Customers - What can newspapers learn from magazines? - "Advertising - Most Magazine Sales Plummet at Newsstands" - NYTimes.com

If a newspaper manager reads this, thinking about the range of content in most newspapers, is there some hope to be found in any of these numbers? What would a good newspaper manager do after reading those magazine - at least short term - trends?

Managing - Investigative outsourcing? - "The promise of a newspaper’s investigative spinoff" - Nieman Journalism Lab

Is this a good management decision or just a very temporary fix?

Conference - Early apple harvest? - "Apple to Host Media Event September 9" - NYTimes.com

Managing the Crisis starts off with a visit to Apple in London.....

Managment - Meet or make? - "Craigslist: A Company of Makers" - Freakonomics Blog - NYTimes.com

Is this a time when there should be more or fewer meetings inside newspapers?

Finances - Newspaper bankruptcy becoming the "expected".... - "Owner of Orange County Register May File for Bankruptcy" - NYTimes.com

We have not seen the end of newspaper bankruptcies in the US.

Customers - Pool of "creators" grows - "The Count - An Online Outlet for Creating and Socializing" - NYTimes.com

The percentage of a what are called "creators" here is higher than I would have expected, and I wonder - consistent with an earlier posting here - whether newspapers are working hard enough to come up with creative ways to help manage and advance some of this creativity. It's a lot more than just providing an opportunity to comment on articles or even to create a blog.

Revenue - Morphing free into pay - "Ping - Evernote, a Free Storage App, Seeks More Paying Users" - NYTimes.com

Is this "free" strategy one that newspapers need to be considering even during these crises?

Customers - Connecting kids to their interests - "The Future of Reading - ‘Reading Workshop’ Approach Lets Students Pick the Books" - NYTimes.com

One of the truly fundamential crises facing the historical notion of a newspaper is reading. How creative are newspapers becoming about introducing the value of reading the content presented in print or online by newspapers to young people as profiled in this story?

Competition - Is the BBC eating newspapers? - "Murdoch son BBC threatens independent jo..." - Euronews 24

This strikes me as a potential discussion note for Managing the Crisis given that we will be in London.

Customers - Have newspapers tried to organize bloggers like cornflake makers do? - "Mommy Bloggers Pregnant With Potential" - NPR

Have newspapers been as creative as they might be in working to bring together all of those who choose to speak in the digital world, on all subjects? It seems to me that too little has been done too slowly ot keep up with the market. Why, honestly, shouldn't newspapers lead this?

Competition - Is the US Postal Service delivering a good prediction? - "As Internet Booms, the Postal Service Fights Back" - NYTimes.com

The time begins in the US, it appears, to watch carefully some of the emerging assumptions about what the climb up the other side of the financial crisis may mean for media.

Technology - How do newspapers think outside the coupon? - "Coupons You Don’t Clip, Sent to Your Cellphone" - NYTimes.com

Surely there are ways that newspapers can incorporate this thinking into what they offer their customers. What I mean is that the whole coupon world, both print and electronic, is an "action" activity for the customer. While many coupons have been, are and may be in the future distributed by newspapers, is there not an application for this kind of activity beyond getting a few cents or more off the price of an item in a store? It's part of the creativity crisis that confronts newspapers.

Technology - Wikipedia a simple idea doing what newspapers ought to do - "A War of Words Over Wikipedia’s Spanish Version" - Bits Blog - NYTimes.com

I continue to believe that newspapers have a huge amount to learn from the Wikipedia phenomenon. Can newspapers take the best of what they are doing, avoid the problems, and make the core idea more central to the service newspapers offer their customers? I don't know.

Models - Some signs of investor interest in creative plans? - "PRISA Brings Talos as Investor to Unite Forces and Expand a Retail Media Network"

Have we all learned as much from PRISA as we might?

Technology - Is the internet scarier than a deserted street on a dark night? - "Editorial Notebook - Time to Be Afraid of the Web?" - NYTimes.com

Newspapers have to worry about a lot of environments in which they operate. One of the biggest has always been the streets traveled all over the world to bring printed newspapers to vending machines, vendors, homes and businesses. The dangers lurking there have been varied and at times immense. Now, newspapers have to confront new dangers in the internet world, and I wonder if the crisis of confidence that shakes so many people when they read something like this has really sunk in with newspapers. Are we assuming too blithely that the internet will simply work fine and our only job is to make money using it, or more altruistically, use it to disseminate great journalism to a hungry world?

