New York Times Co. unveiled a plan to charge readers for unlimited access to the Web version of its flagship newspaper, a seminal—and risky—move in the industry's broader push to stem the free flow of proprietary news online.
Under the plan, to be launched in early 2011, people who read more than a certain number of articles in a month will be prompted to pay a flat monthly fee for additional access. Print subscribers will have full access to the site.
Most newspaper publishers are exploring options for charging for Web articles. But few papers have actually erected a so-called pay wall, reflecting concerns that readers will turn to countless other news sources before paying for something they are used to getting free. The Times is the most prominent newspaper so far to revise its Web strategy to cope with the recent flight of readers and advertisers from print.
Showing posts with label Newspapers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Newspapers. Show all posts
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Apple Sees New Money in Old Media
The Wall Street Journal - With the new tablet device that is debuting next week, Apple Inc. Chief Executive Steve Jobs is betting he can reshape businesses like textbooks, newspapers and television much the way his iPod revamped the music industry—and expand Apple's influence and revenue as a content middleman.
In developing the device, Apple focused on the role the gadget could play in homes and in classrooms, say people familiar with the situation. The company envisions that the tablet can be shared by multiple family members to read news and check email in homes, these people say.
For classrooms, Apple has been exploring electronic-textbook technology, these people add. The people familiar with the matter say Apple has also been looking at how content from newspapers and magazines can be presented differently on the tablet. Other people briefed on the device say the tablet will come with a virtual keyboard.
Apple has recently been in discussions with book, magazine and newspaper publishers about how they can work together. The company has talked with The New York Times Co., Conde Nast Publications Inc. and HarperCollins Publishers and its owner News Corp., which also owns The Wall Street Journal, over content for the tablet, say people familiar with the talks.
New York Times Chairman Arthur Sulzberger declined to comment in an interview Wednesday on its involvement in the new device except to say, "stay tuned."
Apple is also negotiating with television networks such as CBS Corp. and Walt Disney Co., which owns ABC, for a monthly TV subscription service, the Journal has reported. Apple is also working with videogame publisher Electronic Arts Inc. to show off the tablet's game capabilities, according to one person familiar with the matter.
Monday, January 4, 2010
Could Apple's Tablet be a Savior for Print Publications?
The New York Times - Later this month, we all might get a glimpse of that future. According to The Financial Times, Apple has rented a stage at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco and is expected to make a major product announcement on Tuesday, Jan. 26, where many have speculated that some version of the Apple tablet will be unveiled. The Web site Gizmodo guessed that the device was likely to be called the iSlate, will cost around $800, and won’t hit store shelves until March or possibly April. (And it’s not just Apple: Word of a color tablet device called Courier from Microsoft made a big splash on the site as well, and a company called HTC reportedly has one in the works that uses the Google Chrome operating system. And there are others.)
The secretive Apple has made fools out of predictors in the past, but Kai-Fu Lee, the former head of Google in China, posted an item on his personal blog suggesting the Apple tablet would feature a 10.1-inch multitouch screen with three-dimensional graphics. And it’s worth pointing out that many publishers are building content in the belief that when it comes to the tablet, it’s not if, it’s when.
So, is the Apple tablet a figment of so much Web-borne pixie dust or is it the second coming of the iPhone, a so-called Jesus tablet that can do anything, including saving some embattled print providers from doom?
The secretive Apple has made fools out of predictors in the past, but Kai-Fu Lee, the former head of Google in China, posted an item on his personal blog suggesting the Apple tablet would feature a 10.1-inch multitouch screen with three-dimensional graphics. And it’s worth pointing out that many publishers are building content in the belief that when it comes to the tablet, it’s not if, it’s when.
So, is the Apple tablet a figment of so much Web-borne pixie dust or is it the second coming of the iPhone, a so-called Jesus tablet that can do anything, including saving some embattled print providers from doom?
