Yet Another Misguided Idea For Saving Newspapers

from the here-we-go-again dept

Fri, May 25th 2007 9:51am — Joseph Weisenthal

There are no easy answers to the problems facing the newspaper industry, but before we can begin to talk about solutions, it's important to properly identify the problems. Oddly, a number of people seem to think that the problems facing the industry don't have to do with declining subscriber rolls and a failure to to adapt to the internet. Instead, they see a problem with the current ownership structure, whereby owners actually have to answer to shareholders and demonstrate growth. In light of News Corp.'s bid for Dow Jones, this concern has become more pronounced (particularly among journalism school types that are worried about the influence of Rupert Murdoch). One solution, proposed by journalism professor Chris Daly, is to get newspapers to pitch their readers on the company's stock (via Romenesko), sort of the way public television stations raise money through fundraising drives. The thinking is that if the readers were also the owners, their main priority would be good journalism. The most obvious problem here is that this idea doesn't strike at the root of the industry's real issues. There's no shortage of "good journalism" in the New York Times, but the company obviously needs more than that to reverse its fortunes. Another problem is that the two papers he's most concerned about, the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, have ownership structures that are highly unfavorable to shareholders that aren't part of the founding family. So, unless that were changed, the new class of reader/owners wouldn't have much influence. Ultimate, any proposal that calls for newspapers to exist in some state where where profit isn't the primary focus is a white flag, an admission that the problems can't be fixed so they should just be swept under the rug. In the end, there's no getting past the economics. You can put newspapers in a charitable trust or under the ownership of some civic-minded individual who doesn't mind losing money, but if people keep canceling their subscriptions in droves, in the end it won't do much good.

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31 Comments

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Anonymous Coward, 25 May 2007 @ 10:50am

What?
Whats a newspaper?
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Drama2Sell, 25 May 2007 @ 11:22am

Newspapers?
Every so often I get a call from a telemarketer telling me that I can get my local paper delivered FOR FREE.

I keep telling them I don't want it.

"But it's free, you don't have to do anything. We'll deliver it. To your doorstep. Everyday." they reply.

To which I say, please don't do that. And if you do, I will call the police and say you are littering.

They hang up baffled.

So my question is--if you are willing to GIVE your product away for free, bring it right to my door each morning to hand it to me, and expect nothing in return--and I STILL DON'T WANT IT---is it really worth saving?
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SPR, 25 May 2007 @ 11:40am

"There's no shortage of "good journalism" in the New York Times"

What rock have you been living under?!!? The NYT is the most biased and seditious rag to reach print!! It ranks with the "Star" and the Globe" in content and quality. It comes as no surprise that their subscriptions are falling like a meteor headed for burn-out.
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Doug, 25 May 2007 @ 11:48am

Re: Newspapers?
I have to agree.

I find 1 use for the newspaper and my wife another. I like to use it for cleaning glass. She likes it for receiving coupons.

Neither of us read it and if the extra copies wern't free we would only get the Sunday edition with the coupons.

We could eliminate it entirely if we could get coupons on line and not get spammed in the process. I can find something else to clean the windows with.

Anyone nieave enough to think that local news is unbiased, honest reporting has not been paying attention. I can site specific examples where the local news misrepresented the facts to make the point that they wanted to make and never set the stor streight.

I believe we would all be better off without newspapers or mainstream TV news. For the most part they both harp on the negitave and bring society down.
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Just Me, 25 May 2007 @ 11:52am

Re: Newspapers?
"if you are willing to GIVE your product away for free, bring it right to my door each morning to hand it to me, and expect nothing in return--and I STILL DON'T WANT IT---is it really worth saving?"

Good point. I still read the paper from time to time but there's nothing there that I don't get from other sources. It's just handy if I'm on the bus.
I would never dream of getting a subscription, and I know I'm not everyone, but isn't that one of the great things about a Free Market; if people stop buying it it goes away?
I know some people will argue that we don't have a free market economy, but honestly, if newspapes aren't selling thats because people don't WANT them.
If enough people don't want them that it's no longer earning a profit maybe their time is just done.
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Michael, 25 May 2007 @ 12:14pm

The content crisis
Points 3 & 4 above are just too tough for some to admit.

It is awfully easy to just blame the internet.
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Casper, 25 May 2007 @ 12:25pm

Re: Newspapers?
I have been at war with my local news paper. They have been sending it to my door every morning and I can't make them stop. They are not billing me, so they pretty much just ignore my calls, but I'm getting pretty mad.