Advertising - Will it ever come back or is it gone forever? - "NAA: Ad Sales Down 29% in 2Q, Biggest Downturn Yet"

What if newspapers don't recover? Where is the alternative industry plan? Where are the individual plans?

Competition - When to ask government to blow the whistle? - "Italian Regulators Investigating Google" - NYTimes.com

Dealing with competitors involves many choices. Some are simply to compete harder. Occasionally, there are other remedies involving laws and policies. Deciding among all of those choices is especially difficult in the midst of all of the crises.

Crises - "The newspaper and media industry's leading trade fair in times of crisis - why is it so important for our sector at this difficult time?"

It looks like the crisis theme will be carried over to Expo 2009 in Vienna in October. Managing the Crisis in London at the end of September would be good preparation!

Customers - Is buying or reading newspapers enough? - "Advertising - Comedy Central Tries to Gauge Passion of Its Viewers" - NYTimes.com

Do we ever measure the "commitment" of newspaper customers? Maybe we should?

Customers - Why is anonymity running rampant? - "Is It O.K. to Blog About This Woman Anonymously?" - NYTimes.com

This may seem like not such a big issue until one realizes that trends like anonymity go to the very core of information and opinion exchange and what could be more important to newspapers? It is a huge management challenge of expectations, professionalism, effectiveness, and good judgment.

Customers - How to manage a newspaper market of Tweeters? - "Who’s Driving Twitter’s Popularity? Not Teenagers" - NYTimes.com

Are newspapers missing the Twitter boat?

Customers - Managing readers - "Newspapers Use Readers To Break, Analyze News" - NPR

Managing the evolution of what reporters and editors do and what customers do is tough. We have much to learn from all that is happening with this everywhere.

Promotion - Can we promote ourselves out of this? - "The Multi-Medium"

There are lots of bells and whistles here in this website for newspapers sponsored by the Newspaper Association of America, and perhaps this has been well-received. It's been supported by full page newspaper print ads and perhaps some online.

Choices - Cover the news or pay the electric bill? - "Hey, Media: Where's The Afghanistan Coverage?" - NPR

These kinds of issues really go to the core of what newspapers have always thought was important - the coverage of the world in places like Afghanistan. Allocating resources to this is a tough call for almost all news organizations, and it raises tough questions about what level of journalistic activity will be financially possible in the future.

Models - Wikinewspapers? - "Wikipedia Will Limit Changes on Articles About Living People" - NYTimes.com

Do newspapers and Wikipedia wind up meeting some place in the "middle"? Isn't the Wikipedia model, with the modifications that continue to be implemented, getting closer to what might be an ideal blending of journalistic professionalism and social networks?

Content - Does it make it better when Meryl STREEP says it's good? - "Meryl Streep: Still Cooking on Behalf of Newspapers"" - NYTimes.com

What a great time to be bringing back Meryl STREEP with the popularity surrounding Julie and Julia, the film.

Coverage - Well, I guess this is one of the new limits? - "Slate Is Switching From ‘Today’s Paper’ to a News Roundup" - NYTimes.com

Slate is owned by the Washington Post Company.

Government - If (the US) government listens only, that's ok, but more than that? - F.T.C. to Look at News Industry’s Future - NYTimes.com

Such a hearing in many countries would not seem at all unusual, but here in the US, this is extraordinary. I doubt anything will come of the program, other than an exchange of information, but that is not all bad.

Innovation - Niching our way out of the hole? - "New York Observer Starts a Paper on Real Estate" - NYTimes.com

It's nice to see a newspaper trying out an idea at time when so many are closing their innovation files.

Customers - Words are everything - "The Media Equation - Tyler Brûlé and Monocle, a Travel Magazine, Blur Ad Lines" - NYTimes.com

Something to be learned here?

Coverage - What are today's newspaper limits? - "Fanbase Aims to Be a Wiki for Sports at all Levels" - NYTimes.com

One of the new limits that newspapers must consider today is just how much information on any topic or topics does a 2009 newspaper commit to collect, report and retain? Where is the line between what a newspaper sees as its news and information role and where the newspaper cedes terrain to other?

