DOCUMENTARY FILM TO BE DISTRIBUTED VIA NEWSPAPER – Gannett has announced that its newspapers will distribute one million copies of a documentary film made by the organization The Smile Train, which helps children in developing countries. The film, “Smile Pinki”, follows Pinki, a young girl in rural India whose life is transformed when she receives free surgery to correct her cleft lip. The Smile Train’s mission is to help very poor children in developing countries who are suffering from cleft lip. Continue reading »
NEW YORK TIMES ANNOUNCES LAUNCH OF SAN FRANCISCO SECTION – The New York Times has announced that it will begin publishing pages with local content in the San Francisco Bay area Fridays and Sundays.
Oct 152009
According to a site comparison for the month of September on Compete.com, Huffington Post has surpassed both the Los Angeles Times and the Washington Post in unique online visitors. Continue reading »
As newspapers struggle to figure out the future of the industry, there will be some good ideas and some bad ones. This is the time for everyone to innovate and be bold. Everyone should be trying new ideas. But this idea, even on the surface, seems a bit still-born.
Feb 272009
Since 1859, the Rocky Mountain News newspaper in Denver, Colorado has published an edition…until now. As a number of newspapers across the country stand on the brink of failure, it is difficult to accept the demise of such an institution. My own paper, The Los Angeles Times, is in Chapter 11 proceedings. Other papers such as the Seattle PI and the San Francisco Chronicle have threatened to shutter their doors. The end is near for many.
The most frightening thing about the loss of such news organizations is the silence from the public. Do people not understand the role of newspaper journalism in America’s democratic society? Maybe not. Or maybe they know the time has come for something new and better to rise in place of these publications.
Regardless of what you think about individual newspapers or the industry as a whole, the losses will be felt far and wide.
The funeral for the Rocky will be short but emotional. Others will follow. Now, it is up to the journalists remaining in the business to figure out where we go from here.
Below is a video produced by the staff of the Rocky Mountain News that documents the paper’s final days. It’s worth a watch.
Oct 312008
Marc Andreessen’s proposition that newspapers give up the printed paper in favor of an online-only business model has lit a fire under the ongoing debate about the state – and fate – of the newspaper industry. During an interview with Conde Nast’s Kevin Maney in Portfolio, Andreessen argues that newspaper have to adapt to a changing print journalism market the same way Intel adapted to micro-chip competition from Japanese companies in the mid-80s. Intel shut off its dominant business and focused efforts on a smaller, more targeted micro-processor manufacturing because it was seen as the future.
Scott Rosenberg, writing on his blog Wordyard, doesn’t think newspapers are going to make the painful decissions necessary to survive.
If newspapers are really going to take the leap Andreessen proposes, they will have to do it while simultaneously restructuring their deals with their employees and mandating painful cuts that nobody wants to accept.
The newspaper industry is fast approaching the point where it must decide. Is it going to make the tough choices…or will it die?