tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9604174Tue, 10 Nov 2009 23:47:33 +0000Musings (and occasional urgent warnings) of a veteran media executive, who fears our news-gathering companies are stumbling to extinctionhttp://newsosaur.blogspot.com/alan.mutter@broadbandxxi.com (Newsosaur)Blogger604125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9604174.post-8943338266535096396Tue, 10 Nov 2009 13:30:00 +00002009-11-10T10:05:20.141-08:00A year ago, Alan Jacobson, a talented and indefatigably innovative newspaper designer, came up with an idea for a highly targeted, efficient-to-produce and effortlessly viral website that is exactly the sort of thing newspapers need to strengthen their online franchises. After spending many frustrating months trying to interest publishers in his idea, he got a piece of advice from a friend. “http://newsosaur.blogspot.com/2009/11/newspaper-epitaph-who-else-is-doing-it.htmlalan.mutter@broadbandxxi.com (Newsosaur)6<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/blogspot/vLgh/~4/S6h1jiqLU98" height="1" width="1"/>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9604174.post-3594842666930007512Mon, 09 Nov 2009 14:00:00 +00002009-11-09T07:12:36.530-08:00The news media succumbed to ugly ethnic and religious profiling in their coverage of the shooting last week at Fort Hood. Shame on them. Media executives ought to closely review their coverage of the Fort Hood massacre to develop sufficient organizational discipline to avoid spreading in the future the sort of inflammatory information they irresponsibly aired and published as the tragic http://newsosaur.blogspot.com/2009/11/ugly-ethnic-profiling-tarred-ft-hood.htmlalan.mutter@broadbandxxi.com (Newsosaur)16<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/blogspot/vLgh/~4/k6qRoVerX1k" height="1" width="1"/>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9604174.post-6169598610254848780Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:00:00 +00002009-11-06T21:08:49.970-08:00While the editors of some notable non-profit news startups pull down hefty six-figure salaries, the founding editor of the Chicago News Cooperative says his pay will be a single digit for the next 12 months: $0. That low, low introductory salary in part is testimony to the dedication of co-op founder James O’Shea, a lifelong Chicago newsman who had a brief tour as editor of the tempest-tossedhttp://newsosaur.blogspot.com/2009/11/chicago-news-co-op-starts-on-shoestring.htmlalan.mutter@broadbandxxi.com (Newsosaur)15<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/blogspot/vLgh/~4/JeQV8auhkq8" height="1" width="1"/>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9604174.post-2047328401157972336Tue, 03 Nov 2009 14:00:00 +00002009-11-03T15:12:53.576-08:00<!--StartFragment--> The resolve to charge for most interactive content is dissolving at some newspapers, potentially thwarting the plans of other publishers who still hope to erect pay walls on their sites. Despite determined statements by several publishers earlier this year that they intended to make consumers pay for the valuable content newspapers have given away for more than a decade, http://newsosaur.blogspot.com/2009/11/pay-walls-never-may-come-at-some-papers.htmlalan.mutter@broadbandxxi.com (Newsosaur)20<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/blogspot/vLgh/~4/DuNG6dbgaSA" height="1" width="1"/>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9604174.post-6063369580024275329Fri, 30 Oct 2009 13:00:00 +00002009-11-02T09:52:28.671-08:00<!--StartFragment--> The Harvard conference tasked with finding new business models for journalism had the impossible mission yesterday of trying to solve a problem no one had the language to describe, the tools to measure or the skills to fix. In other words, the conference resembled the primitive study of physics before Isaac Newton invented modern calculus at the tender age of 23. Absent http://newsosaur.blogspot.com/2009/10/wild-guesses-wont-solve-journalism.htmlalan.mutter@broadbandxxi.com (Newsosaur)20<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/blogspot/vLgh/~4/V9Rab7JcjAQ" height="1" width="1"/>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9604174.post-5263365997736175426Thu, 29 Oct 2009 09:28:00 +00002009-10-29T02:51:00.175-07:00<!--StartFragment--> Some 50 of the foremost thinkers about journalism have been invited to Harvard University today to ponder no less a problem than this: “How to Make Money in News: New Business Models for the 21st Century.” The event commences at 9 a.m. and is scheduled to adjourn at 2:30 p.m., so I guess the organizers are pretty high on the capabilities of the crowd. Or afraid http://newsosaur.blogspot.com/2009/10/harvard-hoedown-ponder-making-in-new.htmlalan.mutter@broadbandxxi.com (Newsosaur)5<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/blogspot/vLgh/~4/3Q_RwpmDF6g" height="1" width="1"/>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9604174.post-8921883574757812461Wed, 28 Oct 2009 13:00:00 +00002009-10-28T07:43:56.521-07:00<!