Newspapers and TV news...rebounding?

This was quite a surprise: perusing the internet tonight, I came across something that piqued my interest: apparently, newspapers and TV news are making a comeback, according to a recent Gallup poll.

In the last few years, I have only heard how traditional media, like newspapers, have been on a steady decline. So much so, some golden standards in the newspaper industry switched to a Web-only format (i.e.Seattle Post-Intelligencer), and some closed altogether (i.e. Rocky Mountain News).

With all the advances in technology, cell phones, iPads, Kindle, print newspapers were all but dead. Of course, I'm still an old-fashioned kind of guy, and I still like my printed edition of the newspaper every once in a while.

A blog called Hot Air noted that the increase in confidence wasn't substantial; but that the increase was at least noticeable enough for Gallup to make a news item out of it.

Let's not get too excited though, the findings appear to have a political undertone to them. There doesn't seem to be any age demographic noted for the increase. The only age group that Hot Air mentions is the 18-29-year-old demographic; but, the problem there is that confidence in newspapers declined 10 points with that age group.

Hot Air also notes that the uptick in newspaper confidence seems to be with Democrats. Conversely, conservative Republicans still remain wary of both media.

Newspapers being cut, and now newscasts?

Sorry it's been so long since I wrote.

Continuing with the theme from my last post, I read an article today on AdAge.com about WNBC in New York, which is cutting its 5pm newscast with a "lifestyle and entertainment show."

The change is being made to accomodate viewer trends, which the article cites as including other programming (movies and reruns of "popular shows"), cable TV news and, of course, the Internet.

But, a lifestyle and entertainment show? Isn't daytime TV filled with that kind of programming? Programs such as The View are as commonplace on daytime TV as informercials. I love the Internet and all the other means in which to obtain news; but I'm also an old-fashioned kind of guy who likes to see a good newscast every now and again.

Especially a 5pm newscast - as I've been at work all day and need to get caught up. Sure, after I get home from work, and my timeslot at the gym, I'll hop on Google News and check some news, stocks, and the like; but mostly the time is spent going through a day's worth of email.

I'm used to 5pm newscasts. I'm used to the workday starting early and ending early (I'm a 7 to 3 guy). My guess is that it's probably a safe bet that most New Yorkers are still at the office at 5pm, and work until 6 or later; or are on the subway coming home, and a 5pm newscast wouldn't reach alot of people.

I just think WNBC could have filled the time slot better, than putting in a type of show that is seen almost all day long; who needs another one?

The full article can be read here: http://adage.com/mediaworks/article?article_id=137546

Thanks for reading.

The future of local news

I looked through my daily email from the Public Relations Society of America - Issues and Trends - and found a neat little article about local news, and whether or not it's still proprietary.

The article suggests that though many consumers are now perusing the Internet, and other electronic mediums to get their news, there are segments of journalism that are still perceived as important. The quote du jour seemed to be this one, "The Pew report noted that audiences consider newspapers to be more valuable than before. In fact, news content has slightly increased in popularity during the recent months."

So it seems that journalism hasn't altogether vanished; but the article, written by Barbara Bry for the PRSA Tactics, also states that there needs to be a major change in the way traditional media distributes the news. If you think about how Twitter works, people who regularly use Twitter could find a piece of news, a press release or whatever - possibly quicker than they might be able to find it on a search engine, such as Google News.

Which leads to the main point of the article, that news is no longer proprietary, or exclusive. Bry mentioned bloggers who are increasingly putting forth news on their sites.

For example, yesterday, local news reports here in the Twin Cities brought forth a report about the new Budweiser Party Deck that will be constructed at Target Field - the new home of the Minnesota Twins. I frequent a blog at www.twinsballpark2010.com which, over the last three months or so, through pictures and guided tours from the blog's host, has suggested that something was going to be built out in the left field area of the ballpark.

So, it was really no surprise to me when I saw it in this morning's newspaper, or last night's 10pm newscast. This example seems to prove Ms. Bry's comments - that in order to be relevant, something will need to change in the way local news is presented.

Her full article, can be read here: http://www.prsa.org/supportfiles/news/viewNews.cfm?pNewsID=842348074

Thanks for reading.

Can the Kindle "re-kindle" the newspaper industry?

Thanks to my colleague and PRSA mentor Brant Skogrand, he suggested I write about Amazon's Kindle, and whether or not it might resurrect a dying newspaper industry.

I must be the craziest person on earth - as I know what Amazon's Kindle e-reader is. I've never seen one live, just in pictures. I'm not entirely sure how it even works to tell you the truth. Nonetheless, it is an interesting piece of technology.

The Kindle must REALLY be an amazing piece of technology. I read an article in the New Jersey Star-Ledger that claims students at Princeton will be receiving free Kindles, in lieu of textbooks. And a report from News 8 in Austin, TX says this, "Newspaper and magazine publishers are excited at the introduction of Amazon's new Kindle DX, a handheld reading device. Some speculators say the device, which sports a nearly 10-inch display that is more than twice the size of the standard Kindle, could help save the dying world of print media."

