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The Future of Newspapers

The Future of Newspapers
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  • The Future of Newspapers

    Post #1 - August 11th, 2005, 8:46 pm
    Post #1 - August 11th, 2005, 8:46 pm Post #1 - August 11th, 2005, 8:46 pm
    Forgive me for indulging in a bit of Internet new media gee-whiz speculation and visionary deep-thoughts-hatching here.

    Some months back, when we were making a food reporter from the Tribune dance for us and answer our questions and explain why the world wasn't run exactly like we wish it was, I expressed a thought that was on my mind as I thought about how something like LTHForum works versus how the food section of a daily paper works, and who they're aimed at:

    a slightly younger Mike G wrote:I know what the obvious answer back is-- "The food section isn't just for you obsessed food crazies, it's for everybody, and most people aren't as educated/insane as you."... But there comes a point when keeping things appealing to a mass audience by using celebrities, topics of lowest common appeal, etc. means you're creating a food section (or a sports section or an editorial page) for the people who aren't very interested in something rather than for the people who are very interested in it-- and that's crazy. That's chasing the people who don't especially want to be there and ignoring the ones who do.


    This is all coming back to me because I ran across someone actually in the newspaper business saying much the same thing-- in a way that also is reminiscent of our recent complaining about the dumbing down of the Food Network to reach a broader audience of people who want to be entertained by food shows, rather than actually use food shows to, imagine this, cook something. The big media, TV and newspapers, all assume they have to chase the biggest possible audience. And indeed they do according to their existing economic model-- but their existing economic model was devised before someone could start something like LTHForum for peanuts by comparison and steal a real chunk of their audience.

    No, I don't expect LTHForum to ever be even a fraction of the size of the Chicago Tribune's total readership, whenever someone says we're influential I only have to realize that the "LTHForum effect" is virtually invisible next to the "Check Please effect." But... if we're peeling off the best part, the most food-obsessed folks, and raising their expectations of what food discussion should be like, then that leaves a newspaper in the odd position of writing a generalist food section for people who care that much less about food. And if there's an LTH of sports and an LTH of business and an LTH of this that and every other thing, what's left for the generalist to cover and who are they covering it for? Can you really expect to survive by serving the people who don't care enough to read something right now at the expense of those who wouldn't miss it? As the guy from the Post puts it, "I think we've overlistened to people who never read the paper."

    The real future even for general media in an age of specialization and online obsession is to cobble together a readership which is rabid enough about one thing that they have to buy the whole paper. For that reason, I think dumbing down is the worst choice you can make-- sure, there are more raw numbers there, but they don't care about what you're offering, so their loyalty to it, their willingness to read it for 50 years is skin deep. The obsessives are your hope for the future-- and if you're smart, you'll not only serve them with your food section, your sports section, your whatever section, but you'll think up ways to make more of them, the way a site like this does.
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  • Post #2 - August 11th, 2005, 11:42 pm
    Post #2 - August 11th, 2005, 11:42 pm Post #2 - August 11th, 2005, 11:42 pm
    I expect to see the end of newspapers in our lifetime. Whatever online medium replaces them will be a lot more specialized, a lot more customizable and employ far fewer journalists.

    Instead, like the Friends of Dish, the Reader Raters and the new Metromix reader review teams, publishers will increasingly use your "obsessives" (as well as a variety of publicity hounds, publicists and others who yearn for their names in print) to get reporting and copy for free.

    The ability to fine tune your news will mean that no one ever has to be exposed to opinions that differ from his own or facts that disturb his world view.

    Meanwhile, the increasing use of unpaid, untrained amateurs and subsequent pressure on the few remaining professionals will lead to less fact-checking, worse proofreading and less polished prose, as well as more instances of ethically questionable practices and plagiarism.
  • Post #3 - August 12th, 2005, 9:49 am
    Post #3 - August 12th, 2005, 9:49 am Post #3 - August 12th, 2005, 9:49 am
    "the increasing use of unpaid, untrained amateurs and subsequent pressure on the few remaining professionals will lead to less fact-checking, worse proofreading and less polished prose, as well as more instances of ethically questionable practices and plagiarism"

    And also the opposiste of all that. On balance, I'll take it.
  • Post #4 - April 15th, 2019, 11:44 am
    Post #4 - April 15th, 2019, 11:44 am Post #4 - April 15th, 2019, 11:44 am
    Hi,

    Last week I was at a food writing forum in NYC. One astonishing factoid: New York Times posted a quarterly profit of $25 million. It is directly tied to the NYT charging for recipes from their vast collection.

