The move by the Long Island-based daily represents an ominous expansion into territory that should be controlled by The Journal News at White Plains, N.Y.
"Newsday is expanding its digital operations into Westchester County, one of the wealthiest areas in the country," Poynter Online's Mediawire says, citing a memo from the paper. "As part of the expansion, the Cablevision-owned property will hire 25 new editors, reporters and digital content specialists."
The memo says: "Newsday is expanding! Building on the success of its online and mobile products, Newsday will launch new digital products -- web as well as iPhone, iPad and Android apps -- specifically for Westchester County beginning early next year. Comprehensive, compelling hyper-local news, sports, opinion, things-to-do and entertainment coverage will serve the Westchester community."
Based in Melville, Newsday's weekday circulation is 404,542. The Journal News: 74,325.
Cablevision bought Newsday in 2008 for $650 million.
Newsday's encroachment comes after an especially brutal decade of circulation decline at Westchester. The paper lost 43% between 2000-2010, ranking it No. 12 in losses among 78 Gannett papers I studied in September. (Spreadsheet shows all the papers.)
How many people work in the Journal News' newsroom? Please post your replies in the comments section, below. To e-mail confidentially, write jimhopkins[at]gmail[dot-com]; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the rail, upper right.
"Newsday is expanding its digital operations into Westchester County, one of the wealthiest areas in the country," Poynter Online's Mediawire says, citing a memo from the paper. "As part of the expansion, the Cablevision-owned property will hire 25 new editors, reporters and digital content specialists."
The memo says: "Newsday is expanding! Building on the success of its online and mobile products, Newsday will launch new digital products -- web as well as iPhone, iPad and Android apps -- specifically for Westchester County beginning early next year. Comprehensive, compelling hyper-local news, sports, opinion, things-to-do and entertainment coverage will serve the Westchester community."
Based in Melville, Newsday's weekday circulation is 404,542. The Journal News: 74,325.
Cablevision bought Newsday in 2008 for $650 million.
Newsday's encroachment comes after an especially brutal decade of circulation decline at Westchester. The paper lost 43% between 2000-2010, ranking it No. 12 in losses among 78 Gannett papers I studied in September. (Spreadsheet shows all the papers.)
How many people work in the Journal News' newsroom? Please post your replies in the comments section, below. To e-mail confidentially, write jimhopkins[at]gmail[dot-com]; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the rail, upper right.
Newsday will also be using the resources of News12 a local 24 tv news channel as well as a local 24 hour high school sports channel, both are owned by Newsday's Parent co., Cablevision. This is not good news for JN.
ReplyDeleteHopefully Newsday will drive a fatal stake into the jn and gannett!!!!
ReplyDeleteI have always wondered why newspapers talk about "hyper-local" news. I've never been able to think of hyper anything as being a good thing. Here's a definition I found online.
ReplyDeleteadjective
1. overexcited; overstimulated; keyed up.
2. seriously or obsessively concerned; fanatical; rabid: She's hyper about noise pollution.
3. hyperactive.
This is precisely the kind of development that Gannett exposed itself to. By offering the reading public such inferior news products, both in print and online, Gannett all but invited competitors to fill the void. I see Huffington Post now has a Miami edition. Competition can't come fast enough to Gannett markets.
ReplyDeleteGannett has a strangle-hold on one of the most desirable areas in the country and then screws it all up. Meanwhile, they allow a competitor to stroll in and take over. Guess by now we shouldn't be surprised.
ReplyDelete"Cablevision-owned property will hire 25 new editors, reporters and digital content specialists."
ReplyDeleteSounds like they might be able to absorb most of the opertation over at 1 Gannett Drive.
Thanks to Tony Simmons!!!! Who drove cirulation in the crapper! ( As well as Gannet keeping the same losers on board for YEARS AND YEARS!!!!!!!!) Newsday is going to bury this poor excuse of a paper!
ReplyDelete5:22 you never miss an opportunity to slam Simmons. What's up? Why don't you come clean. Why are you so angry at this guy?
ReplyDeleteAnd don't forget the previous Publisher who was at the helm and piloted a once good newspaper right into the ground.
ReplyDeleteYep. It really is hard to cut Gannett any slack on Westchester.
ReplyDelete4:12 really nailed it. They had more or less a monopoly on local news in one of the nation's top markets.
