WHAT'S NEXT: INNOVATIONS IN NEWSPAPERS

What´s wrong with media portolio diversification?

Gerald Magpily in Dealscape writes about The New York Times Company looking for more than news to print:

The Gray Lady is undergoing a slow well-known makeover by purchasing outside the newspaper business.

Over the last couple of years, the New York Times Co. has purchased a minority stake in a baseball team, bought a small televison station and invested in a cable channel.

Its biggest investment was the acquisition of a Web portal for $410 million.

Now, the New York media company, known for its venerable daily, acquired Monday a subscription-based film and television database and research service, Baseline StudioSystems, for $35 million in cash from Hollywood Media Corp.

The new purchase offers access to more than 1.5 million records of information on the entertainment industry. The Times says that it expects Santa Monica, Calif.-based Baseline to generate about $6 million in revenue in 2006.

Although not a big deal in terms of numbers, the move still follows the Times’ strategy of diversifying its media holdings.

The Times has seen some moderate success, so far, with its purchase of About.com, which boosted its online advertising revenue 34.4% to $6.2 million in July (see chart of other purchases). So what’s next for the Times?

Probably, much of the same — a continuation of buying assets outside of the newspaper business — to satisfy its shareholders who are looking for growth.—

Well, it looks fine to me.

All these new business can fit very well with a brand like The New York Times.

I will be alarmed if they were investing in mining or gas stations.

Newspaper companies are not in the printing business.

They are in the information business.

Newspapers that stay as mono-media companies are going to die.

Period.

And if not read the last issue of The Economist.

It´s an American version of the French original, but Schock is just garbage.

If magazine publishers and editors believe that this is the way to attract and retain readers and advertisers, well, better try another job.

See this excellent review about this kind of trash.

Another clonic cover.

Five years after, Foreign Policy presents an old idea.

The same cover that The Village Voice did once before.

Creative designers… whatch out!

Gabriel Sama, an INNOVATION consultant based in San Antonio (Texas) sent me this job description that show an interesting direction for a new generation of newspaper editors.

Position: Assistant Managing Editor for Innovation and Integration
Company: The Statesman Journal
Location: Oregon
Job Status: Full-time

Description:
Essential Functions:
The AME for Innovation and Integration is responsible for content and audience development for statesmanjournal.com and ancillary web sites and for the newsroom’sweeklies and other non-daily products. He/She has the overall responsibility for working across departments to identify niche audiences for niche products and manages the overall audience aggregation strategy of news products. The AME for Innovation and Integration is also responsible for the photo department and universal copy desk.

Minimum Qualifications:
Bachelorss degree or higher; minimum three years editing experience; minimum four years of management experience; proven ability to lead projects and work with other departments. Must have understanding of journalism, libel and Associated Press style. Experience creating or managing online and multimedia content. Additional experience & skills preferred: Ability to work with multiple departments and people each
day for the web site, daily newspaper production and on special projects. Must be calm and productive under stress and tight deadlines. Ability to solve crises, handle discipline and field complaints in professional manner. Strong news judgment; time management and organizational skills; must adhere to high journalistic standards of honesty, integrity, fairness, balance and accuracy; must keep abreast of current events. High level of skill at managing other managers, particularly toward planning.

Angel Arnedo is one of the best Spanish newspaper editors.

In the next few hours, according to Periodistas 21, he will be appointed as the new editorial director of Vocento, the largest Spanish newspaper chain with 13 dailies, a total circulation of 810.000 copies and more than 3.5 million readers.

Arnedo was a great innovator and his newspaper, El Correo in Bilbao (Spain) has been one of the most successful papers in the world adopting new editorial ways to interact with readers and advertisers (the “enlace project”).

You can read about this project in my chapter on the INNOVATIONS IN NEWSPAPERS Global Report that INNOVATION produces every year for the World Association of Newspapers (WAN).

Arnedo said a few years ago:

“In my 30 years as a journalist in the Basque country, I have never lived through such a difficult situation as this.

The Basque society has become so polarized there is no longer room for an independent newspaper like ours. We are branded as traitors because we defend the Basque country’s ties to Spain, but we also support the region’s autonomy. That apparently is no longer enough.”