--StartFragment--> At a time newspapers ought be striving to earn the confidence of their remaining advertisers, they are reporting not just record low circulation numbers but also the murkiest figures ever. The historic 10.6% drop in circulation reported on Monday would have been trouble enough for the ailing newspaper industry. But publishers managed to make matters worse by taking http://newsosaur.blogspot.com/2009/10/newspaper-circ-stats-murkier-than-ever.htmlalan.mutter@broadbandxxi.com (Newsosaur)12<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/blogspot/vLgh/~4/c4VUkTwBrGs" height="1" width="1"/>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9604174.post-1084855303509616706Tue, 27 Oct 2009 13:00:00 +00002009-10-31T20:29:23.415-07:00<!--StartFragment--> The devastating double-digit drop in daily newspaper circulation in the last 12 months leaves little doubt that the classic mass media model will not work for newspapers – or perhaps any other medium, either. Publishers who think their businesses are going to live or die according to the number of bellybuttons they can deliver probably will see their businesses die. The http://newsosaur.blogspot.com/2009/10/newspapers-mass-less-mass-medium.htmlalan.mutter@broadbandxxi.com (Newsosaur)16<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/blogspot/vLgh/~4/Tg-XX_KOBhE" height="1" width="1"/>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9604174.post-5977717449070857489Mon, 26 Oct 2009 14:27:00 +00002009-10-31T20:28:00.051-07:00Following an average drop of 10.6% in the last 12 months, daily newspaper circulation has fallen to a pre-World War II low of an estimated 39.1 million, according to an analysis of industry data released today.The first double-digit circulation decline in history means only 12.9% of the U.S. population buys a daily newspaper. The analysis is based on data provided by the Audit Bureau of http://newsosaur.blogspot.com/2009/10/record-plunge-newspaper-circ-at-pre_26.htmlalan.mutter@broadbandxxi.com (Newsosaur)29<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/blogspot/vLgh/~4/0bgGVz3vZ54" height="1" width="1"/>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9604174.post-5908295467033860007Thu, 22 Oct 2009 15:03:00 +00002009-10-22T08:11:00.109-07:00<!--StartFragment--> At first glance, Newsday appears to be making a bold move by becoming the biggest newspaper to date to start charging for most of its content on the web after giving it away for free for years. But the move isn’t really that brave. The newspaper is hedging its bets by taking advantage of its unique position as a division of the predominant cable television provider on Longhttp://newsosaur.blogspot.com/2009/10/newsdays-not-so-bold-pay-gambit.htmlalan.mutter@broadbandxxi.com (Newsosaur)11<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/blogspot/vLgh/~4/Z5TXjhWJHcQ" height="1" width="1"/>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9604174.post-10222682633305446Thu, 22 Oct 2009 11:00:00 +00002009-10-22T06:58:38.127-07:00<!--StartFragment--> Add news embargoes to the growing jumble of detritus in the hellbox of journalism history. In an age of insta-news, embargoes are so meaningless and unenforceable that they aren’t worth the pixels they are printed on. As a consequence, publicity seekers are on notice that they no longer will be observed here. I am sorry to see embargoes go, because they were usefulhttp://newsosaur.blogspot.com/2009/10/rip-news-embargoes.htmlalan.mutter@broadbandxxi.com (Newsosaur)3<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/blogspot/vLgh/~4/VSQKio8Yplg" height="1" width="1"/>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9604174.post-2706069172704953357Tue, 20 Oct 2009 11:00:00 +00002009-10-21T18:38:09.610-07:00For all the drama conveyed yesterday by the vote of no confidence in mainstream journalism rendered by one of the nation’s top journalism schools, the 98-page study issued by Columbia University is perhaps most significant for what it doesn’t say. While cataloguing a host of previously discussed potential fixes for the press, the report falls short of breaking new ground. That may be becausehttp://newsosaur.blogspot.com/2009/10/columbia-writes-off-msm-now-what.htmlalan.mutter@broadbandxxi.com (Newsosaur)17<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/blogspot/vLgh/~4/_z4TrZucd30" height="1" width="1"/>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9604174.post-2578559428796053722Mon, 19 Oct 2009 15:11:00 +00002009-10-19T08:24:11.433-07:00<!