Customers - How doe they "feel" about what newspapers give them? - "Sentiment Analysis Takes the Pulse of the Internet" - NYTimes.com

This - measuring "sentiment" - would surely be a ground-breaker for newspapers if they tried the same approach. Should they?

Advertising - Someone has to pay to give it away free - "News Corp. to Stop Publishing The London Paper" - NYTimes.com

This should spark some discussion at the conference, especially in view of other strategic shifts that have been reported recently at News Corporation.

Photos - Smile, you or an altered you, may be on Candid Camera! - "Faked Photographs - Look, and Then Look Again" - NYTimes.com

It is surprising to me that issues of credibility, reliability and accuracy have not played a really big role in the evolving nature of newspapers, their competitors, the public and others. The crisis of credibility remains however, and in the new digital world as we have known for so long, the ability to change content whether it be words or pictures is unlimited, with policing a chancy proposition at best. How does a newspaper manage to keep an eye on these issues along with all the others?

Sources - A radio program worthy of a computer-linked listen - "On The Media: This Week"

I am adding this link for a couple of reasons.

One, the program may not be generally known outside the US. It is an excellent and very thoughtful and witty discussion of events in the media world each week. This week's program includes a fascinating array of stories all of which relate in some way to the crises newspapers confront today. The last two items this week - one dealing with non-profit news models and the other dealing with these models that came out of a university in New York - are especially pertinent.

In addition, I'd commend the link on the right that allows you to see a short video about a book published this month by one of the show's hosts, Bob GARFIELD. He has an approach to where we stand that is both entertaining and incisive.

Crises - Evolution is a messy process - "Poynter Online - NewsPay"

This is a very good discussion of some of the conflicting and some of the constructive developments and events relating to all of the crises that newspapers face today. For me, perhaps the most interesting item here is the one attributed to Marissa MAYER at Microsoft. Her question as to why newspapers do not work on encouraging their customers to "DO" something after they have consumed some content is about as central to confronting crises as anything I can imagine. Why is it that newspapers are so bad at this in both print and online?

News - Are we saving "news" or "newspapers"? - "'Losing the News - The Future of the News That Feeds Democracy,' by Alex S. Jones" - NYTimes.com

Here is a British newspaper person's take on Alex JONES' new book. That's a good combination in preparation for Manging the Crisis in London.

Solutions - There are many, but who will choose? - "Reflections of a Newsosaur: How publishers can make web content pay"

Here is the third in the series, albeit with a bit of acknowledged self-interest on the part of the person writing these.

Ownership - Are there limits to how much newspaper owners are prepared to lose? - "Philly Newspapers File Debt-Free Bankruptcy Plan" - NYTimes.com

While the newspaper may survive for a while, these are not numbers that would leave anyone optimistic about the future.

Location, location - Newspapers are getting out-twitted; how embarrassing! - "Tweets Will Soon Come with a Dateline" - Bits Blog - NYTimes.com

A good argument can be made that newspapers ought to have perfected this way ahead of Twitter - for every story in the printed and online newspaper. Surely, there are ways to blend those two so that people can visualize additional layers of a story starting with where it was filed.

Models - Can you build a wall in a swamp? - "Reflections of a Newsosaur: What stops publishers from charging for news"

Here is the second installment of the piece to which I posted a link yesterday. We are down to some serious economics on the one hand, and I think some serious need of rethinking the whole idea why it is that people engage their newspapers. My feeling is that we will learn that it cannot be divided between pay and non-pay sides of a "wall", nor can it be divided on the basis of great news stories v. fattening school lunch menus. What newspapers are missing is the chance they have to be more like local Wikipedias than the normal ad hoc collection of what the reporters and editors think turns out to be today's news. If there ever was a time when we needed context to our lives, this is it. Paying for access to disorder which is how one would have to generally describe a newspaper's printed front page today (in terms of content) is not likely to fill many piggy banks; paying for access to order and value in one's life is another matter. We need to get more creative juices thinking imaginatively; it is distressing to see how locked into formulas we are that "may" have come out of the print life of newspapers (and still not realizing that people buy newspapers mostly for reasons unrelated to what would be on the paid side of these proposed walls).

