29 October 2009
"National Post of Canada May Close on Friday" - DealBook Blog - NYTimes.com
I think we are going to look back 5 years from now and ask ourselves why we did not realize that the newspaper business is falling apart all around us and respond with the emergency creativity that the crises demand.
28 October 2009
26 October 2009
23 October 2009
"Real-time, Relevant Ads Matched With Real-time News? What a Concept!"
I think there is much to be said for this idea.
22 October 2009
"Newsday Plans to Charge for Online News" - NYTimes.com
By doing this, we'll all get a chance to see what happens!
19 October 2009
"Times Says It Will Cut 100 Newsroom Jobs" - Media Decoder Blog - NYTimes.com
The seriousness of this moment in the history of US newspapers cannot be overstated, and this action by The New York Times is a vivid reflection of so many newspaper crises.
"The Media Equation: How To Pay For News When Nobody Wants To Pay For News" - Media Decoder Blog - NYTimes.com
This is a very good summary of where things stand, and I worry that too many newspapers still believe that we are just working our way through tough times and tomorrow will be like yesterday. Add this to the mix as well http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/19/business/media/19carr.html?ref=media
15 October 2009
"Newspaper Trade Fair closes on successful note, despite economy" - Media Update
Still, that looks to be down from 8,800 last year.
"Le Quotidien du foot dans les kiosques mardi" - Le Figaro
It is encouraging to see any new newspaper initiatives during these crises. In France, Tuesday saw the launch of something we've never seen in the US - a daily newspaper devoted entirely to soccer! It costs about 1.50 USD per copy, is 24 pages and hopes for a circulation of 50-80,000 copies. It was first promised in Jan 2009.
14 October 2009
"Once Again, Some Newspapers To Get Thinner, Literally" - Media Decoder Blog - NYTimes.com
One of the problems that printed newspapers face around the world is that almost no consideration is gvien to how a consuming customer now uses the paper beyond reading it, or what might be offered that would increase the ways - beyond reading that the newspaper might get used.
I am not speaking of bird cage lining or fish scaling.
What I mean is that a huge amount of effort goes into preparing the pages of any printed newspaper. When a person looks at the front page, and then turns to other pages, she or he winds up being drawn to things of interest, whether it is editorial content, advertising or anything else. Once attracted, the customer decides if it is worth consuming beyond a cursory glance.
Here is where it gets important and is overlooked.
How does the person who invests his or her time in going beyond that cursory glance then make use the actual newspaper space occupied by whatever prompted the closer look? Or is the medium just the repository for the ink and message and nothing more?
I think it can be much more and during these crises, it is a time to rethink that list of what all it could be. Is it easy to clip a story and share with a family member? Is it easy to use the printed ad to pursue a newspaper provided option online connected to the ad? Is it easy to clip a coupon valuable at a store? Can something in the newspaper be scanned and used to earn a discout somewhere? Does the printed content lead the customer to more newspaper-provided content?
The list is long and the attention it is getting is virtually non-existent. That's a shame.
I am not speaking of bird cage lining or fish scaling.
What I mean is that a huge amount of effort goes into preparing the pages of any printed newspaper. When a person looks at the front page, and then turns to other pages, she or he winds up being drawn to things of interest, whether it is editorial content, advertising or anything else. Once attracted, the customer decides if it is worth consuming beyond a cursory glance.
Here is where it gets important and is overlooked.
How does the person who invests his or her time in going beyond that cursory glance then make use the actual newspaper space occupied by whatever prompted the closer look? Or is the medium just the repository for the ink and message and nothing more?
I think it can be much more and during these crises, it is a time to rethink that list of what all it could be. Is it easy to clip a story and share with a family member? Is it easy to use the printed ad to pursue a newspaper provided option online connected to the ad? Is it easy to clip a coupon valuable at a store? Can something in the newspaper be scanned and used to earn a discout somewhere? Does the printed content lead the customer to more newspaper-provided content?
The list is long and the attention it is getting is virtually non-existent. That's a shame.
