The New York Times - Forbes magazine said on Monday that it planned to lay off several staff members from the editorial and business sides, a cost-cutting move in response to decreasing advertising revenue.
The announcement was made in an internal memorandum sent Monday afternoon by Steve Forbes, the company’s chief executive and editor in chief of the magazine. “We — and the entire media world — have been hit hard by both the severe recession and the seismic shifts wrought by the Web,” Mr. Forbes wrote. “Given these dramatic events, further layoffs, unfortunately, are necessary across the entire organization.”
Monie Begley, a Forbes spokeswoman, declined to specify the number of layoffs. She said that some people had been dismissed Monday, and she expected layoffs to continue throughout the week.
The layoffs came after other cuts at Forbes over the last year, including dismissing about 100 employees, having employees take five days of unpaid leave, and ceasing matching contributions to its 401(k) program.
Although circulation has been holding relatively steady at Forbes, with reported circulation at 914,000 for the first six months of this year, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations, ad pages have not. Ad pages dropped 32.5 percent in the third quarter, according to the Publishers Information Bureau, to just above 300 pages.
Showing posts with label Advertising. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Advertising. Show all posts
Friday, October 30, 2009
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Bloomberg Buys BusinessWeek From McGraw-Hill
Editor's note: Watch for Bloomberg to dump a bunch of money into money-losing BusinessWeek. The company still needs to be repositioned away from a weekly business magazine, a dying format, if it is going to make money. All the weekly news magazines are in trouble except for The Economist. - MT
The New York Times - Bloomberg is taking another step from the trading floor into the corner office.
The company said Tuesday that it was the winning bidder for BusinessWeek, the troubled 80-year-old title that McGraw-Hill had put on sale this summer.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but the price was said to be near $5 million, plus assumption of liabilities, which were $31.9 million as of April.
The magazine will continue to be a weekly print publication, rechristened Bloomberg BusinessWeek. Decisions have not been made about BusinessWeek’s staff of more than 400 people; Bloomberg will select which of those employees it wants by the end of the year, when the deal closes. Those not selected will receive severance from McGraw-Hill, said a BusinessWeek executive.
The deal is expected to close by the end of the year.
BusinessWeek was in a tough spot financially, and lost more than $800,000 dollars a week last year. Investors had pressured McGraw-Hill to get it off its books. While there was interest from parties in the private equity world, Bloomberg was seen as the preferred buyer.
“We are committed to the partnership,” said BusinessWeek president Keith Fox in an interview. “Bloomberg is acquiring a really powerful brand with strong reach among business professionals.”
Faced with slowing sales of its financial data terminals during the recession that have since improved, Bloomberg had been looking to expand its presence in consumer media. Clients for Bloomberg’s terminals are largely financial professionals, and the purchase of BusinessWeek, with its consumer and executive readers, gives the media company more access to the corporate offices as well.
With its gigantic newsroom of about 2,200 people and its aggressive reporting, Bloomberg has won a growing number of awards, but it is frustrated by its lack of cachet in the journalism world. Reporters and editors have long been frustrated by the lack of access to business executives, and they believed that limited their ability to break news and be a player in larger news coverage.
With the acquisition, Bloomberg adds name recognition and a consumer publication. The company was considering combining the Bloomberg.com and BusinessWeek.com Web sites and adding the BusinessWeek brand and journalists to Bloomberg TV. The company will continue Bloomberg Markets, a monthly magazine.
The New York Times - Bloomberg is taking another step from the trading floor into the corner office.
The company said Tuesday that it was the winning bidder for BusinessWeek, the troubled 80-year-old title that McGraw-Hill had put on sale this summer.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but the price was said to be near $5 million, plus assumption of liabilities, which were $31.9 million as of April.
The magazine will continue to be a weekly print publication, rechristened Bloomberg BusinessWeek. Decisions have not been made about BusinessWeek’s staff of more than 400 people; Bloomberg will select which of those employees it wants by the end of the year, when the deal closes. Those not selected will receive severance from McGraw-Hill, said a BusinessWeek executive.
The deal is expected to close by the end of the year.
BusinessWeek was in a tough spot financially, and lost more than $800,000 dollars a week last year. Investors had pressured McGraw-Hill to get it off its books. While there was interest from parties in the private equity world, Bloomberg was seen as the preferred buyer.
“We are committed to the partnership,” said BusinessWeek president Keith Fox in an interview. “Bloomberg is acquiring a really powerful brand with strong reach among business professionals.”
