Read All About It – The Wall Street Journal, Dec. 28, 2007

[As Wall Street Journal Deputy Managing Editor Paul E. Steiger prepares to step out the door, he pens a thoughtful and dispassionate retrospective on what calls “the collapse of metro newspapers’ business model.” The 40-yet newspaper veteran chronicles the rise of the dominant media companies in the 60 and 70s that led to the post-Watergate “golden age of journalism.” He also tells of some of the spending excesses of that time that may have created too high a comfort level at the dominant dailies.

You’ll find some tidbits about the internal struggles at the Journal during the early days of the Internet. Steiger’s also right in pointing out that most newspapers’ early online efforts were half-hearted and unoriginal. This is ultimately a narrative on the industry’s decline, not an opinion piece about what should be or what should have been. In that respect, it’s frustrating to read. One would hope that a veteran with Steiger’s perspective would offer some opinon about what the industry should do, but he mainly sticks to the story line. In closing, however, he notes that he’s leaving the Journal to head up a small online investigative reporting group funded by two philanthropists. Perhaps his transition to the digital world is the most telling statement of all. – Ed.]

Switching sides – San Francisco Bay Guardian, Dec. 27, 2007
[A Bay Area alternative paper chronicles the diffusion of laid-off journalists into public relations jobs. While many are working for politicians and state agencies, some are in moving into the commercial sphere as well. Will the spinmeistering profession benefit from the addition of more seasoned journalists to the corps? – Ed.]

Seattle Times publisher hints at deep cuts – Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Dec. 27, 2007
“In his e-mail, [Seattle Times Publisher and Chief Executive Frank ] Blethen said revenue from print ads will be down by about 9 percent in 2007, with a similar decline expected in 2008. For combined 2007 and 2008, print revenue losses will be about $33 million, he said. In 2000, the paper booked $270 million in ad revenue, while in 2007, it fell below $200 million, he said. ‘Our Seattle Times newspaper losses for the decade will exceed $40 million — a staggering number,’ he wrote.”

U.S. media face troubling 2008 – Toronto Globe and Mail, Nov. 26, 2007
“Experts say advertisers need to remain competitive in a tighteningmarket while keeping costs down, making them likely to boost spending in areas more directly linked to commerce, such as Web search queries. That would benefit companies like Google Inc., Amazon.com Inc. and eBay Inc. But television networks like CBS or NBC and Web companies like Yahoo Inc. that rely on brand advertising could suffer.”

Those Hulking Media Failures – BusinessWeek, Dec. 20, 2007

[Fresh on the heels of an FCC decision to relax rules on media ownership, the author argues that the decision is basically meaningless because mega-media companies haven’t been successful. Citing numerous examples of media conglomerates that are either breaking up or slimming down, he cites the lack of scalability and poor economies of scale as the culprits. In other words, combining two newsrooms doesn’t result in more information being published at lower cost. Media consolidation isn’t working, he argues, so the FCC ruling won’t be much of an incentive to anyone. – Ed.]

Zell closes deal for The Times – Los Angeles Times, Dec. 21, 2007

[Sam Zell formally took control of Tribune Co. and promised to skewer the sacred cows. Zell fired the board of directors and brought in an eclectic collection of media personalities to advise him. He also took the title of CEO, indicating that he plans to take a strong hands-on role in running the company. Zell promised to decentralize and push the decision-making at Tribune Co.’s properties down to the local level. He said newspapers have a great future, though he admonished journalists for treating their readers “more like students than customers.” The new employee-owners of the company will be challenged to shed their “journalistic arrogance” and come up with new ways to generate revenue, he said. – Ed.]

November Journal Communications Revenues Plummet 13% On Political Ad Fall-Off – Editor & Publisher, Dec. 19, 2007
Retail advertising was up 1.9% — but classified advertising revenue slumped 15.5%, with bi declines in help-wanted and real estate. Help-wanted classified revenue fell 24.7%, while real estate was down 30.1%….Total interactive advertising revenue at the daily newspaper, which is included in various ad revenue categories, increased 38.8% to $1.19 million for the period.

