Newspaper survival: Discard the traditions
March 31, 2009: Great newspapers have fallen and crumbled this year, and now two of the country’s most elite papers, the New York Times and the Washington Post, have implemented dire cost-cutting measures on the same day. But to some, the Times and Post are still ignoring their core business problems by merely cutting salaries and conducting more buyouts and layoffs.
 In January, the newspaper industry knew it was in a leaky boat, but not necessarily a sinking one. Newspaper people scoffed at an article in The Atlantic that outlined how the Times could go under by May.
But that was before the Seattle Post Intelligencer became a Web site produced by 20-somethings, the Rocky Mountain News and the Ann Arbor News folded, and it looked like a tombstone would be all that’s left of the San Francisco Chronicle.
On Thursday, two of the greatest newspapers anywhere crouched lower in their trenches.
The Times announced it was cutting 100 jobs from its business operation and that all staff will have their salaries cut by five percent. The newspaper has already borrowed $250 million from Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim, heavily cut its stock dividend and leased back its new headquarters.
The Washington Post, on the same day, announced that it was beginning the first of at least three additional buyout plans. Layoffs may follow. Last year, the newspaper cut the size of its newsroom staff by 100.
The Times predicted that the pay cuts would be temporary, and that if the economy improved, pay could rise back to pre-cut levels by 2010.
But that’s wishful thinking, argues Henry Blodget of The Business Insider. The Times’ internal memo was gracious in tone toward laid-off employees and optimistic about future pay. Blodget opined that a cold splash of water would have been kinder: “Eventually, when the economy recovers, some salaries might once again be raised to 2007 levels. Over the intervening years, however, at least 40 percent to 50 percent of the newsroom will be fired.”
Sarcasm aside, it may come to that. Blodget estimates that the Times could generate $200 million a year if it charged a modest fee for online content, approximately the same cost of running the organization’s current newsroom. Thus, Blodget finds that cutting the newsroom staff in half, along with new online revenue, is a potentially tempting business model.
Jeff Jarvis, author of "What Will Google Do?," also believes the Times needs a drastic shift: He advises the newspaper to drop all metro coverage. “It is a national and an international paper. The Times should spin off its metro section and charge, oh, say, $4 a day for it."
The Post needs to move in a similar direction, and also increase the sharing of resources it has already begun with the Baltimore Sun, according to Jarvis. "You just don't need to have 15,000 people covering a political convention," he said. "The Washington Post should be America's newsroom in Washington."
Jarvis said newspapers have a future, but they’ve got to discard a good many of their traditions. "I'm optimistic about the news business," he said. "But if papers define themselves as traditional newspapers, that is a terrible mistake."
--Michael Blankenheim
MINE: This magazine is for you, from you
March 27, 2009: Reader-driven, as opposed to advertiser-driven, content is what some call the key to saving the magazine business. But what if both existed in one publication? In an experiment beginning today, Lexus and Time Inc. are partnering to push MINE, a magazine where readers will pick the articles they wish to read interlaced with car ads customized to their personalities.
 A total of five issues of MINE will be published every other week. The magazine is free but limited to 31,000 mailed print copies and 200,000 electronic copies featuring the same content as print versions.
Potential readers go online to sign up for MINE. For the advertising side, they answer a series of questions, including “what do you crave more: sushi or pizza?” and “do you like to sing in the car?” Based upon the responses, Lexus will tailor advertising for the reader.
For their editorial, consumers get to choose the magazines their articles will come from: Food & Wine, Golf, InStyle, Money, Real Simple, Sports Illustrated, and Travel+Leisure. Editors will then choose what articles are included based upon a reader’s selection.
Lexus is the sole advertiser, and the idea for the project originated with the company. It’s no surprise, then, that the readership of the magazines chosen for the content are in the demographic group of potential Lexus buyers.
The automaker said customer-inspired ads directed at the correct demographic present a unique delivery method for their messages. Time hopes that letting readers guide content will help create the type of potential emotional bond found in reader-loyal magazines.
With more than two dozen major magazines having folded in the last year, that type of bond is crucial if the magazine industry is to recover, wrote Gabriel Sherman in Slate. “It's not that magazines are dying; it's that magazines that were created solely for advertising or market-share purposes are.”