Faced with slowing sales of its financial data terminals during the recession that have since improved, Bloomberg had been looking to expand its presence in consumer media. Clients for Bloomberg’s terminals are largely financial professionals, and the purchase of BusinessWeek, with its consumer and executive readers, gives the media company more access to the corporate offices as well.
With its gigantic newsroom of about 2,200 people and its aggressive reporting, Bloomberg has won a growing number of awards, but it is frustrated by its lack of cachet in the journalism world. Reporters and editors have long been frustrated by the lack of access to business executives, and they believed that limited their ability to break news and be a player in larger news coverage.
With the acquisition, Bloomberg adds name recognition and a consumer publication. The company was considering combining the Bloomberg.com and BusinessWeek.com Web sites and adding the BusinessWeek brand and journalists to Bloomberg TV. The company will continue Bloomberg Markets, a monthly magazine.
Monday, September 14, 2009
BusinessWeek, on the Block and Ailing
Editor's Note: BusinessWeek rode high on tech advertising during the 1990s making a lot of money for its owner, McGraw Hill. But during the past ten years, the publication has been squeezed between dailies like the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal on one end and monthly and bi-monthly publications Forbes and Fortune on the other end.
The New York Times - Numbers sometimes tell a story. And the figures for BusinessWeek suggest it is having one tough time.
Bids are due Tuesday for the magazine, which McGraw-Hill has owned for 80 years. A handful of potential investors, including Bloomberg L.P., are still looking at the company. But before buyers had a chance to comb through the magazine’s finances, initial interest had been much higher. BusinessWeek lost more than $43 million last year, though that included certain costs like rent and overhead, which a document sent to potential investors suggests McGraw-Hill has been charging too much for. A buyer would also have to assume much of the $31.9 million in debt.
As the thwarted sellers of The Rocky Mountain News and The Seattle Post-Intelligencer have discovered, this year is not a good time to sell news media outlets. Print advertising is down, and readers’ attention is being diverted to the Web. Business magazines, including BusinessWeek and rivals like Forbes and Fortune, have been hit particularly hard, as automotive, financial services and technology advertisers have pulled back their marketing spending.
So far, about six investors appear interested in BusinessWeek, including OpenGate Capital, which bought TV Guide for $1 last year; Warburg Pincus; and Platinum Equity, which is also bidding for The Boston Globe.
Other candidates include Bloomberg; Joe Mansueto, the founder of the ratings firm Morningstar who bought Inc. and Fast Company in 2005; and Bruce Wasserstein, the chairman and chief executive of Lazard, who also owns New York magazine.
But Peter P. Appert, who is an analyst at Piper Jaffray, argued that BusinessWeek’s future was cloudy. “I don’t think the prospect of meaningful earnings recovery is particularly good,” he said.
BusinessWeek executives declined to comment for this article, as did a McGraw-Hill spokesman, Steven H. Weiss. He referred a reporter to a July news release in which McGraw-Hill said it was “exploring strategic options” for the magazine.http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/14/business/media/14bizweek.html
The New York Times - Numbers sometimes tell a story. And the figures for BusinessWeek suggest it is having one tough time.
Bids are due Tuesday for the magazine, which McGraw-Hill has owned for 80 years. A handful of potential investors, including Bloomberg L.P., are still looking at the company. But before buyers had a chance to comb through the magazine’s finances, initial interest had been much higher. BusinessWeek lost more than $43 million last year, though that included certain costs like rent and overhead, which a document sent to potential investors suggests McGraw-Hill has been charging too much for. A buyer would also have to assume much of the $31.9 million in debt.
As the thwarted sellers of The Rocky Mountain News and The Seattle Post-Intelligencer have discovered, this year is not a good time to sell news media outlets. Print advertising is down, and readers’ attention is being diverted to the Web. Business magazines, including BusinessWeek and rivals like Forbes and Fortune, have been hit particularly hard, as automotive, financial services and technology advertisers have pulled back their marketing spending.
So far, about six investors appear interested in BusinessWeek, including OpenGate Capital, which bought TV Guide for $1 last year; Warburg Pincus; and Platinum Equity, which is also bidding for The Boston Globe.
Other candidates include Bloomberg; Joe Mansueto, the founder of the ratings firm Morningstar who bought Inc. and Fast Company in 2005; and Bruce Wasserstein, the chairman and chief executive of Lazard, who also owns New York magazine.
But Peter P. Appert, who is an analyst at Piper Jaffray, argued that BusinessWeek’s future was cloudy. “I don’t think the prospect of meaningful earnings recovery is particularly good,” he said.