Arnedo, who has received ETA (the terrorist group that wants an independent Basque Country) death threats, was constantly accompanied by at least two bodyguards.

He used to travel everywhere in two cars (one is a decoy), and he had to book flights and restaurants using pseudonyms, and simple pleasures like going to the cinema were out of bounds because of the security risks involved.

Now that ETA is involved in a permanent peace process with the Spanish government, Mr. Arnedo is moving to Madrid.

The Vocento Group is very lucky to get such a respected editor to lead a Group whose CEO is Jose Maria Bergareche, another first class newspaper publisher, former President of the IFRA Board of Directors.

What Angel Arnedo leaves in Bilbao is an example of how to run a quality and profitable regional newspaper.

From an interview to Bill Powers (National Journal):

“Suddenly, there are about 10 million more media critics than there were 10 years ago. I find that exciting. It’s funny, there are all these bloggers and all these people who are instant media critics, and yet there are a lot of traditional news outlets that still don’t have anyone doing media criticism… My philosophy is, the more, the merrier.”

I am going this weekend to Orlando (Florida) to attend the Society of News Design Conference.

As the Ernesto hurricane is around the area, I went to different weather websites and I found that the graphics are really bad and, worse than that, confusing and not very helpful.

In this one, you find a disclaimer that explains how bad they are:

“If anything on this graphic causes confusion, ignore the entire product” (sic).

Very good!

Nationally syndicated Washington Post columnist David Broder discusses the state of journalism today in a recent Chautauqua Lecture.

You can listen his old fashion points in this MPR broadcast.

He doesn´t like blogs: “they are awful” and mostly “sensational journalism.”

Well, print columnists are no alone any more, and their voices are less and less relevant.

Richard Stengel, the new managing editor of Time magazine, is not very sure about the future of his print publication.

Not the most encouraging sign for his newsroom.

If his has so many doubsta perhaps must resign as soon as possible.

-A few comments, after his words from an interview for I want Media:

ONLINE

If Time co-founders Henry Luce and Briton Hadden were creating a newsmagazine today, “it would probably be electronic only.”

-Well, what is for sure is that the times.com will better than today´s one. And Mr. Stengel was in the past… his editor.

COVERS

“I think the covers I’ve done since I’ve been here have a strong point of view. You have to give people a reason to pay attention to the news. You have to present news in a way that’s forceful and compelling.”

-Sorry, but they are not working. Street sales are down.

What we need from a newsmagazine is not monographic issues or philosophical questions, but anticipatory and strategic journalism.

Don´t tell me what happened the last week (the original idea), but what´s next.

FRIDAYS

“Even though Monday is the first day of the week, I’ve always felt that we were landing at people’s doorsteps and on the newsstands at the wrong time. On Friday you’re setting the agenda more than merely reflecting it. This change will help us lead the conversation rather than just mirror it.”

-That´s right.

BLOGS

“I’d love to get our correspondents blogging. Wouldn’t it be great if our Beijing correspondent had a blog about life in Beijing?”

-This is done by many newspapers and magazines, but it seems that is great news at Time magazine.

NEWS ANALYSIS

“Our bread and butter is news analysis. We analyze what’s going on, which is forward-looking rather than retrospective. Part of the difficulty of the newsmagazine business is that people still think that is what we do.”

-If you read Time, you wil see that his editor thinks one thing and its newsroom must do a different one, because the most recent issues are full of soft news, entertainment (many times about related products from the Time Warner factory!) and very parochial USA narrow stories.

Deborah Howell, The Washington Post´s ombudsman reviews the advertising policy of the paper and concludes:

“Many newspapers of comparable quality do not take massage parlor ads — the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune, the Boston Globe. The Post should join them.”

In many European and Latin American newspapers this kind of ads are more explicit and abundant than in the USA.

They are not a small part of the ad revenue, but I am not sure that the great majority of the loyal readers like them.

This review is an excellent analysis of the problem, and knowing that it is very easy to say “kill them” when you do not lose any money, my feeling is that at the end of the day if you don´t respect the readers, you will pay the bill later.

Your credibility and moral authority will not survive this kind of “exceptions”

Surveys done in the past show a very strong rejection for this kind of ads.

Yes, we are no at a time to reject revenues, but either to offend your audience.

Said that, I am with Deborah Howell.