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 13:05:10 +0000

Seattle Post-Intelligencer newspaper goes Web-only http://tech.yahoo.com/news/ap/20090316/ap_on_hi_t...

By: Mike Hyland

Mike Hyland — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 14:55:18 +0000

Oh where are the liberal Socialists who work and run these newspapers going to go to spread their propaganda on the advertisers dime?? I surprised that 100,000,000 BHO headines & bilines in the last 2 years didn't makes these papers billions.

By: CT Moore

CT Moore — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 11:26:12 +0000

I think that if they're going to attract enough eye-balls to rely on online ads, part of the way they're going to have to re-invent themselves is by offer comprehensive social media features. If subscribers/users could build profiles and engage in debate around stories on the site, page view would likely go up.

Also, they should consider targeted their advertising better by localizing it down to the neighbourhood. If IP address could be used to render very local advertising, they would even make it possible for mom & pop businesses to avail themselves of advertising online.

By: Tony Pantano

Tony Pantano — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 08:59:42 +0000

How about an insider perspecitve. I worked for the online division of a national newspaper chain for 5 years.

The three of the main problems I saw on the 'inside' were:

1) They tried to manage the operation of Highly competative internet business the same way they managed their near monopoly on print production. And used profits from the online business to subsidize losses on Print rather than invest in the future of the online business.

2) They also had a very protectionist mentality…protecting the print & circulation revenue to the detriment of building a true online business. They only would dip their toe into the world of the Internet.

i.e. you could only buy an online ad if you also purchasd a print ad as well

3) They maintain editorial staffs that were trained at tradtional J-Schools who tried to write for the intenet the same way they write for print. I once was in a meeting with an editor that was dealing out Blog Post assingments as if they were expose pieces.

The problem with protecting the cash cow to such a large extent is that by the time you realize the cow is dying, you have nothing else. Then you are forced to scramble. Coming from behind is not something that this industry has had to do in the past. They may emerge from this, but I suspect that they will only be a shell of their former selves.

By: rob, BtG

rob, BtG — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 08:31:30 +0000

very good post on timely problem. it's said that most print media will be gone within 10 years. the New York Times has decided to comabt declining revenue and readership by testing new opportunities with "hyper-local" blogs. read more at- http://www.blogtogreat.com/2009/02/ny-times-to-op...

By: Ben

Ben — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 18:19:07 +0000

Globalization baby, the world doesn't care as much about local and really that is a small part of daily life. When you turn on CNN do you hear about a small town in kentucky and who is doing meth? No because nobody cares. We want to hear about interntional news or national news. Anything else just is not a big deal.

Newspapers need to look at it this and I think the NYTimes is positioning itself for that. Your paper is global, it can be bought in any city and its audience is the world. You keep 1 or 2 people to blog and write local articles in big areas. Similar to the Onion using the same big news stories and having a few local ones and tweaking their papers for big cities.

In the end if you want local news you will go to a local person who provides it on a website or small publication that can survive because they love what they are doing and don't have as much staff or costs.

By: James

James — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 12:24:19 +0000

the problem is not the internet ,the problem is that news papers were so slow to adapt to the new technology. It should have been a layup ,and the WSJ proved it .The other problem is the mainstream medias drive to push agendas instead of reporting news ,in the internet age it is just to obvious to all the readers and I guess sepnding all your time telling you customers you know better than they is just another failed strategy

By: Pat Grady

Pat Grady — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 10:18:42 +0000

Newspapers have several huge advantages in leveraging their local markets, often with little or no competition (relatively speaking). My heart doesn't bleed for those businesses that refuse to innovate and allow others who serve their customer base better to win over mind time slice.

Newspapers have become political puppets focused on flexing their influence, not serving their customers.

My question today for those melancholic yesteryear yearners… when the cable company goes out of business, will there be any tears welling up?

ps – dinosaurs should have figured out how to survive too. they shoulda seen it coming.

pss – my g-g-dad ran an equine drayage and construction service that used heavy tackle and work animals for timber barn raising… talk about raining obsolete. horsemen got schooled.

psss – sheesh, not enough coffee this morning, running for a cup now, i think my heart's still asleep.

By: Chris Nee

Chris Nee — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 09:57:58 +0000

It's a very tricky problem to solve. I've read and written quite a bit about newspapers recently (from a previously uninitiated standpoint) and, as a web-dweller, I can't imagine myself paying for news.

Because I don't work in an environment which requires me to have specific news at a specific time, I have no need to pay for, say, stock market news. As a result, everything I want to read can be found online for free.

Clearly this rules out micropayments and paywalled sites. Advertisers aren't pumping the money in that newspaper websites need, and all this leaves few options.

I outlined The Jon Stewart Model on my blog a few days ago. Stewart interviewed Walter Isaacson about this in February and suggested a 'cable TV' model, where newspapers become content houses and license that content to aggregator sites (where the advertisers already want to be).

Are the newspapers (and journalists) ready for such a change? I doubt it. So you're right: they'll have to find a way to reinvent themselves.