BusinessWeek executives declined to comment for this article, as did a McGraw-Hill spokesman, Steven H. Weiss. He referred a reporter to a July news release in which McGraw-Hill said it was “exploring strategic options” for the magazine.http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/14/business/media/14bizweek.html
Sunday, July 19, 2009
Sources say Forbes.com CEO stepping down
For years, Forbes.com has been the envy of the financial press, with Web traffic far surpassing that of competitors such as BusinessWeek.com and WSJ.com.
But the site's fortunes have taken a turn for the worse lately, and now someone is apparently answering for it: Jim Spanfeller, president and CEO of Forbes.com and executive vice president of electronic publishing, is stepping down, according to sources. The announcement is expected as soon as Thursday, when the company has a scheduled sales meeting.http://www.dailyfinance.com/2009/07/15/sources-say-forbes-com-ceo-stepping-down/
But the site's fortunes have taken a turn for the worse lately, and now someone is apparently answering for it: Jim Spanfeller, president and CEO of Forbes.com and executive vice president of electronic publishing, is stepping down, according to sources. The announcement is expected as soon as Thursday, when the company has a scheduled sales meeting.http://www.dailyfinance.com/2009/07/15/sources-say-forbes-com-ceo-stepping-down/
Monday, May 11, 2009
Advertising Losses Put Squeeze on TV News
The New York Times - It is getting so bad for local television stations that some are turning to newspapers for help.
The bankrupt Tribune Company has merged its TV stations and daily newspapers in Miami and Hartford, and it already produces a lighthearted morning show in south Florida with the help of the newspaper’s columnists. Bob Gremillion, the executive vice president for publishing, calls it a “circling the wagons” approach.
No one would dispute that “the two industries are very challenged,” he said. “We’re combining and fighting together.”
The mergers are an example of local TV’s agonizing search for new business models as some balance sheets turn red. Starting Monday in Chicago, four stations’ news departments are combining their camera crews. In other markets, stations are adding newscasts on the cheap even as they lay off people. On the opposite extreme, a handful of stations are closing their news divisions completely.
The news for stations has been grim lately: without election advertisements to defray the losses in automotive ads, a cross section of station owners reported 20 percent to 30 percent quarterly drops in revenue last week, suggesting that the local TV business is almost as weak as its print counterpart.
“Unfortunately, there was nowhere to hide during the current storm, as declines in both local and national advertising accelerated,” Timothy E. Stautberg, the chief financial officer for the E. W. Scripps Company, which owns newspapers in 14 markets and TV stations in 10 markets, told investors last week.
About two-thirds of Americans say they regularly get news from local TV, according to the Pew Research Center. News is responsible for 40 percent to 50 percent of a station’s revenue on average, and many stations are still profitable. But owners see their audiences splintering and they see their parent networks bypassing them on the Web. What they are struggling to maintain is relevance.http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/11/business/media/11local.html
The bankrupt Tribune Company has merged its TV stations and daily newspapers in Miami and Hartford, and it already produces a lighthearted morning show in south Florida with the help of the newspaper’s columnists. Bob Gremillion, the executive vice president for publishing, calls it a “circling the wagons” approach.
No one would dispute that “the two industries are very challenged,” he said. “We’re combining and fighting together.”
The mergers are an example of local TV’s agonizing search for new business models as some balance sheets turn red. Starting Monday in Chicago, four stations’ news departments are combining their camera crews. In other markets, stations are adding newscasts on the cheap even as they lay off people. On the opposite extreme, a handful of stations are closing their news divisions completely.
The news for stations has been grim lately: without election advertisements to defray the losses in automotive ads, a cross section of station owners reported 20 percent to 30 percent quarterly drops in revenue last week, suggesting that the local TV business is almost as weak as its print counterpart.
“Unfortunately, there was nowhere to hide during the current storm, as declines in both local and national advertising accelerated,” Timothy E. Stautberg, the chief financial officer for the E. W. Scripps Company, which owns newspapers in 14 markets and TV stations in 10 markets, told investors last week.
About two-thirds of Americans say they regularly get news from local TV, according to the Pew Research Center. News is responsible for 40 percent to 50 percent of a station’s revenue on average, and many stations are still profitable. But owners see their audiences splintering and they see their parent networks bypassing them on the Web. What they are struggling to maintain is relevance.http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/11/business/media/11local.html
Monday, April 27, 2009
Conde Nast to Shut Portfolio Magazine
CHICAGO (MarketWatch) -- Publisher Condé Nast will shutter Portfolio and its Web site by the end of the second quarter, it said Monday, as declining advertising sales across the industry claim another casualty, this time after only 21 issues.
