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Thursday, September 05, 2013
34 comments:
Jim says: "Proceed with caution; this is a free-for-all comment zone. I try to correct or clarify incorrect information. But I can't catch everything. Please keep your posts focused on Gannett and media-related subjects. Note that I occasionally review comments in advance, to reject inappropriate ones. And I ignore hostile posters, and recommend you do, too."
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What's new about New Jersey Today? I hear it will begin publication in October of this year. I for one see the publication being called either the New Jersey Press or The Press of New Jersey. Gannett paid lots of money for the Asbury Park Press name. I just don't see Gannett burying the name of the Asbury Park Press.
ReplyDeleteProvided no jobs are lost, I think the new paper is a good idea. Each Gannett paper in New Jersey is struggling. Why not make one strong paper of 150,000-200,000 circulation and a strong website? Remember, in unity there is strength.
The situation in Northern and Central New Jersey is nuts. Three Gannett papers within 60-70 miles of each other and each is struggling in an industry that is at best on life support. They are very small in terms of thickness and there is next to no staff. They help make the case for one strong New Jersey paper and website.
Gannett tried turning a group of local newspapers into a regional paper, and it got The Journal News in Westchester, N.Y. That didn't work out so well.
DeleteJim, why do you say that didn't work out so well? By what measure?
Delete11:50 a.m.: Jim, if it's done right, it will work. See post below about what I mean by something being done right.
DeleteI say Westchester didn't work out well because of the hit circulation took.
DeleteBetween 2005-2012, The Journal News' circulation fell 46%, to 71,642 vs. 133,260 in 2005. Indeed, it ranked No. 10 in biggest percentage loss among the 81 U.S. community dailies.
No. 1 was Bridgewater, N.J., at 62%. The average loss for all 81 was 36%.
In 1972, the weekday circulation for what was then called Westchester Rockland Newspapers, now The Journal News, was 220,000. When measuring that against today's circulation, it's important to know that yet another newspaper, The Peekskill Evening Star, was added to the group around 1990.
DeleteNow I see USA Today wants us to nominate ideas for their new Edison Awards. WTF is this? Please don't tell me we're stuck with another one of those Bright Ideas or DIG competitions to save this company.
ReplyDeleteThis is not a Gannett DIG. Just another ill-conceived, expensive sponsorship Ed Cassidy cooked up for usat. I'm surprised we're stuck with this sponsorship, just like his Cannes Advertising follies.
DeleteEd Cassidy has been gone for over 3 years. Are you seriously still blaming him?
DeleteIf it was such a shitty program then why are we still doing it?
DeleteDIG was Gannett and had nothing to do with USAT.
DeleteAfter another three years we can start blaming Sandy Banikarim for nothing new save for the Project Runway episodes. That was a real advertising booster.
DeleteI believe you mean Maryam Banikarim -- not Sandy.
DeleteJim,
DeleteI think 4:44 is referring to that dynamic duo of Sandra Micek and Maryam Banikarim. Both seemed to have disappeared over the last 4-5 months. Maybe Cannes was their swan song.
Anytime you consolidate, as Gannett eventually always does, jobs are lost. This is how they operate. They closed down their Home News and Courier News buildings ! They print those out of their Freehold facility along with the Asbury Park Press, Atlantic City and Vineland papers. The Observer, a local Southern Ocean paper owned by Gannett, closed down and eventually stopped printing altogether. If the building and products printed out of it, are not making money, they move on. Hence the start of the regional hubs. I agree with your assessment, but their is know way that it will not cost jobs somewhere down the line. It's just how they operate,and you just have to hope that whatever building you work from that it is productive in Gannetts plans.
ReplyDeleteActually, the Home News Tribune moved into the Courier News offices in Somerville. The former Courier News site in Bridgewater was torn down to make way for a car dealer.
Delete11:56 a.m.: My "dream" paper and website would consist of the following: strong local news coverage (school board, township committee, township council meetings would be staffed); strong local sports and lots of chicken dinner news (news of installation of officers, fundraisers, etc).