Now, it's true that a lot of the really wealthy elite of Westchester consider themselves Manhattanites even though they don't actually live there. They would consider the Times their first read and the J-N secondary.
But still -- it's hard to imagine how that operation could have slipped so far. I worked there in the early '90s and we had a lot of very talented reporters, editors, photographers, artists and designers. We put out a newspaper that we were proud of.
Maybe Newsday can get the correct location of the Westchester County Park that was part of the big front page story today
ReplyDeleteThe Journal News was once a good paper with solid reporting throughout. Unfortnately, that began declining in the mid-1990s as more corporate types filled editing/executive posts.
ReplyDeleteThe loss of local control to corporate spelled the end of quality. People are not the fools that G A N N E T T thinks they are....Charge more for less and less, then watch your readership fade away.
I wonder not only what Newsday's excursion means for G A N N E T T, I wonder what it means for the other recently spawned digital sites operating in Westchester.
Watch for heavy rotation of promos for this new enterprise on all Cablevision TV properties. Cablevision's local sales staff is well managed. They will build an audience and an ad market for this new site quickly.
ReplyDelete10:27 - I can only assume you're talking about Cranberry Lake Preserve, which has its address listed as both 1609 Old Orchard Street, N. White Plains and 1609 Old Orchard Street, West Harrison, NY on http://parks.westchestergov.com. The in-house style guide lists the West Harrison address as correct.
ReplyDeleteAs a former TJN-er (LoHudder? blech!) and Westchester resident, I greet this news with cautious optimism. The Journal News had every opportunity to kick ass, but instead has done a terrible job with Westchester, Rockland & Putnam counties, mainly by obsessing about "hyperlocal" strategies that fragment the audience further, plus really bizarre multimedia and circulation decisions made by editors and corporate overlords who don't have no clue about the region or their own staff.
ReplyDeleteBut can Newsday do any better? I say give it a shot! Especially since NYT has all but given up on the northern suburbs and Patch remains patchy (and underpaid), there's definitely a vacuum. The strategy will have to be to hire a bunch of journalists who live in and really know Westchester, and yet FORGET about local-local! Focus on great splashy features and investigations that appeal to suburban New Yorkers in general. Certainly most of the sports teams and state politics apply beyond just Long Island, anyway.
Best case scenario: Newsday hires all the fantastic ex-TJN journos like Pulitzer Prize winning cartoonist Matt Davies and the folks who fled to Patch and government communications, and lures in the TJN editors and reporters who live in and really know the county. Within two years, Gannett throws in the towel, gives up on Westchester & Putnam and spins off the Rockland edition to a private owner.
Sounds like you'd wish to see most of your former colleagues lose their jobs.
ReplyDeleteNot at all. I just think almost everyone would be happier and better off elsewhere -- the good ones at Newsday or some other journalism outlet, the bad ones in another line of work entirely.
ReplyDeleteWho else almost fell out of their chairs laughing in that meeting Thursday when CR and JM breathlessly announced that in response to the Newsday threat we MAY speed up development of a Lohud iPhone app? Maybe..... I guess that's the extent of the response. We're doomed........
ReplyDelete10:09- I for one will go work for Newsday and kick the collective butts of those still at TJN, especially those responsible for kicking me to the curb. My choice- my rules!
ReplyDeleteNewsday... you are seeding comments into this blog. Serious. Lame.
ReplyDeleteThe mess in Westchester can be traced back to former publisher Gary Sherlock, who drove the papers into the ground.
ReplyDeleteThe comment of e-mailer 4:04PM hit the nail right on the head! Once he and his foul-mouthed cronies hit Westchester-Rockland and started to consolidate the successful dailies, tried to compete with the NYT and lied to the advertisers about true circulation, then the slow decline of the once great Westchester-Rockland Newspapers lost its' luster! I can remember circulation figures of over 200,000 and still have printed material showing ABC figures proving those circ figures.
ReplyDeleteToday, according to the Blog the figures are 74,325.
When I retired from Gannett, my stock was worth 90, look at todays
number!
Sad, sad situation.
A very disappointed retiree
Can't believe some of the people TJN recently hired back, because they've lost the better people to retirement incentives or to Newsday. One particular rogue reporter, whose contacts in a two-county region completely dried up because of his inaccurate and biased reporting while previously at TJN, has returned as a "columnist." Not a good move. The editors will regret this decision.
ReplyDelete