Portfolio staffers received the news Monday morning from Editor-in-Chief Joanne Lipman.
Condé Nast had previously decided to scale back Portfolio to 10 issues a year from 12.
Last October, Condé Nast, whose other titles include the New Yorker, Vanity Fair and Wired, informed top executives at all 26 of its magazines to make two separate 5% cuts within its budget, reducing both payroll and nonpayroll expenses.
It also said it would fold Men's Vogue into Vogue, the long-running women's magazine, and cut it to two issues a year from a previous 10.
Portfolio, launched in May 2007, centers on the business of media, and as such has chronicled the painful decline of newspapers and magazines as a consumer shift to online readership and a devastating recession have combined to endanger the model that sustained such publications for generations. See First Take item on Portfolio's shutdown.
While newspapers and magazines have tried to create strong presences online, the money they receive for digital ads is not enough to sustain both Web-based and print versions.
Even without the overhead of printing presses and other costs related to the delivery of a print product, an online-only entity could struggle to maintain a newsgathering organization large and experienced enough to do battle amid ever-growing competition. http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/cond-nast-shut-portfolio-magazine/story.aspx?guid={1DCD02AC-32E9-4BDD-A8C2-6FDE32A41330}&dist=msr_1&print=true&dist=printMidSection
Portfolio staffers received the news Monday morning from Editor-in-Chief Joanne Lipman.
Condé Nast had previously decided to scale back Portfolio to 10 issues a year from 12.
Last October, Condé Nast, whose other titles include the New Yorker, Vanity Fair and Wired, informed top executives at all 26 of its magazines to make two separate 5% cuts within its budget, reducing both payroll and nonpayroll expenses.
It also said it would fold Men's Vogue into Vogue, the long-running women's magazine, and cut it to two issues a year from a previous 10.
Portfolio, launched in May 2007, centers on the business of media, and as such has chronicled the painful decline of newspapers and magazines as a consumer shift to online readership and a devastating recession have combined to endanger the model that sustained such publications for generations. See First Take item on Portfolio's shutdown.
While newspapers and magazines have tried to create strong presences online, the money they receive for digital ads is not enough to sustain both Web-based and print versions.
Even without the overhead of printing presses and other costs related to the delivery of a print product, an online-only entity could struggle to maintain a newsgathering organization large and experienced enough to do battle amid ever-growing competition. http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/cond-nast-shut-portfolio-magazine/story.aspx?guid={1DCD02AC-32E9-4BDD-A8C2-6FDE32A41330}&dist=msr_1&print=true&dist=printMidSection
Monday, March 30, 2009
Do-It-Yourself Magazines, Cheaply Slick
Philip Chavez binding a MagCloud magazine at Progressive Solutions, which prints about 50,000 pages a month for the service. The Wall Street Journal - PALO ALTO, Calif. — For anyone who has dreamed of creating his own glossy color magazine dedicated to a hobby like photography or travel, the high cost and hassle of printing has loomed as a big barrier. Traditional printing companies charge thousands of dollars upfront to fire up a press and produce a few hundred copies of a bound magazine.
With a new Web service called MagCloud, Hewlett-Packard hopes to make it easier and cheaper to crank out a magazine than running photocopies at the local copy shop.
Charging 20 cents a page, paid only when a customer orders a copy, H.P. dreams of turning MagCloud into vanity publishing’s equivalent of YouTube. The company, a leading maker of computers and printers, envisions people using their PCs to develop quick magazines commemorating their daughter’s volleyball season or chronicling the intricacies of the Arizona cactus business.
“There are so many of the nichey, maybe weird-at-first communities, that can use this,” said Andrew Bolwell, head of the MagCloud effort at Hewlett-Packard. Samir Husni, a journalism professor at the University of Mississippi who plans to use the technology in his classroom, said, “We’re not talking about replacing the Vanity Fairs of the world. But it’s a nifty idea for a vanity press that reminds me of the underground zines we had in the ’60s and ’70s.http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123836938251967565.html
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Ads Now in Soap Opera Scripts; Products Plugged on Fox News
The New York Times - Earlier this month, the ABC soap opera “One Life to Live” featured a scene in which Todd, the publisher of the local newspaper, and Tea, his lawyer, had a conversation about Todd’s legal problems, which ranged from being a murder suspect to being on trial for kidnapping.
Tea: I warmed up some soup for you. I don’t want you to go to the police station on an empty stomach.
(Already we are on new ground since characters in soap operas do not, as a rule, ever eat anything.)
Todd: What kind of soup is this?
