Category Archives: Newspapers

Major papers’ longform meltdown

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Stories longer than 2,000 words down 86 percent at the LAT since 2003, 50 percent at WaPo, etc.

By Dean Starkman

Source: cjr.org

No one equates story-length with quality. Let’s start with that concession.

But still. Story-length is hardly meaningless when you consider what it takes to explain complex problems, like say, the financial crisis, to the broader public. Or when you consider what it takes to lay out the evidence needed to properly support a story that makes explosive allegations against a powerful institution. It takes space.

Put another way, there’s a reason David Barstow’s landmark expose of bribery and high-level cover-ups at WalMart ran to more than 7,000 words.

So, all in all, it’s more than instructive to check in on longform newspaper writing, and the start of a new year isn’t a bad time to do it.

And it’s pretty to shocking to see what’s become of the time-honored form since the newspaper industry’s great unraveling started a decade ago.

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Think newspapers are doomed? Think again

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Source: kamloopsnews.ca

The death of newspapers has been greatly exaggerated, Rotarians heard Monday.

Peter Kvarnstrom, chairman of the Canadian Newspapers Association board, told a luncheon of the Rotary Club of Kamloops that the print medium is far from extinction.

Kvarnstrom also serves as president of B.C. community media for Glacier Media Group, the B.C.-based publisher of The Daily News and 80 other community newspapers across Canada.

“We really have been our worst enemy over the last decade in reporting on our death or impending death,” Kvarnstrom said.

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TEXT-S&P cuts Black Press corporate credit rating to ‘B-‘

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Source: reuters.com

Tue Nov 6, 2012 3:25pm EST

 Overview

— We are lowering our long-term corporate credit rating on Victoria, B.C.-based Black Press Ltd. to ‘B-‘ from ‘B’ based on our view of the company’s ongoing organic revenue and profit declines, as well as refinancing risk.
— At the same time, we are revising our recovery rating on the company’s senior secured bank debt to ‘1’ from ‘2’, while affirming our ‘B+’ issue-level rating on the debt, reflecting our view of improved recovery prospects given Black Press’ continued repayment of the debt.
— The negative outlook reflects our expectation that we could lower the ratings in the near term if the company fails to address its refinancing risk.

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The Orange County Register is hiring dozens of reporters, focusing on print-first expansion

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Source: niemanlab.org

After being sold over the summer, the newspaper is hiring about 50 editorial staffers and adding new print sections — because print’s where the money is.

Why did the Orange County Register send reporters and photogs to cover 40 — yes, four-zero, 40 — high-school sporting events in one weekend?

No, it’s not another news mob. Nor is it a one-time thing. At a time when many newspaper companies are starting to think digital first, the Register is investing in print.

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Sorry Genius, for Old Media the Sky Is Not Falling

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Newspaper companies are doing just fine, thanks. Journalists, not so much.

Source: thetyee.ca

Toronto journalism nerds are flocking to a sold-out event this evening, provocatively titled “Yes, Genius, the Sky Is Falling. So Now What?” I have thus been provoked to pen… er, pixel this contrarian view.

The event features David Carr, media critic for the New York Times, who was a key figure in last year’s documentary Page One: Inside the New York Times. Here’s why they brought him in, according to the event’s web site:

“It’s clear that between evaporating business models and dispersing audiences that legacy media is on the run. Would it be better to blow it all up and start over or can the dinosaurs dance to a new soundtrack? David Carr, business columnist and culture reporter for the New York Times, examines the value of traditional media in a very cluttered, confusing age. In conversation with Michael Enright, host of CBC Radio One’s The Sunday Edition.”

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Publisher David Black’s views on what’s wrong with the newspaper industry

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Source: blogs.vancouversun.com

Newspaper publisher David Black on Friday announced plans to promote a “world state” $13 billion oil refinery in Kitimat to take advantage of Enbridge’s Northern Gateway pipeline.
On Thursday in advance of the story I had an interview with him for a profile that was to run simultaneously to Gordon Hoekstra’s news report on the announcement.
For reasons of length and subject I didn’t include some quite provocative comments Black made about the publishing industry, including his view that many of the problems besetting large dailies are “self-inflicted”. However, I’ve included them here because I think they’re worth getting on the record.