--StartFragment--> Writing off the capacity of the traditional media to continue ably covering the news, a report commissioned by the journalism school at Columbia University calls upon the feds, foundations and journalism faculties to take up the slack.In the 98-page report commissioned by the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University, Len Downie, the editor emeritus of the http://newsosaur.blogspot.com/2009/10/text-of-columbia-report-on-msm.htmlalan.mutter@broadbandxxi.com (Newsosaur)10<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/blogspot/vLgh/~4/p5E4YeAITnw" height="1" width="1"/>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9604174.post-2909438134159306303Fri, 16 Oct 2009 15:35:00 +00002009-10-16T08:52:43.795-07:00Given the scant hope of attracting a respectable price for the Boston Globe, it’s not surprising that the New York Times Co. pulled the paper off the market. The lingering question is why the company thought it had a shot of pulling off an acceptable deal in the first place.In the latest sign of how far formerly coveted metropolitan newspapers have fallen, the offers for the Boston Globe http://newsosaur.blogspot.com/2009/10/un-sale-of-boston-globe.htmlalan.mutter@broadbandxxi.com (Newsosaur)5<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/blogspot/vLgh/~4/qxaJFzKhvoo" height="1" width="1"/>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9604174.post-8300773306364419969Tue, 13 Oct 2009 15:06:00 +00002009-10-13T11:45:27.654-07:00The first job of a newspaper is to set the agenda for the community. That most inspiring thought, from Howard M. Ziff, one of my most inspiring journalism professors at the University of Illinois, came to mind when I read that the Atlanta Journal-Constitution has decided to stop endorsing candidates for public office. I can’t think of a more vital part of the agenda-setting role for a http://newsosaur.blogspot.com/2009/10/ajc-wimps-out-on-endorsements.htmlalan.mutter@broadbandxxi.com (Newsosaur)30<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/blogspot/vLgh/~4/j9sThpep208" height="1" width="1"/>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9604174.post-5096822232917189755Thu, 08 Oct 2009 14:21:00 +00002009-10-08T07:23:24.972-07:00<!--StartFragment--> Editors across the land couldn’t let Newspaper Week pass this week without wantonly violating the primary rule in medicine and marketing: First, do no harm. “Talk of the demise of newspapers is premature,” said the headline on an editorial in the Aiken Standard that was typical of the faux-plucky tone adopted by most of the editors laboring to make the case that somehowhttp://newsosaur.blogspot.com/2009/10/editors-doth-protest-way-too-much.htmlalan.mutter@broadbandxxi.com (Newsosaur)11<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/blogspot/vLgh/~4/k2wLyoDg4ZA" height="1" width="1"/>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9604174.post-6124104516169836209Tue, 06 Oct 2009 14:13:00 +00002009-10-06T07:33:04.946-07:00At almost the very moment former publisher John Temple candidly told the Berkeley media-technology conference last week the reasons why the Rocky Mountain News succumbed, the Rocky Mountain Independent was drawing its final breath.The Independent was the second in a series of online news sites established by several Rocky veterans in the hopes of being able to continue doing the work they love inhttp://newsosaur.blogspot.com/2009/10/double-dose-of-denial-in-denver.htmlalan.mutter@broadbandxxi.com (Newsosaur)28<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/blogspot/vLgh/~4/80FK123u-1E" height="1" width="1"/>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9604174.post-828915525998305856Mon, 05 Oct 2009 11:00:00 +00002009-10-05T04:00:09.266-07:00Publishers groping with the question of when, whether and how to charge for interactive content often raise the issue of what they could sell, if indeed they ever decided to try. Here’s a quick checklist to see if you are ready:1. You cannot charge for such commoditized content as world, national, business, sports and entertainment news.2. You might be able to charge for local coverage, if it is http://newsosaur.blogspot.com/2009/10/how-to-sell-news-on-web-checklist.htmlalan.mutter@broadbandxxi.com (Newsosaur)17<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/blogspot/vLgh/~4/qHtenztq5dw" height="1" width="1"/>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9604174.post-4750325372791519721Fri, 02 Oct 2009 04:38:00 +00002009-10-04T09:22:24.323-07:00<?xml:namespace prefix = o />They said it couldn’t be done. But it was.They said a conference about the future of journalism couldn’t take place without the usual kvetching about the golden, olden days, with publishers grieving shriveled margins and editors caviling about the bloggers challenging their previously unassailable wisdom. But we did it. The two-day Media