Tea: It’s Campbell’s. It’s healthy, good for your heart.
Todd: (spooning away) Yeah, it’s good.
Before we go any further, let me just say that I understand soap operas are not high on your list of concerns, what with the economy flat-lining and all. However, the two things are somewhat related.
... Which I will explain after pointing out that I do not actually spend my afternoons watching “One Life to Live.” Do we have that clear? O.K., let’s move forward.
For some time now, characters in daytime dramas have been taking time from their normal activities, like having amnesia, to engage in animated discussions about the sponsors’ products. The ABC soap actors spent February talking about how Campbell’s soup and other assorted products are good for your heart. (And tasty, too!)
Lynn Leahey, the editorial director of Soap Opera Digest, pointed to an episode of “As the World Turns” in which Margo needed to get her hair fixed before a date with her husband (don’t ask) and reached for a bottle of Nice ’n Easy Root Touch-Up. “I feel like I took off 10 years in 10 minutes!” she exclaimed.
And here’s the thing. Viewers don’t complain. “Oh well... To keep the soaps on the air. To keep the actors paid,” wrote a philosophical e-mailer on a soap opera chat site.
Daytime dramas are swimming in choppy waters these days. Ratings are down. Shows are getting canceled. “They’re struggling to find a business model that works,” said Leahey, in a remark I have heard a time or two lately in other contexts.
So, the viewers acquiesce. In fact, for all the complaining about car bailouts and greedy bankers, people have become extremely tolerant of irritating behavior on the part of struggling corporations. Lines we never even bothered to think of as lines are being crossed. Last summer in Las Vegas, the anchors on the local Fox station started delivering the news with two prominently placed cups of McDonald’s iced coffee in front of them. A spokesperson called it a “nontraditional revenue source.” It’s only a matter of time before TV reporters conclude interviews with disaster victims by asking if they wouldn’t like a refreshing glass of V-8.http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/28/opinion/28collins.html
Tea: I warmed up some soup for you. I don’t want you to go to the police station on an empty stomach.
(Already we are on new ground since characters in soap operas do not, as a rule, ever eat anything.)
Todd: What kind of soup is this?
Tea: It’s Campbell’s. It’s healthy, good for your heart.
Todd: (spooning away) Yeah, it’s good.
Before we go any further, let me just say that I understand soap operas are not high on your list of concerns, what with the economy flat-lining and all. However, the two things are somewhat related.
... Which I will explain after pointing out that I do not actually spend my afternoons watching “One Life to Live.” Do we have that clear? O.K., let’s move forward.
For some time now, characters in daytime dramas have been taking time from their normal activities, like having amnesia, to engage in animated discussions about the sponsors’ products. The ABC soap actors spent February talking about how Campbell’s soup and other assorted products are good for your heart. (And tasty, too!)
Lynn Leahey, the editorial director of Soap Opera Digest, pointed to an episode of “As the World Turns” in which Margo needed to get her hair fixed before a date with her husband (don’t ask) and reached for a bottle of Nice ’n Easy Root Touch-Up. “I feel like I took off 10 years in 10 minutes!” she exclaimed.
And here’s the thing. Viewers don’t complain. “Oh well... To keep the soaps on the air. To keep the actors paid,” wrote a philosophical e-mailer on a soap opera chat site.
Daytime dramas are swimming in choppy waters these days. Ratings are down. Shows are getting canceled. “They’re struggling to find a business model that works,” said Leahey, in a remark I have heard a time or two lately in other contexts.
So, the viewers acquiesce. In fact, for all the complaining about car bailouts and greedy bankers, people have become extremely tolerant of irritating behavior on the part of struggling corporations. Lines we never even bothered to think of as lines are being crossed. Last summer in Las Vegas, the anchors on the local Fox station started delivering the news with two prominently placed cups of McDonald’s iced coffee in front of them. A spokesperson called it a “nontraditional revenue source.” It’s only a matter of time before TV reporters conclude interviews with disaster victims by asking if they wouldn’t like a refreshing glass of V-8.http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/28/opinion/28collins.html
Friday, February 27, 2009
Rocky Mountain News Shuts Down Amid Ad Slump
The Rocky Mountain News on Thursday became the largest-circulation daily to close its doors in the newspaper-industry crisis, after publisher E.W. Scripps Co. failed to find a buyer for the 150-year-old Denver paper.
The closure of Colorado's oldest newspaper, which prints its last edition Friday, makes Denver the first of what could be a string of major metropolitan markets to lose a daily. Tumbling advertising revenues have endangered one or more dailies in Philadelphia, San Francisco and Minneapolis, among others, and two publishers have filed for bankruptcy protection in the past week alone.
