Focusing to Survive

It says a lot when a fierce competitor tips the hat to another. I am not talking tennis with Federer vs. Nadal. I am thinking about gladiator-type business competitors where the last guy standing is alive and the rest aren’t. New York Times vs. Washington Post-type competitors.

On Sunday, the Times tipped its hat to the Post, acknowledging the iconic DC daily is making the necessary and painful changes to survive in the changing newspaper world. Cutting staff from 1,000 to 640. Closing bureaus in three major markets. Moving online aggressively. Using web metrics to assess success.

Similar efforts are being played out in Portland, Oregon. At The Oregonian, Scott Bernard Nelson, Business Editor, has been a change agent at the paper and closely follows changing business models for newspapers across the county. At KATU-TV, executive producer John Tierney is working to bridge the gaps between broadcast and online news.

In the modern news landscape, changing and remaining profitable is difficult.

Even so, I was surprised to read what Marcus Brauchli, The Washington Post's executive editor, said about change at the Post. “The Washington Post doesn’t need to cover everything,” he said. “But what it does cover, it will cover well. I think the staff of any newsroom today surely understands that we are in a fast-changing industry, facing constant competitive pressure, significant economic challenges and great opportunities to rethink how we cover things.”

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ABC’s New Math Excites Publishers

The start of November means there’s always a fresh dump of circulation figures produced by the Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC). Last week The Oregonian, for example, claimed 1.6 percent growth over a year ago for the April-to-September time period.

The Portland daily was ranked 21st in the nation's top 25 newspapers, right behind the Seattle Times in 20th place.

But wait. There is a twist. The growth for The O and other major dailies is because paid online subscriptions may be counted along with the latest count for print circulation. Online page views don’t count, but paid e-subscriptions — however that is defined — do count as part of the total number.

The changes in accreditation went into effect last year. The agency warns against putting too much stock in comparing this year’s to last year’s figures as a result of the change. Still media trend watchers are taking note.

“Some of the nation’s largest newspapers are recording gains in digital circulation as print circulation continues to weaken, a trend that is helping to ease what has become a relentless overall decline in recent years,” reports Jeremy W. Peters in the New York Times’ Media Decoder blog.

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A Free Digital Device With Your News Subscription?

Where we get our news and the tactics news outlets may use is leading to some intriguing possibilities. How about a free Android-based tablet for the cost of a subscription to the Chicago Tribune?

News organizations are exploring a variety of new business models, including pay walls – charging to view all or some content online. The New York Times has received a ton of attention with its new pay-to-view model, for example.

“Other newspapers are watching us and hoping that it works,” Martin Nisenholtz, head of digital operations at the New York Times, told The Economist in a lengthy article about the future of the news industry.

“Since it put up its paywall, visits to the paper’s site have dropped by about 10 percent and page views by about 20 percent. But more people than expected are signing up,” the Economist reported.

Another new source of digital revenue is charging for content on mobile devices such as smartphones and tablet computers, The Economist added. Now, CNN reports the Tribune Co., one of the largest U.S. news enterprises, is working on a touchscreen tablet that it plans to offer to newspaper subscribers.

“The Tribune aims to offer the tablet for free, or at a highly subsidized price, to people who agree to sign up for extended subscriptions to one of its papers and possibly a wireless-data plan with a partner cellular carrier,” says CNN writer Mark Millan.

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Times Documentary Exposes Newspaper in Transition

Anyone who needs to know how newspapers work and how the news business is changing should make plans to see “Page One: Inside the New York Times.” Director Andrew Rossi spent a year inside the NYT newsroom to make the documentary, which debuted in New York last Friday and will be released nationally July 1.

The Times represents the epicenter of events and trends shaking the news world, ranging from the search for a new business model – known as a paywall, getting ahead of the social media curve and the use of controversial news sources such as WikiLeaks. The film starts in 2010 with the WikiLeaks hot potato.

To delve deeper in the issues, Google the name of Bill Keller, who just announced his retirement as The Times executive editor.

“Page One” zeroes in on two contrasting figures on the staff, writes columnist Tommy Christopher of the website Mediaite: “The film focuses on The Times’ Media Desk, particularly on David Carr and Brian Stelter. They are fitting proxies for the audience, as they’re each outsiders, of a sort.”

“Carr is the nucleus around which the film gathers, and his musings form much of the narration. While a 25-year veteran, much of Carr’s career has been with alternative publications, and his backstory reads more like a pulp novel than the resume of a media reporter for the world’s most prestigious newspaper. His emergence from drug addiction and crime give him a hard, weathered edge,” says Christopher.

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