"I offer this as a promise, not a threat:
The Courier-Journal will publish
my obituary and yours, but not its own."
-- Publisher Arnold Garson in a 3,400-word (!) op-ed yesterday, "The Courier-Journal is 'alive and well.'" How it appears as a tag cloud:
adults audience business certain circulation closed company decline digital economic expense general going hear home industry information internet local market mass month news number operating penetration people percent point pressure print product provide public reaches really recession revenue site society subscriber super today turn tv web week work years young
created at TagCrowd.com
Well written piece, even if it did broadly quote the Ken Paulson "invention of the newspaper" analogy which I don't agree with.
ReplyDeleteNine jumps was a little extreme... but I guess that adds to page views. While writing this, I can't recall one advertiser that paid to be included on the website.
I know that it's been widely reported here, but the fragmentation of the advertiser base is what is hurting newspapers the most. The dirty little secret in the newspaper business was that you could charge for an ad as if every single subscriber actually saw it. Newspapers raised rates yearly and without cause. Declining circulation was no reason to lower the ad rate... just send out a letter that states that newsprint prices were increasing.
Now, there are real-time metrics which help advertisers determine the effectiveness of the ad spend. These tools are improving every day. TV, radio and print don't offer that.
If the economy does improve, newspapers aren't going to start hiring more people to report the news because the ad spending isn't coming back.
Ever.
Garson failed to address the ignorance of newspaper managers who ignored the threat of Craigslist, jobs.com and realtor.com. These channels provided tremendous revenue streams for newspapers because advertisers didn't have many cost-effective options.
Today, they do.
And that, Arnie, is a huge [elephant-sized] problem.
Garson is a smart newspaperman.
ReplyDeleteIf any newspaper survives and goes on to profit, it will whatever one he is editor of.
BTW, 5/18/2009 12:41 PM, The piece was already LONG. He can't give you his entire plan for success in one sitting. Nine jumps was enough.
Likely he will further educate us all in the future.
12:41 hits the nail on the head
ReplyDeletenewspapers dont have an audience problem, and we dont have a subscription revenue problem - we have an ROI problem
Years of monoploy pricing coupled with declining penetration means most newspapers are drastically overpriced for the value they deliver - and thats assuming the underlying product still holds value
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDelete..fiddle dee, fiddle doh.. rome is burning, butt-heads. say what he wants, but the c-j is a shell. and readers know it. not only because of the lack of content, but its inability to keep up with other media. on top of that -- declining interest in civic affairs.
ReplyDeleteyou didnt hear it here first.