"We are looking at additional ways to extend the partnership with USA Today."
-- CEO Craig Dubow, in remarks to Wall Street analysts Friday, said more than half of the 81 U.S. community newspapers now publish a nation-world page and over 60% publish a baseball page -- both produced by USAT.
Hmmm...I would suspect that Gannett will produce an NFL page where they handle everything except that paper's "local team." Then an NBA page.
ReplyDeleteGoodbye local features sections.
ReplyDelete9:06 sounds like a great idea to me. Why should 80 newspapers write a story about the upcoming NBA or NFL season?
ReplyDeleteLocal features sections are already on the way out. ContentOne supplies center packages for one day a week at my paper, and I foresee more on the horizon. An editor can pad the page with local briefs and stir in few local quotes into the main bar. I don't like it, but I haven't heard any reader complaints yet.
ReplyDeleteI've been waiting for the collapse of features for a long time. My paper still has a really robust features section. In fact, it's one of the best things we offer. Because of that, I suspect Gannett will cut it any time.
ReplyDeleteManagement doesn't seem to realize that this is one area where papers are still relevant. The local TV stations just don't cover arts and entertainment ... at least not well. They do, however, do a reasonably good job on breaking news and hard news stories.
10:07 p.m....No reader complaints? How many of those folks are left? I can't speak for everywhere, but I know that in Westchester/Rockland there are legions of people who gave up on The Journal News a long time ago.
ReplyDeleteIncreasing the price at the same time the product was lessened didn't help, but a loss of community coverage was the big issue. Contrary to management's belief, people want hard news not fluff. Unfortunately, the former costs more to deliver and the company is unwilling to spend.