Sports - Another pie to be divided - "Leagues Restrict Access as Fan and Financial Interests Intersect" - NYTimes.com

In a real sense, there is also a sports crisis for newspapers today. Where does a newspaper and its sports prowess fit in a world of restrictions from sports teams and venues, and a world increasingly full of people who do their own reporting for any who care to read, listen or watch? If newspapers put more creativity into seeking a long term solution to these problems, might they be more successful than with first-aid agreements with sports organizaitons that build more on the past than on the futre?

Revenues - Stepping backward 45 years to jump ahead; can it happen? - "Newspaper Industry Ad Revenue at 1965 Levels" - CJR

This is an especially important analysis of where the US newspaper business stands in the midst of all the crises. It stands where it stood almost 45 years ago. Now, newspapers outside the US may dismiss this as just a US problem. But I think they do so ill-advisedly. The sectoral change at work in the US is spreading elsewhere, already has in many cases, the solutions tried so far by newspapers are not reversing the trends. What else can be done?

New services - Shouldn't a newspaper be the "knowledge" center of its market? - "New York Times Knowledge Network"

One of the sectors that often does well when the economy is in bad shape are education and training. People often find themselves in a position to use "down" time to improve their skills. This service from the The New York Times may fall into that category. As newspapers confront their many crises, are there other initiatives designed to expand the newspaper value proposition in areas which may responde better or quicker than others as the financial crisis continues? Are these areas that can strengthen the value of the newspaper to its market over the long term?

Consider this study that says that online learning may be more effective than face-to-face. Does that open up new opportunities for newspapers?

Viability - Can we learn from "sustainability" initiatives? - "Inhabitat » Germany Unveils World Class Sustainable ECO CITY"

One of the terms that I do not hear used very often is "sustainable newspaper". In seeing this announcement from Hamburg, it struck me that maybe it was worth giving it a little thought. Yes, the "sustainable" label usually gets used today to describe environmental initiatives but the whole point of those efforts is to make places viable and successful in all respects, not just in terms of the environment. One could say many of these same things about how newspapers need to attack the crises they confront. How, exactly, do we construct or reconstruct sustainable newspapers for years to come?

Revenue - Where are the blueprints for the "pay" wall anyway? - "Why aren’t we paying for news?" - Reflections of a Newsosaur

This series of three postings should prove to be useful as we think about newspaper revenue streams and the changing height, thickness and location of whatever imaginary wall there may be between what newspapers think they do that is of value to customers and how customers value that offering from their pocketbooks.

Many outside the newspaper business, of course, are making the same sorts of calculations as this report underlines.

Journalism - How are we going to keep what's best? - "Alex Jones On 'Losing The News,' And Why It Matters" - NPR

Alex JONES has an important message here for anyone involved in tackling all of today's newspaper crises. It is well worth listening to the interview by one of the best radio interviewers on air today in the US.

Hyperlocal - It seemed like a good idea at the time - "Washington Post Ends Hyperlocal News Experiment" - Bits Blog - NYTimes.com

There is so much yet to be learned about what the market will accept, what it can be taught to accept, the resources required, and the revenue to be earned.

Multiple media - The day is so short, the tasks so many - "Marketers Vie For TV Viewers Who Web Surf" - NPR

It may be time to rethink some of the core relationships betweeen the physical newspaper - and, sure, its website too - and the consumer. What do we know about what other tasks people are likely doing when they are in newspaper "space" of any kind, including online?

Acquisitions - Balancing lots of newspapers against big competitors - "How did newspapers lose Everyblock?" - Reflections of a Newsosaur

The need for newspaper creativity in responding to the crises is not going to met only by individual newspapers. Some amount of collective ingenuity is needed as well.

Magazines - Are the issues very different in the end? - "Reader’s Digest Plans Chapter 11 Filing" - DealBook Blog - NYTimes.com

There is much to be learned from what other media are doing in these times. Here's a venerable magazine with a rich heritage - doing generically what many newspapers do in reprinting wire service stories akin to Reader's Digest articles (i.e., not written by the newspaper itself) - which may or may not have a future and which is succombing in any case to the demands of lenders.