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
Monday, February 23, 2009
Murdoch Hasn't Given Up on Print or Newspapers
The New York Times - Rupert Murdoch had an office built for him at The Wall Street Journal within days of buying it 14 months ago, and he has made ample use of it — ordering up a wave of changes in the once-staid paper’s content and culture, from the addition of a weekly sports page to general news displacing financial news on the front page to the thinning of its layers of editing.
But Mr. Murdoch, as much old-fashioned press baron as 21st century multimedia mogul, faces a depressing reality: his lifelong fondness for newspapers has become a significant drag on the fortunes of his company, the News Corporation.
The company recently took $8.4 billion in write-downs, including $3 billion on its newspaper unit, which includes The Journal’s publisher, Dow Jones & Company. Meanwhile, the News Corporation’s stock price has fallen by two-thirds in the last year, a sharper decline than at media conglomerate peers like Time Warner and Viacom.
In more vibrant economic times, investors and Wall Street analysts were more willing to look past Mr. Murdoch’s attachment to newspapers — the newspaper segment is now the company’s biggest single source of revenue, about 19 percent in the most recent quarter. But they find that a tougher chore these days, as other media struggle and newspapers suffer through their worst slump since the Depression.
“The thing I hear from investors is that they wish News Corp. was everything but newspapers,” said David C. Joyce, media analyst at Miller Tabak & Company.
“Investors are more forgiving when they are in a better mood,” he said. “The hope for a turnaround in the newspaper business is looking elusive.”
The declining economy and the sinking fortunes of print publications have placed in stark relief Mr. Murdoch’s love of newspapers and his deal to acquire Dow Jones just before the recession set in. Mr. Murdoch, chairman and chief executive of the News Corporation, paid more than $5 billion for an asset that generated about $100 million in operating income last year, a price that now looks like a staggering overpayment. Mr. Murdoch declined to comment for this article.
On the surface, the News Corporation’s Feb. 5 earnings report, for the quarter that ended Dec. 31, appeared to show a nearly $90 million increase in newspaper division revenue from a year earlier. But that was an illusion created by the addition of Dow Jones, which the News Corporation owned for only 18 days of the year-ago period.
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Journal Register seeks bankruptcy protection
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Journal Register Co sought Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Saturday, making it the latest U.S. newspaper company to buckle under deteriorating advertising revenue and debt that it cannot easily repay.
The company publishes 20 daily newspapers, including The New Haven Register and The Trentonian. It joins the ranks of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, as well as Tribune Co, publisher of the Chicago Tribune and Los Angeles Times, and highlights the challenges U.S. newspapers face as advertisers flee their print editions and more people get their news for free online.
For years, Journal Register has been among the smallest of publicly traded U.S. newspaper publishers. Nevertheless, its filing will increase scrutiny on other U.S. newspaper publishers, including McClatchy Co and Lee Enterprises, which are trying to survive a severe ad downturn without running afoul of their creditors.
Journal Register has already agreed with key creditors on a pre-negotiated reorganization plan, and said it was planning to restructure its operations.
The case is In re: Journal Register Co., U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Southern District of New York, No. 09-10769.http://uk.reuters.com/article/burningIssues/idUKTRE51K20520090222
The company publishes 20 daily newspapers, including The New Haven Register and The Trentonian. It joins the ranks of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, as well as Tribune Co, publisher of the Chicago Tribune and Los Angeles Times, and highlights the challenges U.S. newspapers face as advertisers flee their print editions and more people get their news for free online.
For years, Journal Register has been among the smallest of publicly traded U.S. newspaper publishers. Nevertheless, its filing will increase scrutiny on other U.S. newspaper publishers, including McClatchy Co and Lee Enterprises, which are trying to survive a severe ad downturn without running afoul of their creditors.
Journal Register has already agreed with key creditors on a pre-negotiated reorganization plan, and said it was planning to restructure its operations.
