The Wall Street Journal reports on the continuing decline in newspaper circulation in the United States, in particular at the larger metropolitan dailies, but points out that some publishers are shedding circulation in places where it is less profitable and attractive to advertisers.
This is a longstanding technique. At times newspapers will inflate circulation through sponsored bulk distribution in hotels, airport lounges and schools. At other times they scale back on circulation to harder-to-reach areas for home delivery.
What is interesting is to see this phenomenon at a time of serious stress in the business. Clearly the tactic aims to cut costs, plain and simple, and not be concerned about the strategic implications of keeping papers in the hands of those who might stay loyal over the years ahead.
The conventional wisdom --- or what stands for it in an unconventional and developing digital sphere --- was that full RSS feeds somehow keep people from eventually clicking to your site. Why do so when the full story is before you on a feed? Christian Science Monitor, one of the most contextual and literate of newspapers, is moving from a daily to a weekly paper in April 2009. a weekly print format and a more aggressive online posture (at the moment its site is a greater reflection of the print product). It sounds simple enough: Don't proceed without a plan. The U.S. newspaper industry is in such turmoil that Forbes writes of the need to consider dismantling some of them to permit the more nimble pieces to forge ahead. It's the final frontier, a reason print media asserts supremacy --- the portability of the product. The Monday Note reviews the challenge as journalism shifts online --- the loss of revenue, the small advertising and large editorial inventory --- and what this portends. The argument is to reduce the dependence on an ad network as a priority for online publishers, instead of lowering price to widen volume. If there were easy assumptions in the new media world order, it was that the iPod and other MP3 players were killing radio as the source for music among young people. Ten years ago today we launched the first edition of the National Post newspaper and its then-ambtious nationalpost.com site. I was its Executive Editor, working for Editor-in-Chief Ken Whyte (now publisher and editor of Maclean's), publisher Don Babick (now interim publisher of the Toronto Star) and proprietor Conrad Black (now writing columns while serving a jail term related to financial wrongdoing). Alan Mutter's blog, Reflections of a Newsosaur, has the potential most days to send you into deep depression. But he's been on the mark many times with an understanding of how the media economy is reshaping. |
I am the Publisher and Editor-in-Chief at Self-Counsel Press, an Adjunct Professor and Executive-in-Residence at the Graduate School of Journalism at University of British Columbia, and the
Executive Director of the Organization of News Ombudsmen. In 2008 I launched themediamanager.com to chronicle media change, then media ethics, standards and freedom. I was recently the mayoralty candidate in Vancouver for the Non-Partisan Association. I am the former CBC Ombudsman of English Services and have held the senior editorial roles at CTV News, The Hamilton Spectator and Southam News. I was the founding Executive Editor of National Post, Managing Editor of The Vancouver Sun, Ottawa Bureau Chief and General News Editor at The Canadian Press, and host on CBC Newsworld, among other media roles. My social networking includes activity on Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin. I also write for a for-fun-only music site, rockzombies.us Archives
January 2015
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The Canadian analytics firm Sysomos has published new data on nearly 100 million posts it reviewed and it shows
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