The need for collaboration and a re-calibration of profit expectations

Talked with a senior executive of a U.S. newspaper group yesterday, and it's clear the urgency for collaboration among newspapers continues to rise. I'm hearing of a rise in bi-lateral and multi-lateral meetings among newspaper competitors and intensifying attempts to make transparent what they do – tough for competitors to do. The challenge is that while each corporation is set up with cross-functional teams, there are few methods to effectively get these corporations to cooperate with each other – call it "leadership," "facilitation," or a "gentle nudge." This gets into the practicalities of collaboration.

As debt restructuring continues, I also heard the panic in the voice to push transformational change now before the opportunity disappears.

Yet here is a major nuance to understand. The executive's company is still profitable. By any standard among companies in other industries, very profitable. But by the corporation's historic standards, they are making only 40% of the profit they used to.

His ...[more]

Detroit newspapers’ reinvention more about weak days than strong days

Two weeks into the Detroit Media Partnership’s transformational experiment to three-day home delivery, it’s clear we’re focusing on the wrong days of the week.

To see what I mean, go back four months when Detroit Media Partnership – the joint operating agreement between Gannett and MediaNews that that manages the business functions for the Detroit Free Press and The Detroit News – announced that it was reducing its seven-day print home delivery to its three most profitable and most read days of the week: Thursday, Friday, and Sunday.

It was an astounding admission that the cost structures governing daily newspapers were crumbling and that advertising had dropped so much that a major metropolitan market could only support home delivery of the newspapers three days per week. A new distribution model was needed.

What a loss. What a defeat.

In fact, a snapshot of ...[more]

Jarvis encourages newspapers to “face the devil fully”

I just got off the phone with Jeff Jarvis, author of What Google Would Do?, proprietor of Buzzmachine.com, and opening speaker at the upcoming INMA World Congress in Miami.

Jeff’s big message is that the architecture of media is evolving from a content economy to a link economy. While there’s still health in print, the inexorable trends worldwide suggest a digital future that requires quality news providers to think collaboratively. The great opportunity for newspapers may be in networks, especially sales opportunities and understanding how audiences can distribute your content.

In Miami, Jeff plans to take the premise of his new book and apply it to newspapers. What would Google do with newspapers? No doubt he will talk about the war of words between news providers and news aggregators, which you can read more about here.

“The first thing you need to do is ...[more]

Utko tells TED that design can save print newspapers

Poland-based newspaper designer Jacek Utko has helped transform newspapers in Eastern/Central Europe, as well as Russia. He recently spoke at this year's TED conference under the theme “Can Design Save the Newspaper?” Interesting points, and interesting way to look at print – full of passion. Very different from elsewhere in the world.

Xark 2.0 report outlines what’s next for news

When I give a presentation, I talk the language I was raised on: newspapers. It's a language my audience understands. We relate well. We share acronyms that are increasingly becoming global (CPMs, ROI). The common language facilitates so much.

During questions at a presentation recently in Sweden, a newspaper's chief digital officer asked me a detailed question about the commercial value of a syndicated online audience and the metrics and algorithms associated with this.

I froze.

I was busted.

No clue. Over my head. What language is he speaking?

I increasingly feel as if I need to learn this emerging language of media.

Two weeks ago, a blog called Xark 2.0 pushed me out of my comfort zone to take on "2020 Vision: What's Next For News." It was written by Dan Conover, and he speaks of things to come I know to be true – yet are uncomfortable since they aren't part ...[more]

Comedy Central's Stephen Colbert to NAA: Why don't newspapers try porn?