The case is In re: Journal Register Co., U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Southern District of New York, No. 09-10769.http://uk.reuters.com/article/burningIssues/idUKTRE51K20520090222
Friday, February 20, 2009
New York TImes Stock Drops Below $4 Per Share
Post courtesy of Emily Mullin
Barron's - One sign of how desperate things have gotten at the New York Times (NYT): the share price is cheaper than it costs to purchase a copy of the Sunday paper in New York City.
Shares dropped below $4 in Tuesday’s trading, reaching an all-time low for the stock. That’s south of the $4 cover price that the paper commands at New York City news vendors. (Newsstands themselves have become about as rare as a good quarter of ad spending.)
The downturn in the housing and automotive markets, coupled with the overall economic recession, have cut sharply into advertising revenues, and effectively ruined the model for newspaper operations. When the Times reported its fiscal fourth quarter late last month, it said its net plunged 48% on a year-over-year basis, as ad revenues declined 18% in the period. The company has looked for non-core assets to sell, and has hired bankers to organize the disposition of its partially owned sports operations, which include the Boston Red Sox and Fenway Stadium.
Still, as the poisonous ad-spending market continues to wreak havoc on the operations of newspaper publishers, it’s a wonder whether there won’t be a time when shares of the Times meets the price newsstands charge for the daily paper, currently pegged at $1.50.http://blogs.barrons.com/stockstowatchtoday/2009/02/17/sign-of-the-times/trackback/
Barron's - One sign of how desperate things have gotten at the New York Times (NYT): the share price is cheaper than it costs to purchase a copy of the Sunday paper in New York City.
Shares dropped below $4 in Tuesday’s trading, reaching an all-time low for the stock. That’s south of the $4 cover price that the paper commands at New York City news vendors. (Newsstands themselves have become about as rare as a good quarter of ad spending.)
The downturn in the housing and automotive markets, coupled with the overall economic recession, have cut sharply into advertising revenues, and effectively ruined the model for newspaper operations. When the Times reported its fiscal fourth quarter late last month, it said its net plunged 48% on a year-over-year basis, as ad revenues declined 18% in the period. The company has looked for non-core assets to sell, and has hired bankers to organize the disposition of its partially owned sports operations, which include the Boston Red Sox and Fenway Stadium.
Still, as the poisonous ad-spending market continues to wreak havoc on the operations of newspaper publishers, it’s a wonder whether there won’t be a time when shares of the Times meets the price newsstands charge for the daily paper, currently pegged at $1.50.http://blogs.barrons.com/stockstowatchtoday/2009/02/17/sign-of-the-times/trackback/
Sunday, January 18, 2009
Editors and Publishers in a Revolving Door
Ken Paulson will step down as editor of USA Today in February.
The New York Times - USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, The Chicago Tribune, The San Francisco Chronicle, The Baltimore Sun, The San Jose Mercury News and The Kansas City Star have something in common, aside from some of the biggest names in an endangered industry.
By the start of February, not one of them will have the same top editor it had when 2008 began. Most of them will have different publishers, too.
Go back just three years, and the list of newspapers that have changed editors includes The Daily News of New York, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Miami Herald, The Star Tribune of Minneapolis, the Chicago Sun-Times, The Plain Dealer of Cleveland and The Sacramento Bee.
Each paper has its own story, and some would have changed leaders even in the most placid times. But upheaval in a business that is battling for survival has drastically shortened the shelf lives of editors and publishers at major papers, whether they leave voluntarily or are forced out. All have had to navigate waves of ownership changes, cutbacks, experimentation or all three.http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/19/business/media/19paper.html?partner=permalink&exprod=permalink
Billionaire Seeks Deal in Times Co.
The New York Times - Carlos Slim Helú, the Mexican billionaire, is near a deal to invest about $250 million in The New York Times Company, helping to shore up the publishing company’s struggling finances, according to people briefed on the transaction.
The company’s board is expected to meet on Monday to approve the deal, these people said, and an announcement could be made as early as Tuesday. However, these people also warned that several details still needed to be completed and that it remained possible the agreement could collapse.