Which makes MINE a rare hybrid of creatures: its creation was advertiser driven, but the editorial side uniquely reaches out to readers.
For a magazine to survive over a long period of time, that’s a crucial aspect, said Sherman.
“Magazines still retain emotional capital, and publishers need to remember that they're not in the advertising-delivery business. If a magazine can speak directly to the reader, advertising dollars will follow. Titles launched to capitalize on a booming market segment will never survive over the long haul.”
Whether MINE establishes that relationship strongly enough for imitators to sprout up remains to be seen.
--Michael Blankenheim
Newspapers watching Seattle to see if digital only will save them
March 20, 2009: The long beloved paper version of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer may be gone, but Monica Guzman will continue blogging about Seattle news “that’s all the buzz” for the digital-only edition. SeattlePI.com employs 20 staffers, compared to 170 at the print newspaper. On Monday, as Guzman watched veteran journalists depart forever, the 26-year-old said continuing without their in-depth knowledge of Seattle “is a little scary.” Some might say it’s even scarier that newspaper titans are watching Seattle to see if they can duplicate it as the “newspaper” of the future.
The P-I, with a former circulation of 117,000, is the largest American daily so far to move all of its operations to online only. After losing $14 million in 2008, the Hearst Corporation put Seattle’s oldest paper up for sale for in January. When a buyer didn’t emerge, Monday became the last day for print at the 146-year-old P-I.
At SeattlePI.com, there are no traditional editors, reporters, or even content producers with specific duties like at other Web sites. Instead, staffers share the jobs of multimedia creation, writing, editing, picture taking, and video shooting and production.
But the focus will not only be hyper local. Outside content will abound, featuring guest contributors, Hearst writers from other news outlets, Hearst magazine articles and even material and links to competing Web sites.
It’s a content philosophy built around the idea that visitors will be willing to pay for content, as long as they can find anything from anywhere. An internal Hearst memo to the 20 staffers shows the marching orders:
--“Crib liberally” from the city’s surviving print newspaper, the Seattle Times.
--“Cop an attitude.”
--“Go hyper local.”
--“Take risks.”
--“Constantly create premium content readers will buy.”
“Pay to visit” is also being closely watched in Colorado, where former staffers of the defunct Rocky Mountain News are attempting to start InDenverTimes.com. The business plan calls for 50,000 pledged subscribers willing to pay $4.99 a month. Some content would be free, paid advertising would also be featured, and paying visitors would be able to access columns, interactive features, feeds to mobile devices and customizable content.
It’s no shock that the rest of the newspaper industry will be watching Seattle and Denver. Newspaper ad revenue has dropped one-third since 2005, and is expected to sink 21 percent more in 2009.
Papers are starting to believe that charging for Web content may be part of the solution to stop the bleeding from printing on paper. The New York Times, 18 months after it ceased charging for content, is reconsidering the option; Newsday is looking at the model as well. And if a buyer can’t be found for their failing San Francisco Chronicle, or if as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi suggests the Chronicle should merge with other San Francisco papers, it’s safe to bet Hearst will consider duplicating Seattle.
Back in Seattle, the official line from Hearst is that SeattlePI.com will “focus on what readers are telling us they want and on what makes SeattlePI.com essential and unique—within the context of our local news mission, of course.”
Slate’s Jack Shafer believes the news Web site is “doomed” if that’s really the case. He thinks 20 staffers aren’t enough to maintain daily operations and build traffic. He asks Hearst “Are you investing, or are you finding another slow way to kill the P-I? Send in the interactive cavalry! Everything the company learns in Seattle can be used at its other newspaper sites (the Chronicles in Houston and San Francisco, the Albany Times Union, the San Antonio Express-News, the Advocate in Stamford, and its many weeklies).”
Even if the SeattlePI.com succeeds financially, former P-I investigative reporter Ruth Teichroebit said the news Web site will never match the print edition’s coverage of those who need it the most, the world’s underdogs. “Those with the least voice in society are losing access to another part of the mainstream media.”
