Big newspapers continue to lose circulation

Circulation continues to fall at big newspapers, Editor & Publisher reports. Wall Street Journal and USA Today were flat, but most other big papers fell, including the Chicago Tribune, which reported a 7.7 percent decline. It would be interesting to see recent numbers from the Tribune after its major redesign. It had lost 7.7 percent daily and 5.7 percent on Sunday for the six months preceding September, which was when its redesign hit the streets.

Different worlds of media

Howard Kurz of the Washington Post offers a nice piece on "two different realities, a Sean Hannity reality and a Keith Olbermann reality" (the quote is actually from Barak Obama). Although limited to broadcast, it brings into sharp focus the demand for agenda-driven media with which one agrees. Frankly, as I read some of the editorial endorsements and rebuttals over the weekend, I, too, wondered if we came from the same world. Could Rick Esenberg and the Journal Sentinel editorial board be writing about the same candidates? How about the local talk radio presenters (I love that British term, which is accurate and not value-laden)? Sykes, Belling, et. al. on the one hand and WNOV's lineup with Joel McNally and Eric Von?

Frankly, journalism has been moving away from the purely objective model for quite some time, especially driven by broadcast. Virtually every news standup these days ends with a comment, either from the reporter or the studio folks. With that as a background, I think audiences are expecting viewpoints -- and we all like viewpoints with which we agree.

Forbes looks at the newspaper business

And it doesn't paint a very optimistic picture. Nevertheless, the story is complete, listing some good news for smaller newspapers. Still, the picture is pretty dim for big papers, Forbes believes.

Newspapers a big success -- on the Internet

MediaPost reports that newspaper websites captured 41 percent of all Internet views last quarter, a big success. Of course, it also reports that they aren't making money from them, not so big a success.

Column laments loss of people of color from Sun-Times

Huffington Post column laments the loss of the last people of color on the Chicago Sun-Times Editorial Board. It's only the latest in a largely-overlooked trend. As newspapers shed staff, they are often losing a large part of their minority staff since, often, these were the reporters and editors with less seniority or minorities jumped to other media or even other occupations.

Maybe the doomsayers are right

It seems that way as more and more industry leaders seem to be wandering the desert looking at mirages with hope. Read this report of a talk by MediaNews Group Inc. CEO Dean Singleton who talks about outsourcing everything, including local reporting, then contrast it with suggestions of "local, local, local," and question whether the industry's leaders have a clue. James McPhearson of a website that has outsourced reporting to India is quoted in the article as saying: "You might miss the nuance of a sneer on a councilman's face but you know how he voted and what he said. That's factual and can be reported on from anywhere." He's correct. Just running the press release will do the same.

Meanwhile, the American Copy Editors Society points out the problems with Singleton's plan. Simply put, it destroys credibility.  FYI, this is a good site to visit on a regular basis.

Show me the money!

MediaPost continues to point to a major problem with all the new media talk: the money's not there yet. Yes, online revenues have increased, (although they are slowing now), but not close to enough to cover the losses in other areas. It's enough to turn even normally-optimistic people like me (who sees the tremendous upside of convergence) into a bit of a pessimist. Still, when I see some of the wonderful media storytelling -- including the current Journal Sentinel opus on Wisconsin's drinking culture (which has some excellent stories among the hand-wringing and preachy stuff) -- I can't help but think of the tremendous possibilities available to reporters.

Some thoughts on newspaper space cutbacks

While I was reading a story on the latest big newspaper to announce it was cutting sections, the Boston Globe, one line stood out to me. The Globe is dropping two sections (actually combining their content with existing sections, while adding a new entertainment-themed tabloid. But the phrase that stood out to me was this: "Martin Baron, editor of the Globe, said while some newshole will be lost, the pages lost include house ads and event listings."

The key part of that was the "event listings" portion. It's long been an axiom in print journalism (back when the competition was seen as broadcast) that newspapers owned "anything in agate type," that is all of the box scores, event listings, calendars, stock tables, etc. that ran in the smallest type. This was because this detail was impractical for broadcast.  

But, frankly, its better on the Internet since it can run in larger fonts and more detail. If I were seeking an online audience, I'd have the most complete listings, calendars, box scores, etc on my site.  Then I'd aggressively promote it on the print pages. Anyway, it's just one more indication of how the media landscape has dramatically changed.

Media use up -- both new and old media

An Iowa State University study finds that media consumption is up, but it's both new media and old. Apparently many of us are using new media while continuing to use old media. In fact, old media numbers are up, as well as new media. Doesn't mean advertisers are staying with old media, they're not. Maybe they should be.

Philip Meyer on "the endgame" for newspapers

Philip Meyer, who has written some of the most influential books on journalism, especially precision journalist, takes on the newspaper industry in an article in the American Journalism Review. He's been predicting the end of print editions for some time now, based on readership data, but has some very interesting observations and predictions in this article. His bottom line suggestion: focus on the community leadership role with interpretation and context. He also says time is running short for newspapers to sharply focus their missions.

Chicago Tribune joins dump-AP movement

Tribune Company executives notified the Associated Press that all newspapers owned by the corporation would drop AP service after the two-year period contractually demanded. It's only the latest and largest media company to notify AP that it planned to drop the service after a price rise. That doesn't mean it actually will drop AP, but it's a move that shows how the media world is changing. Editor & Publisher offers a nice roundup of what's happening.

In defense of bloggers. . .

New York University's Jay Rosen offers a stirring endorsement of bloggers, saying, among other things, that "bloggers and journalists are each other's ideal 'other' . . . ." Bloggers fill different needs than journalists, and operate differently. Rosen's blog has long been one of the more thoughtful journalism blogs.