One of the two investors who bought The Orange County Register last year says publishers shouldn't focus on digital entirely at the expense of print. (And he definitely doesn't recommend shrinking staff -- just the opposite.) In an op-ed piece in The Wall Street Journal today (subscription may be required), Eric Spitz says:
In the past 12 months we hired 350 people, built 25 new sections, revamped all of our weekly community papers (even making two of them into dailies) and launched a weekly set of magazines. Beginning in the first quarter of 2013 we have seen year-over-year increases in both subscription revenue and in advertising revenue. In other words, it's time to stop chasing the digital ghost.
Related: Al Jazeera America hires 400 journalists, debuts tomorrow.
Related: Al Jazeera America hires 400 journalists, debuts tomorrow.
I was attacked on here for suggesting last year that Gannett should follow a similar strategy instead of putting everything into digital and slashing and burning print. They asked me for one example of a paper that was doing what I suggested and I gave the Orange County Register as an example. It seems that it is working for them. Then I was attacked for only giving one example. Gannett and GPS could have gone in a different direction but why then would they when they don't seem to care about Newspapers or it's employees.
ReplyDeleteI remember your suggestion from last year and the attacks. The people running corporate Gannett are clueless. Always have been, always will be. Hollingsworth is driving the train for the next generation of clueless leaders. Print is definitely not dead and there is still a demand out there for the printed product.
Delete2:57 please list the ten newspapers that are the shinning example of companies that have grown circulation, readership and advertising over the last 24 months. Your last line indicates certainty so I'd love to see the examples.
DeleteThanks
On circulation, 4:53, are you including digital subscriptions?
Delete2:57 write "printed product." So no Jim. Print is dying because of technology plain and simple. The new owner of TOCR can fantasize all he wants about print but the future of news delivery is not on dead trees
DeletePlease come and buy the Greenville News and save us from the company destroying monster referred to as GANNETT! GANNETT is quickly ruining what once was a great newspaper and a great place to work.
ReplyDeleteCompanies like Gannett have made hastened the decline of print by striping away resources and making the newspaper less relevant, making the "end of print a self fulfilling prophecy.
ReplyDeleteThe dirty little secret is that for all the seemingly available digital news hole that isn't controlled by available pages, there is one thing that does hamper longer articles from appearing on line- Newsgate.
When I asked an editor (who is now gone from my site) why they couldn't run a longer version of an article on line, after it had been cut to fit the paper, they said the issue is that Newsgate isn't set up to allow that to be done. It wasn't impossible, but the process was difficult and time consuming, therefore it isn't done. So who loses? The reader, our customer.And now that inferiority is spilling on our future, digital.
The paper keeps shrinking in size and in the scope of what is covered with every staff cut. Who would buy such a product?
Meanwhile I'm sure whoever "green lighted" the beta test of Newgate at GCI got a nice big raise for this purchase of an inferior progress.
Nero, here's your fiddle, doesn't Rome (McLean) look pretty in the glow....
Total B.S. on Newsgate. Are you kidding me? Of course you can easily run two versions of the same story. You can run five versions. One version. Two versions. We invested the time at our site to understand the system and how it can fit our needs. We like it.
DeleteYou are both correct. Newsgate can do what it is programmed to do, but those who rule from McLean don't want any flexibility. However, I will say the product itself is good, just not scalable to the many needs of USCP. And yet, we always buy products like that. Can you say Mactive?
DeleteMactive is awful.
DeleteWow, 9:43, your post is right on-target!
DeleteNewsGate is not the problem. 8:57 is right. It's very easy to have different versions. NG is far from perfect, but it's much more flexible and intuitive than those used at some of NYC's major dailies.
DeleteAt USCP, it's the workflow that can be a problem. At my former site, the print version would be posted online in the rollover after the print cycle was completed. Unless the U-desk wanted to spend the time copy editing a piece of content twice, the print version tended to be what got reposted. Then the squeaky wheel ruled: The reporters smart enough to spot the opportunity could bug their editors to replace the print version with the longer original. It undercuts the copy editing process but keeps the information out there for users.
Greenville, you're not alone. In fact, you can't name a Gannett paper that Gannett hasn't wrecked.
ReplyDeleteGannett has certainly destroyed the Wisconsin Central Group -- by putting a guy like Mike Beck in charge. He is a clueless buffoon. He turns a room that housed a full department and turned it into a ''lounge''. He did it so there wasn't another huge empty room in the building. Give Gannett another year or two and the Central Group will be 1 paper -- guaranteed.
DeleteThis guy is not an investor, he's a philanthropist.
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