Gannett November Revenues Fall 4.6% On Big Classifieds Drop – Editor & Publisher, Dec. 18, 2007
The fall was “propelled by huge declines in U.S. classified newspaper revenues, including a 28.4% plunge in real estate and a 23.5% collapse in help-wanted.”

Publisher Hands Sun-Sentinel News Site Over To Marketer – The Daily Pulp, Dec. 14, 2007
[The Sun-Sentinel puts a marketer in charge of the newspaper’s website, including editorial content. A lively debate takes place in the comments section, including opinions about the senior editorial manager who was laid off as a result of the changes. – Ed.]

Times Media readership increases – St. Cloud Times, Dec. 14, 2007
[The St. Cloud Times appears to be doing a few things right. Overall readership is up 9% over the last four years (presumably most of those gains are online). Aggressive investment in local coverage appears to be paying off: “Over a 30-day period, Times Media reaches 93 percent of the adults in the region, the highest of all Gannett papers’ surveys that have been measured so far.” – Ed.]

‘Cincy Post’ Shutting in 3 Weeks — How Staffers Spend Final Days – Editor & Publisher, Dec. 12, 2007
Many employees plan to get out of the journalism business.

Big Investor Tells Sun-Times Group To Cut More, Pay Execs In Stock – Editor & Publisher, Dec. 11, 2007
$1.8 billion plunge in shareholder equity has big hedge fund up in arms.

In a ruling that is (thank God) likely to be overturned by Congress, the Federal Communications Commission voted along party lines to eliminate long-standing rules that prohibited media companies from owning broadcast and newspaper outlets in the same market.

Supporters cited the dire state of the newspaper industry as one of the reasons for loosening the anti-monopoly rules. “Newspapers are struggling,” FCC Chairman Kevin Martin said in a quote published in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. If the layoffs were to continue, “we would be less informed.'”

It’s hard to believe anyone is less informed today than they were five years ago, before the explosion of new media outlets and online publishing made news cheap and plentiful. I suppose that if you get all your news from newspapers and broadcast outlets, then you’re potentially less well-informed today, but who on earth relies solely on those outlets for information? Other than the chairman of the FCC, that is.

News wonks may remember the joint operating agreements of the late 1970s that permitted newspapers that were on life support in smallish markets like Detroit to remain viable long after the market had already rendered its opinion on their value. These deals were supposedly struck in the public interest, but what they really did was enable poorly managed marginal newspapers to endure as subsidiaries of equally poorly managed monopolies. The difference was that in the 1970s you could make a legitimate argument that the public interest was served by maintaining at least an illusion of choice. Today people are overwhelmed by choice. The FCC’s action merely attempts to give media companies more time to avoid facing the realities of a competitive market.

Let’s hope Congress acts quickly to put an end to this follow. In the meantime, read more:

FCC’s Contested Cross-Ownership Rule Set for Vote – Washington Post

FCC wrapping a big package for media conglomerates – The Denver Post

FCC relaxes rules on media ownership – Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The following commentaries come from longtime foot soldiers of newspapering who speak out against the bottom-line mindset that has overtaken their industry.

MAGPIE » Killing the watchdogs. – Arthur Magazine blogs for you…

[David Carr presents an impassioned and eloquent argument for the value of investigative reporting, despite the fact that it will never be a profit-making activity. “Thousands of bloggers could type for a millennium and not come up with the kind of deeply reported story that freed innocent men — an effort that takes years of inquiry, deep sources and a touch for making unholy secrets knowable,” he writes. Layoffs and cost-cutting are threatening to kill this vital public policy role that the media plays. -Ed.]

Scholars and Rogues » Blog Archive » Journalism then; journalism now: comprehending the difference

[Denny Wilkins remembers the best editor he ever had and rues the fact that big corporations have turned news reporting into a commercial endeavor. He quotes frequently from David Carr’s piece noted above. – Ed.]

Gannett’s got a brand new (anonymous) blog!

