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The Journalism Conundrum.

August 26, 2010 in Marketing | 0 Comments

 

Here’s the problem with newspapers.  Ready?  Who is your favorite newspaper journalist?  Quick!  Okay, who is your second favorite?  Now, who is your favorite blogger?  Much easier, no? 

There was a time when journalists and news reporters were heroes…a time when they were huge personalities.  They wrote with panache, shared ideas and commentary that struck a chord with America.  Their ability to turn a phrase captivated us and the masses loved them.  Journalists were the rock stars of the day.  After a while, though, newspapers started to think these writers were getting too big for their britches – bigger than the newspaper brands they wrote for — and decided to turn down the dial.  “If Jimmy Breslin becomes bigger than the Daily News, what happens if he leaves?”

Journalism became antiseptic. Lifeless. It lost a great deal of its humanity. When was the last time you cried after reading a piece in the paper (online or paper paper.)

Blogs to the Rescue.

Enter the blog.  No bosses. No editors. No sponsors.  Just peeps talking to peeps. Readers get the straight shot. Today’s most impressive, unadulterated journalists are bloggers. Ironically, when bloggers get big, big media tries to hire them.  Like punk rockers that have a hard time mixing art and success, this can alter the work product of the blogger.  The Conundrum.  Newspapers are losing money because their writers churn out auto text.  Journalism needs more heroic personalities. That’s what I’m talkin’ about! Peace.

PS.  My favorite journalists?  Nicholas Kristof, Dexter Filkins, Cathy Horyn, Robert Scoble

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Publish This!

December 8, 2009 in Marketing | 0 Comments

I’ve been talking to a number of people in the publishing business lately – website owners, newspaper strategists, newsweekly VPs, trade publishing executives – and one thing they share is a deer-in-the-headlights gaze. “How are we going to make money?”  “How are we going to stem losses?” “How do we fight off citizen journalism?” 

Let’s face it, there has been a perfect storm of events helping to gut the publishing business.  For me the solution to the storm lies in the very roots of publishing.  People don’t want to search hit or miss for the best news, analysis and entertainment — they want it aggregated, categorized and curated. And they want it from sources with whom they’re in synch.  I read The New York Times because its one place to get what I need.

Publishers do need to worry about paper vs. digital and ad revenue vs. headcount but first they need understand what they do best – what their readers want.  Then they can think about innovation in delivering the content. Too often, they’re thinking innovation first and it is resulting in me-too delivery tactics.  (Can you say Podcast?) Once publishers understand the consumer need they fulfill, the content and content wrappers will emerge. They will stop thinking like newspapers, or magazines, or websites and start thinking like publishers – and the gleam will return to their eyes. Peace!

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News On The Street.

March 30, 2009 in Marketing | 0 Comments

 

The newspaper business is tanking; partly caused by the economy, partly by the Internet, mostly because of the papers themselves. I wrote a couple of days ago how advertising account planners have to leave the building to get in touch with consumers. That is also true of newspaper reporters. 

 

The following quote appeared in The New York Times this morning concerning the San Francisco Chonicle’s difficulties: “The Chronicle no longer has anything like the grip it once had on this region.”  How does a newspaper create and maintain loyalty…or its grip? It must know its readers. It must live with its readers. Listen to and understand them. And that doesn’t come from periodic focus group research, it comes from feet on the street — at funerals, basketball tournaments, breast cancer walks, soup kitchens.

 

It’s ironic that the way most newspaper reporters get known today is from interviews on TV shows. I bet if you looked at the country’s best-read, most respected and decorated reporters, they are the ones with the biggest expense reports.  The worst reporters are those who eat in the cafeteria every day. Peace!

 

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The New York Times is losing New York.

September 5, 2008 in Marketing | 0 Comments

 
The New York Times is missing a huge opportunity with its daily newspaper. The problem is the Metropolitan section. Today the section is 6 pages long and one of those pages is obituaries. An eighth of a page is advertising, and that’s a house ad.  I counted about 15 writers with the only recognizable name being Clyde Haberman, who owns the “NYC” column.
 
In one of the greatest cities in the world, is there not more than 5 pages of news? 
 
The New York Times has lost its way in local news and it is killing circulation. If you need local news you have to read the Daily News or the New Your Post. 
 
I’m a big fan of Monday’s Metropolitan Diary, which always makes me smile and happy to be a New Yorker, but the rest of the week the section is a sham. Where’s the leadership? Where is the controversy? The human interest? The advertising? For goodness sake, this is New York. The Bumpus Mills Tennessee Guardian has more local news. Let’s wake up Mr. Sulzberger, Jr.
 

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The evolved newspaper.

September 12, 2007 in Marketing | 0 Comments

 

 
The New York Times is doing a great job of integrating other media forms into its offering. As a geeze, I still prefer my New York Times in paper form, but must admit I keep my compute close at hand to watch and listen to things such as Nicholas Kristof’s wonderful slideshows with voiceover from Africa, or colorful travelogues with high-quality pictures from Central American hot pepper markets.
 
Today, I read about a new TV show called “Gossip Girls,” a Josh Schwartz (O.C.) production. The paper promoted a podcast interview of Josh, in which he spoke about how he uses music in his shows. He’s a fan of the Brooklyn’s “The National,” you know.
 
The Times is doing a great job of bringing the news to life. Through excellent reporting, colorful Time Magazine-type pictures, video clips, slide shows and MP3s. They are getting the news right. Content is still king in the news world and the NY Times franchise will continue to grow as a news organization. With most newspapers shrinking and losing money, this organization is evolving nicely.
 

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Newspapers

July 30, 2007 in Marketing | 0 Comments

I’m a newspaper guy; not by trade, by practice. I just love reading newspapers. I love the interface. You can read standing on line, in a subway, on a plane, in the car. Obviously, they are not for real-time news – not like the Internet and radio — but they are my news medium of choice. 
 
News flash: the newspaper business is hurting.  Today’s New York Times had only 3 full-page ads in its first section. The Wall Street Journal had 4. That’s scary. Two of these ads were by Verizon for cell service and one spread was by FedEx/Kinkos. The business plan is teetering, it seems to me.
 
Newspapers have always been about the writing. Bylined writers sell papers, but many papers have stopped promoting their writers because they don’t want them to be bigger than the “paper.” They don’t want sub-brands outshining the master brand. Mistake.
 
Newspapers better get on the stick and start promoting the personalities who bring us the news and their craft, or these smart writers will continue to migrate to the blogosphere with AdSense accounts and kill the business completely. Newspaper writers and news photographers are a unique lot. Let make them important again.
 

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