Markets - Understanding the little ones - "Blogger Stirs a City by Suggesting That a Florida Couple’s Murder Was a Contract Killing" - NYTimes.com

Each newspaper's market is really a series of micro-markets, some concentric and some completely separate. One might revolve about an issue in the news while another might surround a full page advertisement for a product or service. Still another might be focused entirely on employment advertising.

The linked article reminds us that the traditional newspaper is often not at the center of individual customers' own micro-markets of interest. Instead, it could be a friend, or in this case a blogger, who could be at the center or at least play a greater role than the newspaper does. We need to understand these smalle markets from the standpoint of the customer, and find creative ways to work the offerings of newspapers into those markets.

Government - What's the right policy? - "Howard Kurtz Media Notes: News Business Must Save Itself, Not Turn to President" - washingtonpost.com

In some countries, there may be a consensus that government action is not the solution to newspaper crises, but in others, it's a different story.

Innovation - Are auctions newspaper advertisers or newspaper services? - "On the Auction Site Swoopo, Paying to Place Each Bid" - NYTimes.com

Surely, newspapers and newspaper people are plenty smart enough to come up with all sorts of services that add to the lives of their customers by making them richer, less poor, healthier, better informed - of course, as well as finding jobs, homes and food. The innovations that I see at most newspapers seem too often to be some distance from the core of that mission. I'd hope, anyway, that each newspaper has a good multiple media answer to each night's customer question - what did you DO for me today?

Alternatives - Can a think tank save journalism? - "News Publishers Debate Journalism's Future Live at Aspen Summit" - The Huffington Post

This should be of interest to anyone planning to attend Managing the Crisis in London.

Revenue - Better walls good customers make? - "Financial Times Feels Vindicated by Web Strategy" - NYTimes.com

Is this an answer to one of newspapers' crises?

Protecting content - Is this a finger in the dike? - "Here’s the AP document we’ve been writing about" - Nieman Journalism Lab

Will this work in the US and/or anywhere else in the world?

Ownership - When new owners get unhappy.... "Creditors: We have reorganization plan for DN, Inky - with new bosses" - Philadelphia Daily News

As newspaper ownership moves to people and places where it did not used to be, problems arise. The people who helped moved the newspapers are finding themselves asked to move as well.

This is not limited to Philadelphia. One of the biggest US newspaper sales ever is also facing huge changes.

New services - A votre santé! - "Seeking Revenue, New York Times Company Creates Wine Club" - NYTimes.com

Think about it.....the idea of reading your newspaper with a glass of wine in hand. Maybe that's what The New York Times has in mind as it launches its own wine club. (Coincidentally, in today's printed copy of the Times came both this story and an unusual four-color insert: an ad for the Wall Street Journal's wine club!)

So many newspapers around the world - print and electronic versions - are used while doing something else, often eating and/or drinking. Have we given enough thought during the crises as to what "goes" best with a newspaper and how to make the most of it?

Alliances - How does an editor dress up for television? - "Fired by WRAL-TV" - newsobserver.com blogs

There are lots of opportunities for newspapers to partner with other media, and creative ideas ought to be pursued. What needs to be avoided is the belief that reporters talking about the news are going to appeal to a mass audience. Something more is surely needed in order to make these initiatives work. In this case, that was absent.

Alliances - Will it work? - "Journalism Online says 506 publications have signed letters of intent to become affiliates" - Poynter Online - Romenesko

This is a semi-ambitious undertaking that's probably worth watching. It strikes me that the predicted revenue stream is a pipe dream, but I look forward to being proven wrong.

The point for the London program next month is that we all need to look very hard at projects like this and separate out the hope, the egos, the reality, and the revenues. In this case, that's especially hard to do.

This column does a good job of laying out some of the uncertainty surrounding this initiative.

And this fleshes it out even more.

I'll await some more confirmations and, most importantly, some demonstration that this is what the marketplace will accept and use.

Human resrouces - Fire in the face of competition - "Another Round of Layoffs at San Diego Paper" - Media Decoder Blog - NYTimes.com

San Diego is another US market well worth watching. Here you have a highly-regarded and successful previously family-owned newspaper in a much-promoted market in Southern California that has now moved to ownership by an investment firm, continues to cut employees and is facing wave after wave of new electronic competition. Managing its way out of where the newspaper finds itself is going to be a challenge of monumental proportions and well worth studying.