[The Gannett Blog is all about Gannett Co., Inc. Only it’s not published by Gannett. The author describes him/herself as “Not in management. Not a union member. No ax to grind. And Gannett Blog has no formal affiliation with Gannett Co. Inc.” One thing’s for sure: the author is prolific, often posting several items a day. The blog was launched in June but has only been actively updated for the past month or so. Gannett employees are encouraged to submit tips. – Ed.]

More on Times Layoffs – New York Observer, Nov. 29, 2007

[The New York Observer publishes a memo from Times management about the layoffs along with a Newspaper Guild reaction. Apparently the Times still maintains a photo lab years after news photography went entirely digital. -Ed.]

Smithfield Herald to Shift Printing Operations to News & Observer – WRAL.com, Nov. 28, 2007

On Bad Day For Newspaper Stocks — Sun-Times Media Group Sinks 23% – Editor & Publisher, Nov. 26, 2007

[No one knows why Sun-Times stock fell 23% in one day. – Ed.]

Black October For Tribune Revenues – MediaPost, Nov. 28, 2007

[The Trib’s ad revenue was off 10.6% in October, largely because of lower real-estate advertising. Perhaps even worse is that circulation revenue was down 6.3%, meaning that the paper is losing subscribers. Speculation is that unless the FCC will let Tribune Co. own a newspaper and a TV station in the same market, buyer Sam Zell may back out of the deal. – Ed.]

Online Revenue Grew 21% In 3Q For Newspapers – MediaPost, Nov. 23, 2007

[Good news about strong growth in newspaper online ad revenue is tempered by the fact that growth is slowing and that print revenue declines are falling faster than online sales can make up the difference. – Ed.]

Deflating sales for de press – Reflections of a Newsosaur

[Alan Mutter adjusts newspaper industry financials for inflation and reports that 2007 print advertising revenues are actually about 20% below 1997 figures. What’s worse is that the decline is accelerating. Ed.]

How an electronic newspaper could become profitable – Crosscut Seattle

[A veteran journalist proposes a scenario in which print newspapers move entirely to Amazon’s Kindle reader and ditch print entirely. This article has some interesting numbers about what it costs to run a newspaper, based on averages provided by industry associations. It also presents an intriguing cost/benefit model, one which ultimately argues that ditching print may actually be a good idea. – Ed.]

L.A. Times Launches Readers’ Representative Journal – Bloggers Blog, Nov. 27, 2007

[The LA Times has been tiptoeing into the world of audience interaction. Some stories invite reader comments, although hyperlinks are almost absent within editorial content. The LA Times has badly fumbled its frachise over the last two decades, by many accounts. For example, this morning’s home page contains not a single sentence in Spanish. And this is Los Angeles. – Ed.]

Departing Sentinel editor takes job with PR firm – SantaCruzSentinel.com, Nov. 30, 2007

Quoting: “Honig acknowledged Thursday that he anticipated further cuts at the150-year-old newspaper following a round of editorial layoffs this summer…The Sentinel’s publisher, David B. Regan, confirmed that he will make an announcement in coming weeks about possible further cuts at the newspaper. He said it has not been determined if layoffs are imminent, but said, ‘Everything is on the table.'”

‘NYT’ To Axe 12 Newsroom Jobs Now, Management Cuts Next Year – Editor & Publisher, Nov. 28, 2007

[The people affected are mainly support and clerical staff, indicating that the Times is still reluctant to take strong medicine. It’s easiest to cut the people at the bottom of the food chain, but laying off executives and veteran reporters is where you get the real cost savings. This move looks more like a sop to investors. – Ed.]

USA TODAY plans to cut 45 newsroom jobs – USATODAY.com, Nov. 15, 2007

[In reporting on its own troubles, USA Today points to a copy of the memo from Editor Ken Paulson, which oddly is hosted on Poynter. – Ed.]

McClatchy’s Kansas City Star offers buyouts – Reuters, Nov, 28, 2007

[As noted in other posts, McClatchy is probably the most troubled newspaper company in the country. Ed.]