"Most of us thought it was a matter of time," said Bernie Lincicome, a Rocky sports columnist since 2000. "Nobody buys newspapers."
In early December, Cincinnati-based Scripps said it planned to sell the Rocky and its 50% stake in the Denver Newspaper Agency, a joint venture that handles the business operations for both the Rocky and its similarly sized rival, the Denver Post, owned by MediaNews Group. Scripps gave prospective buyers until mid-January to submit bids, but only one potential buyer emerged, and that party didn't present a viable plan, the company said.
Mark Contreras, Scripps's senior vice president of newspapers, said fast shrinking advertising revenues and readership ultimately meant "the model with two major metro dailies in a market the size of Denver was not sustainable." The Rocky had average weekday circulation as of Sept. 30 of 210,281, compared with the Post's 210,585.
Like a lot of cost-cutting measures by newspapers, joint ventures like Denver's haven't done enough to stem the industry's losses. Both Seattle and Tucson, Ariz., which operate as two-newspaper cities under a similar business arrangement, may lose a paper within weeks.
The Rocky's demise ends what is regarded as the country's oldest continuous newspaper rivalry. Fresh off the Rocky's announcement, the Post said it would publish an extra day -- Saturday -- begin delivering to all Rocky subscribers and poach some of the newspaper's star writers.http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123567732712586001.html
The closure of Colorado's oldest newspaper, which prints its last edition Friday, makes Denver the first of what could be a string of major metropolitan markets to lose a daily. Tumbling advertising revenues have endangered one or more dailies in Philadelphia, San Francisco and Minneapolis, among others, and two publishers have filed for bankruptcy protection in the past week alone.
"Most of us thought it was a matter of time," said Bernie Lincicome, a Rocky sports columnist since 2000. "Nobody buys newspapers."
In early December, Cincinnati-based Scripps said it planned to sell the Rocky and its 50% stake in the Denver Newspaper Agency, a joint venture that handles the business operations for both the Rocky and its similarly sized rival, the Denver Post, owned by MediaNews Group. Scripps gave prospective buyers until mid-January to submit bids, but only one potential buyer emerged, and that party didn't present a viable plan, the company said.
Mark Contreras, Scripps's senior vice president of newspapers, said fast shrinking advertising revenues and readership ultimately meant "the model with two major metro dailies in a market the size of Denver was not sustainable." The Rocky had average weekday circulation as of Sept. 30 of 210,281, compared with the Post's 210,585.
Like a lot of cost-cutting measures by newspapers, joint ventures like Denver's haven't done enough to stem the industry's losses. Both Seattle and Tucson, Ariz., which operate as two-newspaper cities under a similar business arrangement, may lose a paper within weeks.
The Rocky's demise ends what is regarded as the country's oldest continuous newspaper rivalry. Fresh off the Rocky's announcement, the Post said it would publish an extra day -- Saturday -- begin delivering to all Rocky subscribers and poach some of the newspaper's star writers.http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123567732712586001.html
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Local Web-Ad Market Cools Down
Editor's Note: A tough year is ahead for web site advertising, which means the web is going to trim hiring. - MT
The Wall Street Journal - Local ads have accounted for some of the fastest growth in Internet advertising in recent years, as small businesses from car-repair shops in Dallas to bakeries in Charlotte, N.C., have taken their marketing online.
This year, growth in the local-ad market -- which represents about a third of total online ad spending in the U.S. -- is expected to shrink, according to one key estimate, challenging the ad and media-buying shops that rely on the local Internet market.
A number of start-ups, including ReachLocal, Yodle and Spot Runner, have cropped up in the past few years, raising millions of dollars and building technologies to help local businesses make the most of their Internet ad buys. Meanwhile, more-established local-media companies, from newspapers to Yellow Pages directories, have scurried to retrain their sales forces to sell online ads alongside their traditional products.
Now, local businesses are chopping their total ad spending amid the recession. While the local online-ad market remains one of the few relatively bright spots in the ad landscape, it probably will be tough for any one ad-space seller to reap much of the benefit.
Online spending by local U.S. advertisers, which grew by 45% in 2008 to $12. 7 billion, is expected to see growth fall to 5.4% in 2009, according to media-research firm Borrell Associates. Total U.S. online ad spending is expected to be about flat, declining 0.3% to $36.9 billion in 2009, compared with growth of 8.5% in 2008, Borrell says.http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123491660496304367.html
The Wall Street Journal - Local ads have accounted for some of the fastest growth in Internet advertising in recent years, as small businesses from car-repair shops in Dallas to bakeries in Charlotte, N.C., have taken their marketing online.