The deal would come as the Times Company moves to raise money amid flagging advertising sales and approaching deadlines to pay back hundreds of millions of dollars of debt over the next two years. The company has put its stake in the Boston Red Sox up for sale and said last year that it would borrow as much as $225 million against its new headquarters in Manhattan through a sale-leaseback agreement.
Under the terms of the deal, Mr. Slim, who already owns 6.4 percent of the Times Company, would invest $250 million in the form of 10-year notes with warrants that are convertible into common shares, these people said.
As part of Mr. Slim’s investment, which resembles a loan, he is expected to get a special annual dividend, perhaps as high as 10 percent or more on this investment, these people said.
Mr. Slim is not expected to get any representation on the company’s board or any shares with special voting rights like those of the Sulzberger family, which controls the company. Nonetheless, when Mr. Slim exercises the warrants, he would become the largest shareholder in the Times Company, owning about a third of the common stock.
The Sulzbergers own about 19 percent of company and control it with a special class of voting shares. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/19/business/media/19times.html?partner=permalink&exprod=permalink
The company’s board is expected to meet on Monday to approve the deal, these people said, and an announcement could be made as early as Tuesday. However, these people also warned that several details still needed to be completed and that it remained possible the agreement could collapse.
The deal would come as the Times Company moves to raise money amid flagging advertising sales and approaching deadlines to pay back hundreds of millions of dollars of debt over the next two years. The company has put its stake in the Boston Red Sox up for sale and said last year that it would borrow as much as $225 million against its new headquarters in Manhattan through a sale-leaseback agreement.
Under the terms of the deal, Mr. Slim, who already owns 6.4 percent of the Times Company, would invest $250 million in the form of 10-year notes with warrants that are convertible into common shares, these people said.
As part of Mr. Slim’s investment, which resembles a loan, he is expected to get a special annual dividend, perhaps as high as 10 percent or more on this investment, these people said.
Mr. Slim is not expected to get any representation on the company’s board or any shares with special voting rights like those of the Sulzberger family, which controls the company. Nonetheless, when Mr. Slim exercises the warrants, he would become the largest shareholder in the Times Company, owning about a third of the common stock.
The Sulzbergers own about 19 percent of company and control it with a special class of voting shares. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/19/business/media/19times.html?partner=permalink&exprod=permalink
Minneapolis Star-Tribune files for bankruptcy
The bad news in the newspaper business continued to mount on Thursday as The Star Tribune of Minneapolis filed for bankruptcy protection.
Star Tribune management warned last month that it would seek bankruptcy protection if it did not win a series of labor concessions on wages and other matters by Friday. Talks with the major unions broke down last week and had not resumed.
The newspaper announced the filing on its Web site Thursday evening.
The publisher, Chris Harte, said in a statement, “We intend to use the Chapter 11 process to make this great Twin Cities institution stronger, leaner and more efficient so that it is better positioned for the future.”
Papers nationwide have suffered from a sharp decline in advertising in the last two years, along with a slower, long-term slide in circulation.
The Star Tribune has the additional problem of a heavy debt burden it took on two years ago, when a private equity group, Avista Capital Partners, bought the paper for $530 million. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/16/business/media/16paper.html?partner=permalink&exprod=permalink
Star Tribune management warned last month that it would seek bankruptcy protection if it did not win a series of labor concessions on wages and other matters by Friday. Talks with the major unions broke down last week and had not resumed.
The newspaper announced the filing on its Web site Thursday evening.
The publisher, Chris Harte, said in a statement, “We intend to use the Chapter 11 process to make this great Twin Cities institution stronger, leaner and more efficient so that it is better positioned for the future.”
Papers nationwide have suffered from a sharp decline in advertising in the last two years, along with a slower, long-term slide in circulation.
The Star Tribune has the additional problem of a heavy debt burden it took on two years ago, when a private equity group, Avista Capital Partners, bought the paper for $530 million. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/16/business/media/16paper.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
Can The New York Times survive the death of newsprint?