You would think that when people won't take the paper for free, it might be worthless. That's not true, in my opinion, it's one of the rare times the product actually has a negative value. It takes up trash space, it looks bad when a few pile up, and they are waisting large amounts of paper to have me just throw it away.
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GoblinJuice, 25 May 2007 @ 12:45pm

I've got birds, so.... yeah....
Yeah, see, I've got birds - doves, if you must know - and the only reason I grab the local, free rag is for them. The San Francisco Examiner is just the perfect size! ;-)
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Anonymous Coward, 25 May 2007 @ 12:58pm

sell your stocks and lock up the doors.. there is no point in trying to revive the dead.

honestly, with the amount of desktop computers in the world, laptops and cell phones, its amazing that newspaper make enough money to survive.

lets not get over analytical here... not every company or business survives the test of times. cave drawings and newspapers are no exception.
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Anonymous Coward, 25 May 2007 @ 12:59pm

also, im not a hippy but no more newspapers wouldnt necessarily be a bad thing.
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rEdEyEz, 25 May 2007 @ 1:12pm

Re: I've got birds, so.... yeah....
Ah, now if the newspapers were to take a page out of the RIAA/MPAA/et.al. chapter of the corporate extortion manual, they could legally back-charge your parakeet for licensing fees.

...better get an extra back of bird seed, pal, Tweety is gonna need it.
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Biker Bill, 25 May 2007 @ 1:12pm

Where does the news come from?
The news that everyone sees on mediums everywhere, dissected, repeated, analyzed, argued with, etc. originates with the mainstream media, primarily newspapers, who pay people (reporters) to dig it up.

The basic newspaper problem is that the news they generate at a price is disseminated by everyone else for free.
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yogi, 25 May 2007 @ 1:20pm

The quality of information
that I can get from a paper is no better than anywhere else. In fact, many bloggers have much less at stake and are more liable to report accurately and truthfully than the NYT .
Useful information and analysis have to be bought today separately and tailored to your needs.
The main thing we get from the papers is what the NYT is thinking and what it thinks we should know and think.Since I already know that - why should i buy it?
Yeah - cleaning the windows. but for that, one issue in every few months is enough.
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Anonymous Coward, 25 May 2007 @ 1:34pm

I think circulation numbers are even worse
than is being reported. They repeatedly find huge stockpiles of papers in dumpsters and landfills. I think many papers exaggerate their circulation in order to sell ads. I delivered papers for many years and notice the papers in the morning and afternoon in people's driveways out of habit and the numbers have dwindled from everyone getting the paper to few getting the paper. Used to be if you go in a convenience store more than a few hours after delivery they would be sold out, now they just sit there. It would get attention except the media is reluctant to report on their own failures, usually it takes a competitor to do the investigative reporting and so many states and towns are down to a single paper.
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Wifezilla, 25 May 2007 @ 1:46pm

My husband and I own a small newspaper. We have seen steady growth over the last 3 years. Why is our paper different from others?

1. It has a specific, targeted audience
2. It is published monthly and features in depth articles that are not time sensitive
3. It is free and you can get it in dead tree or digital format
4. Our ad rates are reasonable
5. We actually pay attention to who advertises. If you suck, we wont put your ad in our paper.
6. We know where our money comes from, so we actually listen to our advertisers.
7. We don't just regurgitate stuff anyone with a room temperature IQ can find on the net. (My local daily rag keeps printing things I read on Yahoo 4 days after I see it on the net. Gee....I wonder why they aren't thriving?)

Here's a radical idea...if you are a local paper, how about some local news about local people and local places? Oh yeah...you can't buy those stories all written for you and you might actually have to do some reporting. /sarcasm
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wrs, 25 May 2007 @ 7:24pm

Re:
I'd just wonder whether the individual digital would get the news to everyone -- or if there might be parts of society relying on newspapers primarily.

When I look at how parts of society support bills targeted against themselves (e.g. surveillance laws), I wonder which news sources thes people consider.

And I tend to assume, they're not educated by the net but informed by some paper still living in the mid-1980s.
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wrs, 25 May 2007 @ 7:34pm

Re: Re:
> ...the individual digital would get...

typo. I meant individual digital _medium_/gadget
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Charles Griswold, 25 May 2007 @ 9:21pm

Re: Re: Newspapers?
I find 1 use for the newspaper and my wife another. I like to use it for cleaning glass. She likes it for receiving coupons.
Whenever I happen to be bored and have a newspaper, I read the comics. Sometimes I read the local news; you can't really get much of that online (depending on where you live).
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Rhys, 27 May 2007 @ 1:02am

Newspapers
The whole newspaper industry has changed for the worse in my humble opinion.
Twenty years ago a newspaper editor would have considered his job to be a chronicaller of the news, however the main reason today behind writing a story is how many copies it will sell.
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MD, 27 May 2007 @ 7:29am