Read entire story here

 

Conrad Black’s comments fuel speculation about return to Canadian media

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Source: theglobeandmail.com

Conrad Black and Warren Buffett have something in common – they both think newspapers are undervalued.

As newspapers across North America frantically build paywalls to charge their online customers and cut back on their publishing schedules and staff to reduce costs, the former publisher says there’s still value in the industry if it’s run the right way.

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Editorial: Local News and Newspapers Deliver a Winning Combination

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Source: editorandpublisher.com

by: Jeff Fleming

Local news continues to be the mainstay when it comes to solving newspapers’ 21st century challenges. The newest report by Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism and Internet & American Life Project revealed that “72 percent of adults are quite attached to following local news and information, and local newspapers are by far the source they rely on for much of the local information they need. In fact, local news enthusiasts are substantially more wedded to their local newspapers than others.”

The Pew report focused on “local news enthusiasts,” which overwhelmingly named newspapers as their preferred information source for 12 out of 16 local news topics named on the survey. (http://bit.ly/HP6BkF)

The newspaper brand remains a prominent information source, and these findings offer encouraging insight when it comes to helping newspapers strategize editorial content and develop successful advertising programs. But as more competition enters the market, newspapers need to continuously maintain and strengthen their grip on local news content and do so by taking a cue from technology, which never stands idle. Editors and publishers should constantly be asking, “How can we improve and develop our content by taking advantage of the latest digital and printing breakthroughs?” Creativity, ingenuity, and intelligence drive content delivery — and the most successful initiatives will be those developed by writers, designers, and Web developers working as a team.

In March of this year, Heritage Media (a Digital First Media affiliate) flexed its digital muscles with local coverage of a tornado that ripped through Dexter, Mich. Managing editor Michelle Rogers posted an overview of the coverage in a blog post: “As a group of weekly publications in print, it has been an ongoing challenge to get our audience to realize we’re now a daily online. I think the tragedy of the tornado served as a reminder to readers that they don’t have to wait until Thursday to get their local news, and we’re happy to oblige, providing breaking news coverage from news stories, Storify compilations, photo galleries, and videos to Tweets and Facebook posts, and SMS texts to email alerts.”

This month, Gannett’s Journal News Media Group announced it is expanding local coverage of taxes, food, home, schools and education, real estate, and communities. The plan clearly punctuates local, focusing on topics readers identify as most important — almost a complete list of the preferred local topics cited in the Pew study. Under the new content model, all subscribers will have access to print editions of The Journal News and lohud.com, with iPhone, iPad, and Android applications. “Our core value is local content,” Journal News Media Group president and publisher Janet Hasson said.

Local also a plays a key role in advertising. Last month, Kip Cassino, executive vice president of Borrell Associates, in an interview with Media Life magazine revealed two of four factors that are helping fuel the growth of newspaper websites. “They have big local sales forces that know their markets intimately and they are trusted by their local advertisers, from years of contact.”

More and more newspapers are proactive in their local communities, maintaining and building a reputation that not only includes news, but also trusted relationships. If content is king, local content and interconnection may be newspapers’ Almighty Saviors.

Ninety per cent said they read papers for local coverage.

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Source: theglobeandmail.com

Hey, did you guys see that video of the drunk guy singing Bohemian Rhapsody? How about last weekend’s punch-up between Justin Trudeau and Patrick Brazeau? Awesome, right? Though, true, not as awesome as those news stories about pink slime in fast food and crushed bugs in frappuccinos.

In the cultural marketplace that assigns high values to buzzy ephemera through traffic measurement and social-media sharing, there are plenty of reasons for pessimism among those who care about the future of an engaged citizenry. If people can’t even be trusted to pay attention to the issues that directly affect them and their communities – because, frankly, the online parade of bread and circuses is so much more fun – what chance do we have of changing what ails us?

read entire story here

Newspaper readership holds steady

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Source: theglobeandmail.com

Canadian newspaper publishers scrambling to get their news online face a stark reality – more than half of their readers still rely on printing presses and newsprint for their daily news hit.

A study by the Newspaper Audience Databank examined stats from 62 Canadian weekly and daily newspapers and found that 58 per cent of readers only read print and that print readership has held steady over the last several years.

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