Jeff Jarvis and other media bloggers report about print newspapers that go online – not to to die, because they were dead already.

My comment to one of Jeff’s recent posts:

These are dead bodies in dead markets.

Like the papers in Detroit.

So, going online will not solve their problems.

If you were not able to make money in print, how you are going to survive online?

If you didn’t get enough readers and advertisers, how are you going to get them online?

Only print newspapers making money, having readers and advertisers, and investing online will survive.

If you were not innovative in print, how I can believe that you will be online?

These newspapers are not casualties of the Internet, but print failures.

These are not the papers of the future.

They are the losers.

So, let’s focus on what The Guardian does or what The Daily Telegraph, La Vanguardia, El Mundo, Politiken, Aftenposten, O Globo, Zero Hora, The New York Times, USA Today, 20 Minutos, Il Corriere della Sera, Dagens Nyheter, Berlingske Tidende, La Nación or La Tercera do …

A four-year-old Palestinian boy buried in Gaza.

In a dramatic picture by Mohammed Salem/Reuters.

The Times of London will relaunch its Saturday Times edition at the end of January.

A new broadsheet-size supplement will be included in the new formula.

Newspapers increasingly are going to have better Saturday editions.

As INNOVATION says, “Saturday is the new Sunday.”

Picture by Natalie Litz/Flickr

An Info-card.

Simple.

Dramatic.

Smart.

Via The Big Picture.

As you know, right now we are moving back to St. Davids, in Wales, (UK).

And over the next few days, I will have to decide what goes there, what stays here and what will go to charities, eBay or in the trash.

My main problem is what to do with printed books, magazines and reports.

In our headquarters office in Europe, we keep digital and print records of all of our work.

After more than 20 years in this business, though, I keep copies of a lot of stuff that is archived there.

The first decision is to trash all of my duplicates.

This includes dozens of copies of our Quarterly Confidential Newsletter that I started in 1986, and extra copies of our Innovations in Newspapers Global Reports since 1999.

Next are almost 100 copies of Condé Nast Traveler magazine.

And old copies of The Bulletin and The American Editor, INMA Ideas magazine and DESIGN Journal.

I will ship to Wales only my collection of Monocle, Revista UNICA, and hundreds of magazine special issues or those with some historical meaning. 

My large collection of uniquely designed books, smart travel guides, books about New York city, old British and American journalism manuals, newspaper editors’ biographies and memories will follow me to St. Davids, as they are my real collector’s treasures.

The rest will go in the trash or to eBay; so stay tuned, and you can bid for some of the best pieces.

El Pais is on strike.

But the paper was able to print 594,000 copies of an abbreviated edition that was for sale in 30,000 news outlets.

The newsroom is not working as a protest against the externalization of the advertising sales force.

The leading Spanish newspaper explained the reasons for the strike here.

According to this information, the average salary at El Pais, excluding directors,  is 79,472 euros per year.

The journalists make an average of 94,592 euros.

The advertising and administrative staff makes an average of 70,159 euros.

The production staff makes an average of 69,775 euros.

And 95% of the staff is under full-time and permanent contracts.

The average salary of more than $132,000 makes this newsroom the most expensive in the world.

With salaries like this, change will not be easy.

And El Pais is changing — and wants (and needs) to change more.

So the management is taking actions that make sense in the commercial area.

With salaries like this, the next ones to confront the reality will be the journalists, and it will be soon.

This strike is just preventative.

Shares of PRISA, the media holding company that publishes El Pais, are now lower than ever.

The group is trying to sell its Digital Plus operations and they will have to open the capital to new investors very soon.

El Pais is going to change a lot.

And the journalists know that they will not be able to enjoy the best salaries in the world anymore.

The crisis is for everybody.

Including El Pais.

(In the pictures, El Pais headquarters, and Juan Luis Cebrian, founding editor of El Pais, now president of PRISA)

Different and dramatic front pages for Christmas Night and Christmas Day.

Mostly from U.S. newspapers.

I am back from nine days in Europe, visiting clients in Paris, Lisbon, Barcelona and Madrid.

The financial crisis there is as big as it is here.

So it’s very rewarding to meet clients who are involved in new projects.

Let me just say a few things about our current work in Portugal.

We were hired by a new media company, Sojormedia, that will launch a new national print and online newspaper next year.

Yes, a new newspaper!

The project is led by two former editors of Diario Economico, Martim Figueiredo and André Macedo, plus Francisco Santos and the excellent managers from Grupo Lena, the Leiria company behind the project.

I had dinner last Tuesday with its president, Antonio Barroca Rodrigues.

He is a first-class businessman and he understands the key factors for the success of a new-media venture.

“People,” he said, “is what make the difference in any project.”

Well, after several months working with the Sojormedia team, we are very impressed with the quality of their people.

They are open minded, ready to innovate and willing to invest in talent.

The editorial and graphic model are almost done.

INNOVATION’s architects are working now on what, in a few months, will be the most advanced, state-of-the-art multimedia newsroom in Portugal.

Today, I will meet with the person who could be its art director, a fantastic one.

With Javier Errea, INNOVATION has developed a very unique prototype that needs a very creative graphic team.

But, again, Sojormedia is doing the right thing.

They are hiring real talent.

They are investing in the future.

In people.

And in good journalism.

So, good news from Lisbon!

Picture by José Eduardo Silva/Flickr