ReplyDeleteThere would also be extensive coverage of courts and the police beat. Let's get away from gimmicks and get back to no-frills, basic grassroots local news and see what happens. All of Gannett's gimmicks (Content Evolution, Real News, Real Life and those eyesore videos to name a few) have failed. There is still a market for local news, mixed with the top wire stories of the day.
There would also be news of local military people, dean's list students and honor rolls. The Asbury Park Press used to be great at that stuff. Gannett took over, cut the staff, made the deadlines earlier and cut the space. The paper and website flopped, giving rise to exceptional weeklies at the Jersey Shore.
Let's try to make this new paper and website things the public can't afford to miss. Like anything else, anything good will make money.
People know garbage when they see it. If the new paper and website are garbage, they will not work out. I see a decent newspaper and website growing into forces in the Garden State provided Gannett gives them a chance to grow.
"anything good will make money"
DeleteThe problem is that's just no longer so. Advertising revenue is never coming back, no matter what you do, and certainly not to a level that will support the staff required to put out "a decent newspaper".
I agree 100% - I was just talking to a few of my co-workers yesterday. I wish I could start my own "local" paper. All these weeklies that my market prints could go into one great community paper. Back to basics, no frills, just local news and events. We have moved away from what the people love and want. It's a shame.
ReplyDelete12:08 and 12:57....I've been on board with that for a while also. Of course you would also have to drop the price back to what people can afford/will pay.
DeleteMaybe the economy is better for the top third of the country but us regular folks are barely getting by, if at all. A dollar a day for a paper is just too much.
Well, now there's the rub: Advertisers won't pay the freight anymore, but readers won't either. The business model you're left with entails a lot of bake sales and beg-a-thons.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteLouisville Courier-Journal loses two of its best-known reporters just this week -- in sports, U of L beat reporter C.L. Brown to ESPN.com and metro reporter Marcus Green, who dealt with the complexities of covering the Ohio River Bridges Project and the KFC Yum! Center, to WDRB-41. Metro desk also lost two other top reporters and an assistant metro editor in the past two months. http://insiderlouisville.com/news/2013/09/05/another-day-another-exit-top-reporter-marcus-greene-leaves-cj-for-wdrb-bill-lambs-third-get-in-14-months/
ReplyDeletehttp://insiderlouisville.com/news/2013/09/05/another-day-another-exit-top-reporter-marcus-greene-leaves-cj-for-wdrb-bill-lambs-third-get-in-14-months/
ReplyDeleteLooks like Broadcast won the digital race with USCP as WBIR launched today (I think). Their new site is up and there is an article about it.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.wbir.com/story/news/local/2013/09/04/wbir-new-website/2762539/
Looks very USATish but I personally think that is a huge improvement over the old one, very fast also.
Even if you combine the New Jersey papers you’ll have a circulation of what, maybe 250,000 in a state with the population of 8 million.
ReplyDeleteThe Daily Record is in North Jersey, the Home News and Courier News are in central Jersey, The Asbury Park Press covers the shore, the Courier post is a suburban Philadelphia paper and the Vineland paper is in South Jersey. So the 250,000 will be so spread apart the “new’ newspaper will be even more useless than what they have now.
This is such a bad idea I will say with full confidence that Gannett will do it.
3:32 p.m. Sept. 5: All I did was pull the circulation number out of the sky. This fact can't be disputed: The better the product, the higher the circulation, advertising revenue and web hits.
Delete...A third CJ reporter, one of the best, is leaving - Jason Riley. Big loss. Excellent, well-sourced court reporter.
ReplyDeletehttp://insiderlouisville.com/news/2013/09/05/cj-executives-recent-exits-will-be-replace/
Photographer and a features writer/columnist also leaving this month at CJ
DeleteWho? The food writer?
DeleteNot the food writer, a features writer who does the people column. But funny you mention the food writer -- rumor is he's retiring soon. A huge exodus of talent is underway from Sixth & Broadway. Ivory's departure opened the floodgates.
Deletefood writer is retiring soon.
DeleteCincinnati since at least 2008 has lost a ton of talent.
ReplyDelete10:38, no kidding. You can repeat that statement for just about every property Gannett owns.
ReplyDelete