--Michael Blankenheim
NY Nonstop channel redefines "hyper" in 24/7 TV news
March 13, 2009: “Man on the street” interviews first aired on radio during the 1930s. Nearly 80 years later, WNBC has built its new 24-hour, news/lifestyle channel New York Nonstop around street interviews. New York City’s third-ranked network affiliate is hoping that the old wine in a new bottle will reverse its finances. NY Nonstop broadcasts with cameras panning flashily at slanted angles, simulating NYC edginess. It airs on digital broadcast TV, cable, mobile devices, the Web, and “taxicasts.”
 Last May, WNBC announced that it would spend more than $10 million to soon launch Nonstop. After a number of unexplained delays, the channel launched this week to a potential 5.7 million viewers on digital broadcast channel 4.2 and cable. WNBC executives said the channel has the potential to be a new format for television.
Rather than from a traditional television studio, broadcast material is constantly fed from street journalists to a high-tech content center, where platform managers format content for broadcast on the different mediums. Daily reoccuring features are headlined by a 7 p.m. newscast anchored by WNBC’s Chuck Scarborough. Every 15 minutes, there are mini-updates for traffic, news and weather.
The bulk of content consists of two and five minute “podcast-like” segments featuring numerous street interviews. Segments titled “Sidewalk Stories” and “What’s the Deal” attempt to portray what’s on the minds of under-35 New Yorkers.
Think constantly-changing information bits, not half-hour broadcasts, said Meredith McGinn, senior manager of special projects for NBC 4 New York. She said the goal is to make viewers feel as if their “iPod is on shuffle. You can't wait until the next song.”
There are more than 20 local all-the-time news channels across the country, including channels in Chicago, Houston and Washington, D.C. New York City already has a well established 24-hour local news channel, NY1, which has been broadcasting on cable for 12 years.
Publicly, Nonstop maintains it is not competing directly with NY1 because it offers different material in a new style.
In an internal e-mail to staff, Michael Horowicz, WNBC-4’s news manager, was simple in describing the competitive situation. “Consider this the noon live shot you'd have to do if you worked at the competition, but with a lot less hassle.”
Because of its brief segments and quick camerawork, Nonstop perhaps brings a new definition to the term hyper-local. For pitching, don’t just think visual. Think headline-length visual tidbits that stand on their own and are not part of a larger broadcast.
--Michael Blankenheim
More blurring between magazine articles and advertising
March 6, 2009: The January Craigslist posting was blunt: “Seeking editors/writers to create attractive fashion-worthy articles that will SELL PRODUCTS.” It was just for a startup publication blurring editorial and advertising. But this month, Ellen DeGeneres is on the cover of Ladies’ Home Journal, and it’s just a tad difficult to tell the difference between the articles about her and the ads that feature her.
The help wanted ad was from whowhatwear.com: “your immediate access to fashion as portrayed by the world's finest trendsetters.” Founded by a former Elle editor and a former Elle writer, it contains articles and video delving into the hottest fashion. The Web site doesn’t feature the commercial frankness of its Craigslist post, so there’s been no fuss.
Not so with the March issue of the previously more conservative Ladies Home Journal. The magazine’s cover photo of DeGeneres was shot by Cover Girl, which DeGeneres represents. The feature article written by the magazine’s staff is interlaced with Cover Girl ads.
The placement of the advertising pages within the editorial doesn’t violate the magazine industry’s ethical standards, but it was an “unfortunate combination,” said Sid Holt, CEO of the American Society of Magazine Editors.
The fuzzy line between editorial and advertising certainly isn’t new at fashion, beauty and lifestyle magazines. Vogue editors have been criticized for designing the windows of chichi Prada shops in Italy. And in recent years, Sarah Jessica Parker has been in a number of magazine spreads that heavily blended editorial about the actress and ads with her touting products.
But magazines have seen their number of ad pages drop for six straight quarters. In the mad search for revenue, ethically questionable practices occur more often and more blatantly, even if some embarrassment occurs from greater examination under the microscope.
For PR, the pitching atmosphere is potentially poisonous. Merely pitching editors may result in entering the chain too late. By then, content may be locked up.
A marketing manager at a major cosmetics firm, who asked not to be identified, said that PR needs to take a wide-angle approach. “You have to at least pitch to the model, because the editorial is about the lipstick she’s wearing, and even that’s most likely been decided by someone else,” she said.
Pitch the editors. But also pitch to the model and her agents. Make your move before it even gets to the magazine, and then continue with the editors.
--Michael Blankenheim |
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