This year, growth in the local-ad market -- which represents about a third of total online ad spending in the U.S. -- is expected to shrink, according to one key estimate, challenging the ad and media-buying shops that rely on the local Internet market.
A number of start-ups, including ReachLocal, Yodle and Spot Runner, have cropped up in the past few years, raising millions of dollars and building technologies to help local businesses make the most of their Internet ad buys. Meanwhile, more-established local-media companies, from newspapers to Yellow Pages directories, have scurried to retrain their sales forces to sell online ads alongside their traditional products.
Now, local businesses are chopping their total ad spending amid the recession. While the local online-ad market remains one of the few relatively bright spots in the ad landscape, it probably will be tough for any one ad-space seller to reap much of the benefit.
Online spending by local U.S. advertisers, which grew by 45% in 2008 to $12. 7 billion, is expected to see growth fall to 5.4% in 2009, according to media-research firm Borrell Associates. Total U.S. online ad spending is expected to be about flat, declining 0.3% to $36.9 billion in 2009, compared with growth of 8.5% in 2008, Borrell says.http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123491660496304367.html
Monday, February 2, 2009
Things So Bad at Magazines - Even Conde Nast in Retreat
The New York Times - “The September Issue,” a documentary about how the staff of Vogue puts together that curio of profligacy, the magazine’s fall preview, was a big hit at the recent Sundance Film Festival. Part of the reason attendees found it so mesmerizing has to do with Anna Wintour, who always begets staring.But much of its appeal has to do with the fact that any peek inside the Death Star, as the headquarters of Vogue’s publisher, Condé Nast, is affectionately known, is going to be met with prurient interest.
Home to magazines like Vogue, The New Yorker and Vanity Fair and the gossamer creatures who produce them, the building is surrounded by a phalanx of idling black cars and decorated with fables about discarded six-figure photo shoots and editors who FedEx-ed their luggage ahead of them so as not be burdened on the commute.
But in a week when the news came that the gross domestic product shrank 3.8 percent in the fourth quarter, even the Death Star feels the pull of economic gravity. Domino, a shelter magazine for smart young things that was first published in 2005, was closed just two weeks after the company put Bill Wackerman, one of its most prized executives, in charge of turning it around.
Company executives, none of whom wanted to be quoted, said that the complete implosion of ads made it impossible to continue, although it doubled its estimate of Domino readers to 850,000 and was generally well received.
The loss of a single magazine would seem like small beer, but when the belt being tightened is Chanel, it seems all the scarier. If those people are under the gun, what is to become of everybody else in the media business?
Historically, Si Newhouse, the company chairman, had demonstrated legendary patience in bringing along its magazines. The New Yorker lost money for almost 18 years at Condé Nast — the burn rate was ferocious as Tina Brown sought to reinvent the fustian title — but it eventually went into the black and created a lustrous editorial asset for the company.
But when the current editor, David Remnick, ordered up a bunch of articles for the magazine’s formidable presidential inauguration issue, some of the reporters drove to Washington and stayed at friends’ houses. Mr. Remnick, who was among those who bunked with a friend in Washington, declined comment, beyond suggesting it was just common sense to preserve assets for other articles. “Steve Coll can’t stay at a friend’s house in Afghanistan,” he said. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/02/business/media/02carr.html?partner=permalink&exprod=permalink
Gloom For Glossies - Suffering Magazines
Another day, another closure. Magazines are becoming thinner as advertising pages fall, and publishers are grimly cutting underperforming titles. But the outlook is not dour for all — a handful of magazines are still expanding their ad lineups, some by startlingly high percentages.http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/01/30/business/20090201_metrics.html?partner=permalink&exprod=permalink
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Newspapers Move to Outsource Foreign Coverage
Editor's note: A major restructuring is underway in how foreign news is being collected and disseminated.
The Wall Street Journal - Two major newspapers publishers are taking steps to outsource international coverage, as falling revenue is causing more U.S. papers to shrink their foreign and national footprint.
Tribune Co., which owns the Los Angeles Times and Chicago Tribune, is in talks with the Washington Post Co. about a deal to pay the Post for foreign and national coverage for Tribune's eight major dailies. Meantime, the New York Daily News has reached an agreement with a Boston-based start-up called GlobalPost to use the company's network of part-time foreign correspondents.
Together, the agreements could substantially overhaul the foreign news operations of three of the 10 largest U.S. newspapers.