    Regards,
    Cathy2
    Cathy2

    "You'll be remembered long after you're dead if you make good gravy, mashed potatoes and biscuits." -- Nathalie Dupree
    Facebook, Twitter, Greater Midwest Foodways, Road Food 2012: Podcast
  • Post #5 - April 15th, 2019, 12:10 pm
    Post #5 - April 15th, 2019, 12:10 pm Post #5 - April 15th, 2019, 12:10 pm
    Cathy2 wrote:Hi,

    Last week I was at a food writing forum in NYC. One astonishing factoid: New York Times posted a quarterly profit of $25 million. It is directly tied to the NYT charging for recipes from their vast collection.

    Regards,
    Cathy2



    Even more astonishing is the change from even 10 years ago. I have worked at or been associated with one of our local papers for over 30 years. When I started back in 1987 the newspaper had a daily circulation of around 700k copies, Sunday circ over a million and the NET profit of the company was usually in the $400-500million/year range, NYT was even higher. The advent of the internet in the 90's and the death of classifieds (want ads, jobs section, etc) cut into profits and 24 hour cable news and online news sources slowly cut into circulation and greatly affected the advertising dollars that the company profits were based on.

    The weekly food section and all the corresponding advertising that went with it slowly died and profits dwindled. Papers struggled to monetize the shifting paradigm away from a daily printed product. Story, recipe and photo archives are one way they have attempted to re-coup some of the "glory days" when the newspaper was a cash cow, but most still struggle to turn any significant profit and the profits they do realize are a fraction of what they used to be.
  • Post #6 - April 15th, 2019, 9:27 pm
    Post #6 - April 15th, 2019, 9:27 pm Post #6 - April 15th, 2019, 9:27 pm
    thetrob wrote:Even more astonishing is the change from even 10 years ago. I have worked at or been associated with one of our local papers for over 30 years. When I started back in 1987 the newspaper had a daily circulation of around 700k copies, Sunday circ over a million and the NET profit of the company was usually in the $400-500million/year range, NYT was even higher. The advent of the internet in the 90's and the death of classifieds (want ads, jobs section, etc) cut into profits and 24 hour cable news and online news sources slowly cut into circulation and greatly affected the advertising dollars that the company profits were based on.

    The weekly food section and all the corresponding advertising that went with it slowly died and profits dwindled. Papers struggled to monetize the shifting paradigm away from a daily printed product. Story, recipe and photo archives are one way they have attempted to re-coup some of the "glory days" when the newspaper was a cash cow, but most still struggle to turn any significant profit and the profits they do realize are a fraction of what they used to be.

    I just canceled the Sun-Times after a new 20% rate increase. I was a subscriber for close to 50 years give or take. You can't keep shrinking content while raising prices and expect subscribers to stay loyal. I also find the "premium issue" scam particularly offensive as it's just a sneaky way to raise prices,IMHO.
  • Post #7 - April 16th, 2019, 9:17 am
    Post #7 - April 16th, 2019, 9:17 am Post #7 - April 16th, 2019, 9:17 am
    Artie wrote:I just canceled the Sun-Times after a new 20% rate increase. I was a subscriber for close to 50 years give or take. You can't keep shrinking content while raising prices and expect subscribers to stay loyal. I also find the "premium issue" scam particularly offensive as it's just a sneaky way to raise prices,IMHO.


    Newspapers historically have had a very hard time monetizing online content. It's an interesting study because people that would by $2-4/week for a subscription, the equivalent of $100-200/year, balk at paying an online subscription of $24.95/year. At the onset of internet presence by newspapers, they were posting the content for free, making it harder to put it behind a paywall once circulation started declining drastically. While papers like the NYT and Washington Post have a national and even global voice and can garner some internet fees, local papers like the Sun-Times need to rely for the most part on the local markets.

