tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-96041742012-02-10T14:15:55.940-08:00Musings (and occasional urgent warnings) of a veteran media executive, who fears our news-gathering companies are stumbling to extinctionNewsosaurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11954243708914033601noreply@blogger.comBlogger776125blogspot/hbHOhttp://feedburner.google.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9604174.post-75678922400293371452012-02-10T05:00:00.000-08:002012-02-10T05:00:00.070-08:00

The use of email has plunged by more than 30% in the last year among consumers under the age of 24, owing to the increased use of texting and Facebook to stay in touch.That’s one of the eye-opening paradigm shifts identified in a must-read report from comScore on the fast-changing state of the digital universe.A primary activity among wired individuals since the arrival of the Internet, email use

Newsosaurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11954243708914033601noreply@blogger.com1http://newsosaur.blogspot.com/2012/02/email-stumbles-in-digital-paradigm.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9604174.post-79028757857718560692012-02-07T05:00:00.000-08:002012-02-07T05:00:10.595-08:00

Two years after the debut of the iPad, most newspaper publishers still are fretting and fumbling over what to do about it.Even though the iPad 2 was one of most popular items at Christmas and the third-generation version of the product is likely to turn up well before Santa returns this year, many newspapers have yet to develop their very first app. Of the publishers who took the plunge, most

Newsosaurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11954243708914033601noreply@blogger.com14http://newsosaur.blogspot.com/2012/02/publishers-are-flubbing-ipad.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9604174.post-62628285553372941942012-01-10T05:00:00.000-08:002012-01-10T12:10:25.692-08:00

Daily newspaper delivery will go the way of the milkman in a growing number of communities in 2012 and beyond. Barring a miraculous turnaround in the economy, a sea change in the thinking of media buyers or a late-breaking proclivity for print in the sub-geezer population, publishers in ever more communities are likely to reduce the number of days they provide home delivery – or print a

Newsosaurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11954243708914033601noreply@blogger.com12http://newsosaur.blogspot.com/2012/01/daily-paper-going-way-of-milkman.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9604174.post-54182126026893235582012-01-03T05:00:00.000-08:002012-01-03T05:00:04.235-08:00

In a year when the stock market flailed mightily to end up almost exactly where it started, the shares of the publicly traded newspaper companies plummeted an average of 27% in 2011.Of the 11 publicly held newspaper companies, the stock of only one – the broadly diversified News Corp. – gained ground in the last 12 months. The stock of the publishing-cum-broadcasting company rose 10.7% in 2011

Newsosaurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11954243708914033601noreply@blogger.com11http://newsosaur.blogspot.com/2012/01/newspaper-shares-plunged-27-in-2011.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9604174.post-39252451574612960122011-12-19T05:00:00.000-08:002011-12-19T07:32:22.443-08:00

The number of jobs eliminated in the newspaper industry rose by nearly 30% in 2011 from the prior year, according to the blog that has been tracking the human toll on the industry for the last five years. Meanwhile, a separate analysis confirms what most of us already suspected: The proportion of cutbacks was higher in newsrooms than it was for the industry as a whole – twice as high by the

Newsosaurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11954243708914033601noreply@blogger.com8http://newsosaur.blogspot.com/2011/12/newspaper-job-cuts-surged-30-in-2011.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9604174.post-57809595307185202792011-12-12T05:00:00.000-08:002011-12-13T08:21:50.710-08:00

Next year will be the year that the big technology companies go after local publishing and broadcasting businesses more fiercely than ever before. Most local media companies have no idea what’s about to hit them – much less a plan to respond. Google already has feet on the street from Portland to New York City to sell search advertising and directory listings to small and medium business (SMBs).

Newsosaurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11954243708914033601noreply@blogger.com5http://newsosaur.blogspot.com/2011/12/digital-giants-closing-in-on-local.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9604174.post-22160935047368142042011-12-06T05:00:00.000-08:002011-12-06T05:54:35.509-08:00

Last month, we discussed the generous contribution publishers have been making to the dramatic growth of Facebook, a wondrously addictive medium that seems to be commanding ever-greater amounts of time from an ever-larger number of consumers.Today, we’re going to talk about how newspapers can get Facebook to work as effectively for them as most papers have been working for Facebook.With roughly

Newsosaurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11954243708914033601noreply@blogger.com5http://newsosaur.blogspot.com/2011/12/making-facebook-work-for-publishers.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9604174.post-10622091780798188822011-12-05T05:00:00.000-08:002011-12-05T05:00:08.704-08:00

Newspaper advertising sales this year will come in at less than half the record $49.4 billion achieved as recently in 2005, according to an analysis of the year-to-date performance of the industry.With industry revenues declining in each of the first three quarters of this year, publishers are unlikely to surpass a collective $24 billion in revenues for 2010. Here’s the math:After slipping by

Newsosaurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11954243708914033601noreply@blogger.com1http://newsosaur.blogspot.com/2011/12/newspaper-ad-sales-head-to-new-low-24b.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9604174.post-61007829227167976752011-11-11T07:57:00.000-08:002011-11-11T09:07:07.412-08:00

Twelve years ago, the Poynter Institute hired Jim Romenesko to aggregate interesting and important stories about the world of journalism. Yesterday, he was pressured into premature retirement for leaving out a few quotation marks while doing it.What the hell was Poynter thinking? The priggish and self-righteous individuals who hustled Romenesko out the door for this flimsy technical infraction

Newsosaurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11954243708914033601noreply@blogger.com14http://newsosaur.blogspot.com/2011/11/romenesko-didnt-do-anything-wrong.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9604174.post-16762833287761045692011-11-08T05:00:00.000-08:002011-11-08T08:49:37.962-08:00

Facebook is perhaps the most disruptive of the many powerful forces to rock the traditional media since the Internet burst into the common consciousness in the mid-1990s.So, stop thinking about Facebook as one of the many projects on your endlessly expanding digital to-do list and start focusing single-mindedly on ways you can turn this captivating new medium to your advantage. The addictive

Newsosaurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11954243708914033601noreply@blogger.com2http://newsosaur.blogspot.com/2011/11/publishers-need-to-focus-facebook.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9604174.post-20075903760541015302011-10-25T07:23:00.000-07:002011-10-25T18:46:45.447-07:00

The potential for selling news through applications on iPads and other tablets appears to be “limited,” according to a study released today.Although consuming news on a tablet is one of the most popular activities discovered in a survey of 1,200 tablet users, only 14% of them had subscribed to a paid news app, according to a study by the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism

Newsosaurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11954243708914033601noreply@blogger.com7http://newsosaur.blogspot.com/2011/10/paid-news-potential-limited-on-tablets.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9604174.post-32502096386617295062011-10-17T05:00:00.000-07:002011-10-17T06:25:08.229-07:00

At long last, some of the public shareholders of News Corp. this week will try to put some discipline into the management of the scandal-ridden company that Rupert Murdoch built. Regardless of what the investors achieve – if they get anywhere at all – a lot of damage already has been done by the slipshod way Murdoch runs his sprawling media empire. The California Public Employees Retirement

Newsosaurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11954243708914033601noreply@blogger.com0http://newsosaur.blogspot.com/2011/10/can-investors-get-news-corp-under.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9604174.post-8021488548712144042011-10-13T05:00:00.000-07:002011-10-14T07:34:25.151-07:00

Everyone knows you have to measure things correctly to manage a business well. But the converse of this axiom is that you can get into a lot of trouble if you measure the wrong things. Unfortunately, this has happened in the newspaper industry with respect to the digital media. Now, it has got to stop. In a misguided effort to apply the historically successful print business model to the

Newsosaurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11954243708914033601noreply@blogger.com2http://newsosaur.blogspot.com/2011/10/engagement-new-digital-metric.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9604174.post-67736535252215657262011-09-28T05:00:00.000-07:002011-09-28T06:45:36.406-07:00

A new study shows the dramatic degree to which consumers under the age of 40 have repudiated newspapers.The must-read report, which was released Monday by the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism, found an alarming disconnect between younger and older consumers in the value they put on newspapers as sources of information about their communities. Pew split the 2,251

Newsosaurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11954243708914033601noreply@blogger.com13http://newsosaur.blogspot.com/2011/09/how-newspapers-are-losing-next-gen.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9604174.post-3915239405624743822011-09-07T05:00:00.000-07:002011-09-07T06:47:16.074-07:00

Though newspaper ad sales have been sliding steadily for 5½ years, many publishers have yet to take a deep look at the four components necessary for a healthy and forward-looking revenue program. They are Products, Process, People and Pride. If your sales are not where you want them to be, this is what it will take to fix them: ProductsOnly $3.50 of every $10 spent by local businesses on

Newsosaurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11954243708914033601noreply@blogger.com3http://newsosaur.blogspot.com/2011/09/time-for-sales-tune-up.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9604174.post-2109516205309888012011-09-06T05:00:00.000-07:002011-09-06T17:52:08.227-07:00

Jill Abramson will have a tougher job than any of her predecessors when she becomes executive editor today of the New York Times, because she is being thrust into completely uncharted territory where she will have to choose between two irreconcilable paths.She either will have to cannibalize the flagship print product to build the strongest possible digital franchise for the Times – OR – she will

Newsosaurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11954243708914033601noreply@blogger.com3http://newsosaur.blogspot.com/2011/09/abramson-faces-toughest-test-of-any-nyt.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9604174.post-74041622443324521372011-08-16T05:00:00.000-07:002011-08-16T05:00:03.016-07:00

I started my career as a newspaperman, became a Silicon Valley CEO and work today as a consultant helping media companies understand technology and helping technology companies understand the media. Here’s what I have learned: The talented people in these seemingly disparate industries are remarkably alike but the cultures of the businesses are completely different. And here is why this matters

Newsosaurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11954243708914033601noreply@blogger.com6http://newsosaur.blogspot.com/2011/08/newspapers-need-jolt-of-silicon-valley.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9604174.post-48048696081955939232011-08-15T05:00:00.000-07:002011-08-15T05:00:03.907-07:00

It’s ordinarily an honor to merit an obituary in the New York Times, but it didn’t work out that way for Sherman White, who was treated rather roughly in his sendoff for a 60-year-old mistake. The obit for the former college basketball star pubished on Friday underscores the need for sensitivity and balance when journalists try to squeeze a lifetime into a few hundred words – especially when

Newsosaurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11954243708914033601noreply@blogger.com10http://newsosaur.blogspot.com/2011/08/how-harsh-should-obit-be.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9604174.post-7841641503160550812011-08-08T05:00:00.000-07:002011-08-08T06:52:25.788-07:00

It’s not a matter of if, but when, your ever-smarter smart phone replaces currency and credit cards as the way you pay for everything from a latte to a load of lumber for the deck you have been meaning to build. The arrival of mobile payments will restructure the way marketers interact with consumers, leading potentially to epic shifts in the balance of power and dollars from financial services

Newsosaurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11954243708914033601noreply@blogger.com4http://newsosaur.blogspot.com/2011/08/get-ready-for-mobile-payments.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9604174.post-46304275925627187762011-08-01T07:00:00.000-07:002011-08-01T07:13:48.237-07:00

Quizzed by securities analysts last week about his company’s disappointing financial performance, the best McClatchy boss Gary Pruitt could say was that he hopes the newspaper “business model will stabilize” at some unspecified point in the future. But it will not.And it had better not, if Pruitt intends to save what’s left of his newspapers, where relentless cost cutting has halved the headcount

Newsosaurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11954243708914033601noreply@blogger.com8http://newsosaur.blogspot.com/2011/08/will-business-model-stabilize-for.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9604174.post-74243349661211229932011-07-25T05:00:00.000-07:002011-07-28T21:58:00.039-07:00

Gene Weingarten recently wrote a deft and snarky column in the Washington Post suggesting that journalism educators should have their butts sizzled for telling students to pay attention to building their personal brands.As one of those* Weingarten would like to see blistered, I am here to say he is dead wrong. Here’s why:Given the steady fragmentation of the media, the growing paucity of jobs and

Newsosaurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11954243708914033601noreply@blogger.com9http://newsosaur.blogspot.com/2011/07/why-journalists-need-to-build-their-own.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9604174.post-16410328897126876912011-07-18T05:00:00.000-07:002011-07-18T05:07:58.540-07:00

Like an unchecked oil spill, the toxic and oozing News Corp. scandal is staining the already less than stellar image of the rest of the press, too.On my semi-annual visit to friends and family in the Midwest, I was asked time and again how frequently American news media hack into the mobile phones of unsuspecting celebrities, politicians and crime victims.The answer, so far as I know, is hardly

Newsosaurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11954243708914033601noreply@blogger.com3http://newsosaur.blogspot.com/2011/07/murdoch-scandal-staining-rest-of-media.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9604174.post-71514615703253496442011-07-05T05:00:00.000-07:002011-07-05T06:56:35.909-07:00

With newspaper ad sales falling at an unexpectedly abrupt rate, many publishers at mid-year were laying off staff, requiring unpaid furloughs, consolidating plants and taking other measures to buttress their bottom lines.Although some analysts have interpreted these expense-cutting tactics as a repudiation of the print newspaper business by publishing companies, they are anything but. Publishers

Newsosaurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11954243708914033601noreply@blogger.com6http://newsosaur.blogspot.com/2011/07/why-newspapers-cant-stop-presses.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9604174.post-1667475515751141022011-06-22T05:00:00.001-07:002011-06-22T09:50:53.936-07:00

A resolute consortium of media companies in, of all places, Slovakia appears to be proving that you can charge for digital content, so long as you (a) hang together as a group and (b) make it simple for the consumer to pay.The companies, which include seven newspapers and two television broadcasters, are the charter members of a new service called Piano, which allows a user to register at one

Newsosaurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11954243708914033601noreply@blogger.com5http://newsosaur.blogspot.com/2011/06/how-to-sell-content-by-making-it-easy.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9604174.post-42317551612147477732011-06-20T05:00:00.000-07:002011-06-20T05:00:03.632-07:00

Anthony Weiner disgraced himself, his family and his constituents by his bizarre misbehavior on Twitter, but he has an explanation: He has some sort of psychological problem.The cable channels and other news organizations that whipped his indiscretions out of all reasonable proportion have no such excuse. They were being cheap, cynical and opportunistic. And they ought to be ashamed of

Newsosaurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11954243708914033601noreply@blogger.com2http://newsosaur.blogspot.com/2011/06/cable-news-overdosed-at-weiner-roast.html