Following that news, here is some optimism from San Diego.

Channels - Can/do newspapers hope ever again to be gatekeepers? - "As Studios Cut Budgets, Indie Filmmakers Go Do-It-Yourself" - NYTimes.com

Historically, newspapers stood between the portion of their customers responsible in some way for the content of tomorrow's newspaper and the people waiting to consume that paper. That is still the case for the classic printed newspaper. But the developments are clear all around that paper island -- showing that for better or worse more of the people on the input side want to be controlling the output as well.

Newspapers have much to learn from what is happening in other media, like film, and in other fields. We hope to discuss some of this at Managing the Crisis. Managers have critical decisions to make about whether to shift to a system that removes the barriers and provides only the means to publish, retain the historic approach, or creatively blend the two together.

Human Resources - Fire, then hire? -"The Journal News Cuts 70 News and Ad Sales Jobs" - NYTimes.com

Cutting these positions is a desperate move by Gannett, but there may be some transfiguration in the wind. How to do this is what will distinguish the good managers from the great, and the others.

Priorities - Do newspapers know what they don't know? - "A Nascent Debate in Germany - Research or Manufacturing?" - NYTimes.com

It occurred to me that the same choice, when you get right down to it, confronts newspapers today. Will they charge off to "manufacture" all that they can on multiple platforms or will they temper that with significantly more research and development investment then newspapers traditionally have made?

Advertising - Where are newspapers in the coupon game? - "Yahoo Gets in the Coupon Game" - Brandweek

Electronic coupons of one sort or another seem to be coming from everywhere....except newspapers. The newspaper offerings that I have seen or tried to use have generally been hard to use and of little value after expending the effort to get "there". Are there good examples of how newspapers have used advertiser or other coupons as a way to confront the financial crisis facing so many customers?

Customers - Different digital strokes for different folks? -- "Seeking New News Formulas, ABC Tries A 'Quick Fix'" - NPR

One of the opportunities that electronic technologies present to newspapers, and always has, is the chance to publish far more than a single newspaper. Alas, the same is true for every media organization than enters this world. Each is able to publish whatever it chooses to whatever small or large audience it chooses to reach. The truth is that newspapers and other large media organizations forget this all too often and go only for a mass approach without fully developing and deploying more targetted offerings. That's what makes this piece about ABC Television in the US so interesting. Think for a moment about which newspapers are doing something similar?

Advertising - How big will "blog" advertising be? - "Notice Those Ads on Blogs? Regulators Do, Too" - NYTimes.com

The term "blog" has stuck far longer than I expected it would. It's simply a way of posting more quickly to the web and not much more, but persist it has. Many newspapers have adopted this technology and they have watched others do the same. Advertising on blogs has always been a little light, to say the least, with so many "bloggers" finding the compensation of simply "publishing" on the web to be ample. But that is changing as the technology merges with other technologies and new products result.

In the midst of the crises, what should a newspaper be doing either to tap this market or to monitor the market's impact on advertising placed in various newspaper offerings?

Revenue and "membership" - What is on your calendar of newspaper-sponsored events? - "Goodbye Guardian. Hello the Guardian Experience" - The Guardian

It strikes me that there is a lot of merit in what Simon JENKINS writes here. At the very least, this whole issue of "club" or "experience" is one that ought to be discussed at Managing the Crisis. It's partly new revenue opportunities, as he notes, but it's even more about customer loyalty and interest; it's the question of the very significance of a newspaper today in the life of its customer or hoped-for customer.

Technology - Will virtual newsstands be more successful than the real thing? "My Digital Newspaper"

Here's a new launch in the midst of the crises. Maybe we can get them to join us at "Managing the Crisis" to talk about how to resolve one crisis or another with this virtual newsstand, as they call it.

Technology - Can you make a sail out of newsprint? - "Prototype - How Old-Technology Companies Can Extend Their Lives" - NYTimes.com

This is a very thoughtful essay by a professor at the Harvard Business School. In it, she talks about printing technology evolution and business planning, among other technologies, and suggests in conclusion that "selective, intelligent innovation in the old may just hold the key to the future". Surely, that's an idea worth debating at Managing the Crisis. It would be so helpful if we can include the experiences of companies in other sectors, as she does in this essay.