"Newspapers won't be abandoned, but they need to change" - Editors Weblog
I think I would have written a more alarmist headline.... something like:
"Newspapers fail to transfer brand from paper to digital, and they are losing the survival battle"
"Newspapers fail to transfer brand from paper to digital, and they are losing the survival battle"
13 October 2009
"Guardian looks to bloggers to fill local news gap" - Editors Weblog
I think this approach has tremenedous potential; the issue will be management of the content. It will go out with the Guardian's brand and the Guardian needs to gear up, as they may be doing, to be able to make sure what is offered is consistent with that brand. If they do, this could be a real winner....provided they make the right judgments (what people want and need in their daily lives) about what to cover. If they get that wrong, this will fail miserably, and if anyone should get it right, on the other hand, it is they!
12 October 2009
09 October 2009
08 October 2009
07 October 2009
"MaCartePresse" lancé à Marseille pour acheter les journaux moins cher - Actualités Medias sur Voila Actu
This strikes me as an overly complex solution to the wrong problem.
06 October 2009
Customers - Health is pretty essential, no? - "A New Web Tool to Take Control of Your Health" - NYTimes.com
Which newspaper anywhere in the world is meeting the health needs of its consuming customers?
Customers - Meeting essential information needs - "Pew Research Center Study:Bulk Of Reporting Covered Wall Street And Government, Not Regular People"
This goes to a key point I have tried to make in recent months. Newspapers need to refocus much of their energy - I would say the majority - on serving the "essential" needs of their consuming customers. If newspapers do not do that, they are destined to become even more marginal, more elitist, and less successful.
05 October 2009
Technology - I'll have a tablet with my coffee, please - "The Quest Continues for a Tablet PC" - NYTimes.com
This article raises the most important question - how will tablets fit into the lives of consuming customers? How will they actually use them?
Confidence - How do newspapers earn it in goods and services? - "On the Internet, Everyone's a Critic But They're Not Very Critical" - WSJ.com
For the crisis of "confidence" I would suggest that newspapers need to work harder to define why it is that consuming customers ought to be able to trust what a newspaper provides over what comes from the who-knows-who in the internet. This article talks about how the current free-for-all system is resulting in misleading high ratings for too many.
Compensation - How much is right? - "The Media Equation - With Tribune in Bankruptcy, a Tone-Deaf Request for Bonuses" - NYTimes.com
In recent days, there have been several stories about compensation to people working in the news and newspaper business. The other principal one has been ProPublica, the non-profit supported primarily by the gift of one man, where they claim to be paying salaries commensurate witht he private sector....although seemingly too high. In all of these cases, there is a need for a "reality check", a sober reflection on whether the business of news can support such high pay anymore. If we are looking for a way to have a sustainable newspaper business, I doubt almost completely that we will find that plan amidst salaries for editors and reporters well over 300,000 USD.
Competition - How will Chinese media development impact newspapers in other countries? - "China Hopes to Create Its Own Media Empires" - NYTimes.com
There is always China to worry about as well!
04 October 2009
Customers - What exactly do newspapers think that customers expect to get out of their newspapers? - www.figaromedias.fr
This is a refreshing line from Le Figaro in France. On TV and here in the website, it says to the marketplace "s'informer pour decider" or inform yourself in order to decide, or learn in order to decide. That's a nice strategic description of what a newspaper ought to help its customers do.
"Giraffe Forum » Surviving information-seeking sickness"
My Irish friend, Gerry McGOVERN, manages to hit this giraffe right on the head. He would have been a great addition to our London program and I commend him to anyone reading this.....
Competition - There sure is a lot of it.... - "Grands sites mondiaux méconnus" - Journal du Net
While this is in French, it is easy to follow - showing the top 50 sites in the world in terms of traffic. Without quibbling over the exact numbers, take a look at all of them. This report suggests that we probably have never heard of 12 out of this group. I think they are right!
"Gary Hamel: What Really Kills Great Companies: Inertia" - Gary Hamel’s Management 2.0 - WSJ
I don't know if you can access this piece without a WSJ subscription but it echoes very succinctly so much of the good advice shared at the London conference. If you want access to it, I may be able to e-mail you a link that will work without a subscription. Otherwise, you will have to subscribe? How awful would that be?
03 October 2009
02 October 2009
01 October 2009
"Best Buy Plans a Very Twittery Christmas" - Bits Blog - NYTimes.com
Perhaps few newspapers will be following in Best Buy's Christmas footsteps.
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