Re: I've got birds, so.... yeah....
I own a company that sells newspaper subscriptions. We sell 500-800 new customers per week, mostly just weekend or Sunday orders. Who are these people? They all own birds, right?
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dave, 27 May 2007 @ 7:40pm

Newspapers
Sorry to rain on this hip, tech parade, but while some newspapers will certainly parish, the industry will not. Many newspapers will enhance their print products further as flexible screen technology develops, but good, old fashioned reporting printed on newspaper about local interests (business, news, sports, etc) that you cannot find on CNN.com will always be in demand. And because of the lack of a viable profit model for those willing and able to publish this sort of content, it is unlikely they will become "web only" publishers. So before we all get so giddy about the impending death of newsprint, realize that if this were to actually happen we should also expect to have to go out and find our local (city or state) news on or own. VIVA LA NEWSPRINT!
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dave, 27 May 2007 @ 7:47pm

Newspapers
Sorry to rain on this hip, tech parade, but while some newspapers will certainly parish, the industry will not. Many newspapers will enhance their print products further as flexible screen technology develops, but good, old fashioned reporting printed on newspaper about local interests (business, news, sports, etc) that you cannot find on CNN.com will always be in demand. And because of the lack of a viable profit model for those willing and able to publish this sort of content, it is unlikely they will become "web only" publishers. So before we all get so giddy about the impending death of newsprint, realize that if this were to actually happen we should also expect to have to go out and find our local (city or state) news on or own. VIVA LA NEWSPRINT!
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Phil, 28 May 2007 @ 11:35am

Newspapers by dave on May 27th, 2007 @ 7:47pm
Here's a novel concept: Why don't newspapers stop being the propaganda machine for the George Bush administration? I think everyone is tired of hearing the same old garbage about how George Bush is deluding himself into thinking the Iraq war was a good idea and perverting Christian values as justification for it, then trying to delude the rest of us as well. It's no wonder that people are cancelling their newspaper subscriptions and going to online publications and video sites like YouTube; it's the only truly "free" media left in the US since George Bush started bribing the corporate pigs from the mainstream newspapers to report his message in exchange for large sums of money. If newspapers were actually criticizing the president for what he's doing rather than not only encouraging it but actively quashing all legitimate opposing views, maybe people would be more inclined to shell out dough for a subscription.
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dave, 28 May 2007 @ 1:29pm

Phil's comment ...
You cannot actually believe that Bush is 'bribing' the media to support his policy... c'mon Phil! Are those the same newspapers & media outlets who gleefully report on his public approval ratings (or lack thereof) each day? Guess he forgot to pay for those services. In fact, most of the larger media outlets are liberal in their politics, and slam conservatism any chance they get. So your reasoning that a pro- Bush voice is leading to declining subscriptions is flawed. I suppose that the decline of Hollywood box office receipts is also the result of that pro- Bush Hollywood crowd and all of their Bush fund raising & support rally efforts ? Where do you come up w/ this stuff?!
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Georgie Soros, 28 May 2007 @ 5:11pm

Phil proposes subsidized propaganda
Phil, baby! Let's talk.

I have an opening for a chief editor/producer, with your name on it.

Call me. We'll do lunch.
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justme, 28 May 2007 @ 5:53pm

I would buy newspapers but...
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justme, 28 May 2007 @ 5:59pm

ACK! I would buy newspapers but...
For years people cried because of all the trees that were cut down. Then they cried because the newspapers were filling up the land fields. Sheesh. Well I don't buy them because I have not found one yet that was honest, unbiased, and reasonable priced. It's no longer newspaper in the land fields, now it's plastics.
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Phil, 29 May 2007 @ 8:56am

Re: Phil proposes subsidized propaganda
hmmmmmmm...I'm intrigued. Tell me more.
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Phil, 29 May 2007 @ 9:25am

Re: Phil's comment ...
Well, true to a certain extent...I guess he can't bribe everyone. But Fox News, the Washington Post, and the New York Times are notoriously pro-Bush, just to name a few. As for the "bribing" I have seen video footage of George Bush bribing reporters, and he has admitted to doing it (which FYI is illegal), but has also openly admitted he will continue to do it anyway, because he is after all the president and can get away with everything....
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dave, 29 May 2007 @ 9:42am

Phil's comment ...
Phil,

Editors & Publishers largely decide the tone of a Newspapers content, and to a much lesser extent the field reporters. So whether or not Bush has actually bribed reporters as you assert is immaterial. However, I'd LOVE to see that video. Please reply w/ link... I won't hold my breath.
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Nikky, 16 Nov 2011 @ 4:28am

Hi Phil,i am not sure if press release submission can also save you or might help you to drive traffic :)
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