Size - What will happen as local news sites become sustainable? - "Small is beautiful (and successful) for newspapers" - The Associated Press

While smaller newspapers may be weathering the financial storm better than larger papers, are the smaller ones immune from the crises? Will local communities rely on paper and small-town reporting by a newspaper or will they, too, turn to online competitors both local and national who find a business model capable of covering " chicken dinners"?

Survival - How do newspapers respond when readers try to build a life raft? - "Save The Birmingham Eccentric"

Are support groups made up of readers and customers the way to go?

Leadership - Talking over the options - "Media Executives Share Job Headaches" - NPR

London is not the only place where newspaper and other media leaders are getting together to talk about some of today's crises. Read more about the Columbia University program here.

Evolution - Paper up and so is electronic successor - "Seattle Times Finds Resurgence as Solo Act" - NYTimes.com

Seattle will be well worth some discussion at Managing the Crisis.

Customer habits - Fitting in amidst all the other choices - "For Families Today, Technology Is Morning’s First Priority" - NYTimes.com

Where does a newspaper and all that it offers, and can offer, customers fit into the lives of those customers? It is getting much more crowded and the traditional newspaper "slot" risks being cut to shreds.

Technology - Will they app their way to newsppaers? - "Big Media Companies Navigate Free Content and Apps" - NYTimes.com

During such challenging times, is it the moment to join the army of apps?

Photography - Who will snap newspaper pictures? - "Lament for a Dying Field" - Photojournalism - NYTimes.com

Perhaps we are leaving out a slice of the crises pie - photography? Are we taking photographs as a stape of newspaper content seriously and creatively enough?

Here is news about newspaper photographers in San Diego. Are they an endangered species?

Customers - Will we recognize who is buying newspaper advertising? - "Microsoft Sells Razorfish Digital Agency to the Publicis Groupe" - NYTimes.com

For many newspapers, advertising agencies historically have not been especially important for a variety of reasons. The advent of electronic technologies, however, has changed that. Now, in addition to everything else, the evolving shape of the advertising agency business, and especially its online players, has to be a key part of any newspaper's assault on various crises. The emerging leaders are going to be making a lot of decisions in the future that will mean large sums of money, or not, for newspaper advertising space in all media.

Print viability - The city of "brotherly love" is losing its love of newspapers - "What’s a Big City Without a Newspaper?" - NYTimes.com

Is a city without a newspaper like a town without textbooks? See the previous post.....

Print/electronic - Is digital everything inevitable? - "As Classrooms Go Digital, Textbooks May Become History" - NYTimes.com

Is a school without textbooks like a town without a newspaper? Are they both inevitable?

Revenues - Is what goes down likely to come back up? - "David Montgomery's Mecom posts 75% fall in operating profits" - guardian.co.uk

This is a very grim picture, and the question for discussion at Managing the Crisis is not just how well this is being managed during the crises, but whether there is a forseeable upside coming out the other side. In other words, will lost revenue find its way back to newspapers or is it gone for good?

Customers - Do you need two rulers to measure a newspaper customer? - "The stickiness of UK newspaper sites compared" - Online Journalism Blog

Is this analysis of data about use of the British newspaper websites relevant to a newspaper still primarily in the printed newspaper business? I'd argue that it is not just because of the impact on website operations. In addition to that, what assumptions are newspaper managers making about how readers of their printed products actually consume the copies in their hands. Surely, advertisers want to know this.

Evolving models - Making print PLUS electronic a winning combo - "Politico’s Washington Coup" - vanityfair.com

No matter whether it is a traditional newspaper or not, there is something to be learned by newspapers by any organization that is balancing print and electronic offerings. So, too, with this analysis in Vanity Fair of Politico in the US. Are newspapers yet at the point where they can objectively assess the value of their print operations to longterm viability of the overall newspaper enterprise?

Revenue - Can newspapers stem the free tide? - "Murdoch vows to charge for all online content" - FT.com

We'll certainly be able to talk about this strategic choice at Managing the Crisis in September, and we'll be doing it in a city - London - where Rupert MURDOCH's newspaper decisions have a big impact.