Talks between Tribune and the Post Co. have been under way for more than a month, but no agreement has been reached, according to people familiar with the matter. One possibility is that Tribune's eight major dailies could close dozens of news bureaus, in favor of publishing the Washington Post's stories from areas where Tribune doesn't have operations.
Such a deal could save Tribune millions of dollars a year at a time when the company is operating in bankruptcy protection. It is possible no deal will be reached, or that Tribune and the Washington Post could reach a looser collaboration on news, these people said.http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123197973917183829.html
The Wall Street Journal - Two major newspapers publishers are taking steps to outsource international coverage, as falling revenue is causing more U.S. papers to shrink their foreign and national footprint.
Tribune Co., which owns the Los Angeles Times and Chicago Tribune, is in talks with the Washington Post Co. about a deal to pay the Post for foreign and national coverage for Tribune's eight major dailies. Meantime, the New York Daily News has reached an agreement with a Boston-based start-up called GlobalPost to use the company's network of part-time foreign correspondents.
Together, the agreements could substantially overhaul the foreign news operations of three of the 10 largest U.S. newspapers.
Talks between Tribune and the Post Co. have been under way for more than a month, but no agreement has been reached, according to people familiar with the matter. One possibility is that Tribune's eight major dailies could close dozens of news bureaus, in favor of publishing the Washington Post's stories from areas where Tribune doesn't have operations.
Such a deal could save Tribune millions of dollars a year at a time when the company is operating in bankruptcy protection. It is possible no deal will be reached, or that Tribune and the Washington Post could reach a looser collaboration on news, these people said.http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123197973917183829.html
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
The New Journalism: Goosing the Gray Lady
Post courtesy of Erica Nunez
New York Magazine - On the day Barack Obama was elected, a strange new feature appeared on the website of the New York Times. Called the Word Train, it asked a simple question: What one word describes your current state of mind? Readers could enter an adjective or select from a menu of options. They could specify whether they supported McCain or Obama. Below, the results appeared in six rows of adjectives, scrolling left to right, coded red or blue, descending in size of font. The larger the word, the more people felt that way.
All day long, the answers flowed by, a river of emotion—anonymous, uncheckable, hypnotic. You could click from Obama to McCain and watch the letters shift gradually from blue to red, the mood changing from giddy, energized, proud, and overwhelmed to horrified, ambivalent, disgusted, and numb.
It was a kind of poll. It was a kind of art piece. It was a kind of journalism, but what kind?
This past year has been catastrophic for the New York Times. Advertising dropped off a cliff. The stock sank by 60 percent, and by fall, the paper had been rated a junk investment, announced plans to mortgage its new building, slashed dividends, and, as of last week, was printing ads on the front page. So dire had the situation become, observers began to entertain thoughts about whether the enterprise might dissolve entirely—Michael Hirschorn just published a piece in The Atlantic imagining an end date of (gulp) May. As this bad news crashed down, the jackals of Times hatred—right-wing ideologues and new-media hecklers alike—ate it up, finding confirmation of what they’d said all along: that the paper was a dinosaur, incapable of change, maddeningly assured as it sank beneath the weight of its own false authority.
And yet, even as the financial pages wrote the paper’s obit, deep within that fancy Renzo Piano palace across from the Port Authority, something hopeful has been going on: a kind of evolution. Each day, peculiar wings and gills poke up on the Times’ website—video, audio, “drillable” graphics. Beneath Nicholas Kristof’s op-ed column, there’s a link to his blog, Twitter feed, Facebook page, and YouTube videos. Coverage of Gaza features a time line linking to earlier reporting, video coverage, and an encyclopedic entry on Hamas.http://nymag.com/news/features/all-new/53344/
Monday, January 12, 2009
Seattle Post-Intelligencer Faces Closure if Buyer Isn't Found Soon
The Wall Street Journal - The Seattle Post-Intelligencer is in jeopardy, as owner Hearst Corp. said it will close the newspaper unless a buyer is found quickly.
Hearst said Friday that if a buyer for the Post-Intelligencer isn't found in 60 days, the 118,000-circulation daily will close or become an online-only publication. Hearst said the paper has been losing money since 2000, including a $14 million loss last year, and that more red ink is expected in 2009. The move leaves uncertain the fate of Seattle's unusual newspaper market. Under a joint operating agreement, the Seattle Times handles advertising sales, production and distribution operations for both papers, though each maintains separate news staffs that often fiercely compete for news. Hearst said it is also putting up for sale its half of the joint operating agreement.http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123153462765669141.html
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