Technology Summit sponsored http://newsosaur.blogspot.com/2009/10/qvetch-free-journalism-conference.htmlalan.mutter@broadbandxxi.com (Newsosaur)9<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/blogspot/vLgh/~4/6c_CicGR9u8" height="1" width="1"/>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9604174.post-7432232106682034794Wed, 30 Sep 2009 13:17:00 +00002009-09-30T13:11:40.973-07:00The UCBerkeley Media Technology Summit at the Googleplex in Silicon Valley is being live-blogged now in the window below, thanks to participant Chuck Peters, the tech-savvy chief executive of the Gazette Co. in Cedar Rapids, IA. The summit, which will run through mid-day Thursday, is intended to provide more than 100 invited leaders from media and technology companies with new insights into thehttp://newsosaur.blogspot.com/2009/09/berkeley-media-tech-summit-going-live.htmlalan.mutter@broadbandxxi.com (Newsosaur)0<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/blogspot/vLgh/~4/LvyMMkWsOzE" height="1" width="1"/>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9604174.post-5638090595881769350Tue, 29 Sep 2009 11:00:00 +00002009-09-29T04:00:10.019-07:00Second of two parts. The first part is here. The five-member staff of the Chi-Town Daily News was laid off after Labor Day when its founder could not raise the $300,000 necessary to fund the balance of its annual budget.But Pro Publica, the biggest of the new-breed journalism non-profits, is thriving on a budget that will hit $9 million this year.This disparity dramatically illustrates the http://newsosaur.blogspot.com/2009/09/size-matters-in-non-profit-news.htmlalan.mutter@broadbandxxi.com (Newsosaur)10<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/blogspot/vLgh/~4/UG1kkcXMCzo" height="1" width="1"/>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9604174.post-6281003276704357980Mon, 28 Sep 2009 11:00:00 +00002009-09-29T08:08:40.265-07:00First of two parts. The second part is here. The founder of the Chi-Town Daily News, a pioneering grassroots journalism project, happened to phone last week shortly before word got out that a wealthy businessman had donated $5 million to launch a major non-profit news venture in San Francisco.“I can’t believe it,” said Geoff Dougherty, whose non-profit news venture ran out of money at summer’s http://newsosaur.blogspot.com/2009/09/non-profit-news-ventures-go-big-time.htmlalan.mutter@broadbandxxi.com (Newsosaur)12<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/blogspot/vLgh/~4/OI7g78yr4ks" height="1" width="1"/>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9604174.post-7749824283912009614Fri, 25 Sep 2009 17:56:00 +00002009-09-25T10:58:55.085-07:00U.S. publishers planning to erect pay walls may want to take note of a new poll that found only 5% of newspaper site readers in the United Kingdom would be willing to pay for interactive content.In a Harris Interactive Poll conducted for PaidContent:UK, researchers found that 74% of respondents simply would go to other sites if they were required to pay for access to the news they now get for http://newsosaur.blogspot.com/2009/09/only-5-in-uk-would-pay-for-web-news.htmlalan.mutter@broadbandxxi.com (Newsosaur)7<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/blogspot/vLgh/~4/a3fdCWGiZPg" height="1" width="1"/>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9604174.post-1419519238423139162Fri, 25 Sep 2009 00:33:00 +00002009-09-24T17:54:15.026-07:00A $5 million grant from a single philanthropist will fund the launch in the San Francisco area of the most ambitious project yet to build a non-profit news organization to fill the growing vacuum left by the contraction of the mainstream media.San Francisco businessman Warren Hellman today pledged $5 million to kick off fund raising for a new non-profit news organization being developed in http://newsosaur.blogspot.com/2009/09/sf-gets-biggest-ever-local-news-non.htmlalan.mutter@broadbandxxi.com (Newsosaur)9<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/blogspot/vLgh/~4/MHY4eCu6n64" height="1" width="1"/>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9604174.post-6574192178239800186Wed, 23 Sep 2009 11:00:00 +00002009-09-23T04:00:07.903-07:00A number of readers disagreed sharply with my suggestion that newspaper unions may be losing their relevance. One of them was Andy Zipser, the editor of The Guild Reporter, the official publication of The Newspaper Guild-CWA. Here’s what he had to say:By Andy ZipserThe Newsosaur, in a lengthy posting Monday, exhibited a poverty of imagination that cries out for charitable intervention.Commenting http://newsosaur.blogspot.com/2009/09/it-will-take-unions-to-save-newspapers.htmlalan.mutter@broadbandxxi.com (Newsosaur)18<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/blogspot/vLgh/~4/CP_ZfSS7Wr0" height="1" width="1"/>