Post courtesy of Corey Ryan
The Atlantic - Virtually all the predictions about the death of old media have assumed a comfortingly long time frame for the end of print—the moment when, amid a panoply of flashing lights, press conferences, and elegiac reminiscences, the newspaper presses stop rolling and news goes entirely digital. Most of these scenarios assume a gradual crossing-over, almost like the migration of dunes, as behaviors change, paradigms shift, and the digital future heaves fully into view. The thinking goes that the existing brands—The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal—will be the ones making that transition, challenged but still dominant as sources of original reporting.
But what if the old media dies much more quickly? What if a hurricane comes along and obliterates the dunes entirely? Specifically, what if TheNew York Times goes out of business—like, this May?
It’s certainly plausible. Earnings reports released by the New York Times Company in October indicate that drastic measures will have to be taken over the next five months or the paper will default on some $400million in debt. With more than $1billion in debt already on the books, only $46million in cash reserves as of October, and no clear way to tap into the capital markets (the company’s debt was recently reduced to junk status), the paper’s future doesn’t look good. http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200901/new-york-times
The Atlantic - Virtually all the predictions about the death of old media have assumed a comfortingly long time frame for the end of print—the moment when, amid a panoply of flashing lights, press conferences, and elegiac reminiscences, the newspaper presses stop rolling and news goes entirely digital. Most of these scenarios assume a gradual crossing-over, almost like the migration of dunes, as behaviors change, paradigms shift, and the digital future heaves fully into view. The thinking goes that the existing brands—The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal—will be the ones making that transition, challenged but still dominant as sources of original reporting.
But what if the old media dies much more quickly? What if a hurricane comes along and obliterates the dunes entirely? Specifically, what if TheNew York Times goes out of business—like, this May?
It’s certainly plausible. Earnings reports released by the New York Times Company in October indicate that drastic measures will have to be taken over the next five months or the paper will default on some $400million in debt. With more than $1billion in debt already on the books, only $46million in cash reserves as of October, and no clear way to tap into the capital markets (the company’s debt was recently reduced to junk status), the paper’s future doesn’t look good. http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200901/new-york-times
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
Let's Invent an iTunes for News
The New York Times - Last Tuesday, iTunes, Apple’s ubiquitous online music store that sold more than 2.4 billion tracks last year alone, changed its own tune, announcing that songs would no longer be sold with copying restrictions and that they would be available at various prices.The digerati crowed over the collapse of the hated digital rights management (which Apple never liked, either) and record companies kicked up their heels at the thought of leaving behind the tyranny of the 99-cent price point.
But lost in the hubbub was the fact that Steve Jobs and Apple had been able to charge for content in the first place. Remember that when iTunes began, the music industry was being decimated by file sharing. By coming up with an easy user interface and obtaining the cooperation of a broad swath of music companies, Mr. Jobs helped pull the business off the brink. He has been accused of running roughshod over the music labels, which are a fraction of their former size. But they are still in business.
Those of us who are in the newspaper business could not be blamed for hoping that someone like him comes along and ruins our business as well by pulling the same trick: convincing the millions of interested readers who get their news every day free on newspapers sites that it’s time to pay up.http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/12/business/media/12carr.html?partner=permalink&exprod=permalink
But lost in the hubbub was the fact that Steve Jobs and Apple had been able to charge for content in the first place. Remember that when iTunes began, the music industry was being decimated by file sharing. By coming up with an easy user interface and obtaining the cooperation of a broad swath of music companies, Mr. Jobs helped pull the business off the brink. He has been accused of running roughshod over the music labels, which are a fraction of their former size. But they are still in business.
Those of us who are in the newspaper business could not be blamed for hoping that someone like him comes along and ruins our business as well by pulling the same trick: convincing the millions of interested readers who get their news every day free on newspapers sites that it’s time to pay up.http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/12/business/media/12carr.html?partner=permalink&exprod=permalink
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