Innovation - Telling customers what you're doing - "Innovations In News" - WashingtonPost.com

This section of the Washington Post site is worth noting for a couple of reasons. One is how the Post is reporting here on the new things that it and co-owned Slate are doing - 4 of them in July alone. The other is that they have gotten a quite logical sponsor for this page, the Toyota Prius. That's a nice combination of innovation and revenue all around.

Technology - Can newspapers measure their customers? - "Advertising - Geomentum Aims to Measure Ad Results Down to the City Block" - NYTimes.com

Are newspapers getting this good at measuring how their content is being used or valued by customers?

Personnel - Can a new kind of "bean counter" save newspapers? - "For Today’s Graduate, Just One Word - Statististics" - NYTimes.com

Newspapers may need to be thinking about a whole new class of "number crunchers" as newspapers figure out how to get on the other side of today's crises. Has it become essential for newspapers to employ people who really understand what Google and other companies our doing in using statistical measurements to define product offerings and marketing?

Public policy - What role for government in online advertising? - "Fresh Views at Agency Overseeing Online Ads" - NYTimes.com

Is it inevitable that there will be more government regulation of what appears on line? Or will the internet retain its legendary ability to act on its own, free of regulation?

Technology - Who is watching what you publish and what are they doing with it? - NYTimes.com

The number of entities following, studying, using, reorganizing newspaper and other content, and either profiting or not from their efforts, continues to expand. Media Cloud is but one of them, but in the midst of crises, newspapers need to follow at least some of these trends.

Smaller circulation newspapers - Are they going to recover first? - Editor & Publisher

The length of the crises and whether, for newspapers, they will ever end, is critical question for managers. What are the most useful positive signs that newspapers can expect to see?

Non-profit model - Someone has to pay the bills - Boston Herald

Understanding the non-profit newspaper option is very important. Many have commented on the idea, mostly supportive, not really understanding as is pointed out here that nonprofit status does not in any way guarantee success or viability.

Niche newspapers - Are they the best bet? - guardian.co.uk

There is quite a contrast between the Guardian, in which this story appears, and the Financial Times. What lessons are to be drawn from the difference?

Crisis communications - What does a newspaper owe the world in explaining the crises newspapers confront? - Editor & Publisher

During these crises, it is easy to forget the importance of communicating in some fashion, or not, with various constituencies. What is the message that newspapers ought to be sharing about themselves with customers of all kinds?

Customers - Access more, pay less? - LeMonde.Fr

The pervasiveness of the internet, and internet use, has reached new levels in Europe, Le Monde reports in this piece (in French) about a report issued today in Brussels. LeMonde notes the aversion to paying for content, and that remains one of newspaper managers' most challenging problems as today's various crises evolve. Here is the report , which is headlined "Digital economy can lift Europe out of crisis, says Commission report". And for newspapers?

Predictions - Which way do the big media numbers seem headed? - NYTimes.com

There will be a lot in this report to consider at Managing the Crisis.

Managing - Guardian Group loses a bundle - Press Gazette

One can only hope that there will be better news emanating from London and elsewhere before the end of September. News like this certainly is discouraging.

Program - Google and Apple, competing - NYTimes.com

We'll have a chance to ask Apple about this on the first day of the conference....

Revenue - Can "free" possibly win the battle when we all have to eat? - The Independent

Sometimes newspapers are best viewed by thoughtful people from slightly outside the business. David SIMON, writer of the television series, The Wire, has taken on those who somehow believe that free is the only way forward, mysteriously overlooking the human need to be compensated in order to eat, among other things.

Technology - How to manage newspapers consumed on electronic readers? - National Public Radio

This story talks about some issues - especially from the personal user vantage point - related to using electronic devices to read books. Newspapers are not mentioned, yet they are a small part of this world already.

How does a newspaper manager figure out the proper response to the apparent growth of this technology, learn from the experiences of other non-newspaper publishers, and - perhaps most important - relate best to the evolving preferences of customers in turbulent econonic times?

Alliances - YouTube? - NYTimes.com

Newspapers partnering with YouTube? For newspaper management, the unimaginable becomes at least an agenda item.