    As circulation declined one bonus to the print editions was the weekly food section and the grocery ads, outside of Sunday the day with the food section and ads was the highest circulation. Now with the advent of apps and online ads by the stores, the need for the paper has been reduced even more.
  • Post #8 - April 16th, 2019, 9:41 am
    Post #8 - April 16th, 2019, 9:41 am Post #8 - April 16th, 2019, 9:41 am
    When you do get the newspaper, it seems stale. Most of the articles have already unrolled online earlier.
    Cathy2

    "You'll be remembered long after you're dead if you make good gravy, mashed potatoes and biscuits." -- Nathalie Dupree
    Facebook, Twitter, Greater Midwest Foodways, Road Food 2012: Podcast
  • Post #9 - April 16th, 2019, 10:23 am
    Post #9 - April 16th, 2019, 10:23 am Post #9 - April 16th, 2019, 10:23 am
    Cathy2 wrote:When you do get the newspaper, it seems stale. Most of the articles have already unrolled online earlier.


    Yup. With 24 hour news stations, 24 hour news online and 24 hour social media accounts on facebook, instagram, twitter, etc. the focus of a daily paper has/had to change and very few have done it well or at all.
  • Post #10 - April 16th, 2019, 10:38 am
    Post #10 - April 16th, 2019, 10:38 am Post #10 - April 16th, 2019, 10:38 am
    I still get the Chicago Tribune delivered daily. Yes, the news is stale, but I like the physical paper. I agree with Artie about the extra cost for the premium issues. I like flipping through the ads. Why am I paying more for that Thanksgiving day paper since the advertisers are also paying to be in it? I may be cutting back to a Wednesday/Sunday paper so I can still get the ads. I'm a dinosaur.
    -Mary
  • Post #11 - April 16th, 2019, 11:45 am
    Post #11 - April 16th, 2019, 11:45 am Post #11 - April 16th, 2019, 11:45 am
    thetrob wrote:
    Cathy2 wrote:When you do get the newspaper, it seems stale. Most of the articles have already unrolled online earlier.


    Yup. With 24 hour news stations, 24 hour news online and 24 hour social media accounts on facebook, instagram, twitter, etc. the focus of a daily paper has/had to change and very few have done it well or at all.


    Also many of the articles that are not local are rehashed/reused by many news organizations around the country as a result of consolidation in the news industry utilizes 1 reporters article across many news sites.

    This is a trend that is happening to many industries struggling to find there footing in the internet age including retail brick and mortar retail stores (Toys“R”Us, Sears, Carson's, etc) failing to compete or adjust to online competition. CVS and Walgreen's although #1 and #2 Drug store chains are struggling by no longer being able to sell dollar store crap in the front end (Snuggie or other As Seen on TV items) at a premium price to show fictitious growth rates when drug price pressure is abound. The malls are getting re-purposed as destination entertainment centers than just centers of large departments stores with places like lego land, virtual gaming, trampoline centers, etc..
  • Post #12 - April 16th, 2019, 5:18 pm
    Post #12 - April 16th, 2019, 5:18 pm Post #12 - April 16th, 2019, 5:18 pm
    thetrob wrote:As circulation declined one bonus to the print editions was the weekly food section and the grocery ads, outside of Sunday the day with the food section and ads was the highest circulation. Now with the advent of apps and online ads by the stores, the need for the paper has been reduced even more.

    The food section of the Sun-Times is a joke. It now consists of 4 pages. Page 1 is a recipe. Pages 2,3,and 4 consist of ads for Peoria Packing,Park Packing,and One Stop foods.
  • Post #13 - April 16th, 2019, 5:29 pm
    Post #13 - April 16th, 2019, 5:29 pm Post #13 - April 16th, 2019, 5:29 pm
    The GP wrote:I still get the Chicago Tribune delivered daily. Yes, the news is stale, but I like the physical paper. I agree with Artie about the extra cost for the premium issues. I like flipping through the ads. Why am I paying more for that Thanksgiving day paper since the advertisers are also paying to be in it? I may be cutting back to a Wednesday/Sunday paper so I can still get the ads. I'm a dinosaur.

    I get the Trib delivered Wed-Sun and they allow access to their digital content the other days on-line. I've been on the war path with the rising prices and the "premium issues". I called the Trib a few weeks ago and threatened to cancel citing my lack of interest in the premium issues. They said that from now on they would not charge me for them although I will continue to get them. I guess they can't separate them from the day's issue. We'll see if they honor their promise.

    Earlier today the Sun-Times called me and offered me the same 7 day subscription I previously had for about 20% lower than what I was paying before the current rate increase. I asked how long the rate would be good for and the salesperson said "Until they raise the rate". I declined their offer.

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