But, if the Kindle is really as popular as it seems, what will happen to libraries? What happens to publishing houses? And, will people pay a subscription price to read the newspaper on the Kindle, when they can get it for free on the paper's Web site? And, I don't think I even know anyone who has a Kindle.

There is a website called coverleaf.com, which publishes magazines online. There are the mainstays: Family Circle and Better Homes. There's the on-line specific ones, i.e. Sporting News Today, which I do "subscribe" to. And, I was very pleased to see an industry publication available on coverleaf.com: Advertising Age. They are also subscription-based.

While the electronic edition seems to be the new thing in the world of news, I still think there is much to be said about seeing something in print. Maybe it's the generation I'm from. When I was a kid, there were no such words as "internet" or "e-dition (electronic edition)" or even "online." The Kindle might be able to save a dying print industry; but I still think there's enough to still keep it going. At least for now.

Other than that, I'm stumped.

Thanks for reading.

A bailout, of journalism?

This one caught me by surprise. A couple days ago, I read an editorial in the Minneapolis Star Tribune that was re-printed from the Los Angeles Times. Apparently, this was Rosa Brooks' "last article" for the Times before embarking on a new job in Washington DC.

Essentially, she's asking for a bailout, of the newspaper industry. Yes, after the housing crunch, the banking crunch, the auto industry crunch, she says that newspapers need some cash, too.

And, yes, look around and newspapers everywhere are closing, soon to close, in eminent danger of closing, or declaring bankruptcy, as the Star Tribune did several months ago. So, on that front, she's right.

But, her article seems to claim that newspapers are the only place people get their news. She asks, "how will we recognize, or hope to forestall...pending [crises]?" She asks other questions very similar on other issues, including Iraq. I ask, are newspapers really that popular? Even Howard Beale, the iconic newsman in the 1970s classic "Network" screams at his viewing audience by saying, "less than HALF of you read newspapers!"

I read newspapers daily, as part of my job. Every once in a while, I'll go to the newspaper stand on the corner and buy one. However, some of the more interesting news stories you read, are the ones that don't fall into the category of "all the news that's fit to print," or maybe, there isn't enough room to print. They are the stories you'll find on Google News, Reuters and other Web sites like them.

I read through her editorial, and I included the link so you can as well, but I read through it hoping that she was talking "tongue and cheek." I hope she seriously didn't believe what she was saying. And, I know that the "yapping heads that dominate cable 'news'," as she so eloquently puts it, talk all the time about the "socialism" that seems to be creeping it's way into this country by all these governement bailouts. Let me ask, if the government did in fact bailout the newspapers, what then?

Would the government then dictate what is "fit to print?" That's just what we need, state-run media. Please understand, that was a sarcastic statement. We don't need government to bail out newspapers. Times are changing, the means by which people get their news are changing. You can simply use your cellphone to get news. Who needs a newspaper, that costs anywhere from a quarter to a dollar, when they can get it for free on the Internet?

Which leads me to an interesting poll I found on the website of the Twin Cities Business Journal (www.twincities.bizjournals.com). The poll question is as follows: Should people pay to read stories online? As of April 14, at 5:50 PM CDT, only 26% of respondants said "yes." Another 28% said "sometimes." Of course, in many cases, if you want to find archived articles, they are "pay-as-you-go." And, more and more newspapers are launching "E-ditions." Both Twin Cities newspapers offer electronic editions that are the exact same as the print edition. And, just as with the print edition, there is a subscription price.

Maybe it's the generation we're in. Society does things differently than they did 30 years ago. However, I believe that there is enough of an appetite in the general public for printed news. Believe it or not, there are people who are tired of the "yapping heads" on TV, and would rather read their news in print. More power to them. And, unlike online news, you can always save a clipping, and go back to it years down the road. Try finding a story that's twenty years old or more, online, for free. I'll bet it can't be done.

While newspapers are in fact sizing down, they're just going with the times. However, I still believe that if they print it, people will read. I think Ms. Brooks is wrong by saying that there needs to be a "journalism bailout." I think she's wrong when she seems to imply that newspapers will become nothing more than a paper filled with, "ads, entertainment features and crossword puzzles." The news is still the news, no matter how you tell it, and people will get it.

Thanks for reading.

Rosa Brooks' article can be found here:
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-brooks9-2009apr09,0,7379164.column

Sports writing - a thing of the past?

Recently, I read an article in the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) that shocked me a little, but not as much as I thought. The article ran in the April 7, 2009 issue in the sports section. It was titled, "Baseball Writers Brace for the End." The image is from 1962, a packed pressbox at Yankee Stadium.

The article goes on to tell how pressboxes at ballparks are getting emptier. Jack O'Connell, who is the secretary of the Baseball Writers Association of America was quoted in the article as saying, "I certainly see the dark clouds," in regards to the future of baseball beat writers.

But, what about other sports? Maybe it was just me, but at last weekend's NCAA Final Four in Detroit, I didn't see as many spots on press row as usual. Sure, maybe I didn't notice because the Final Four setup places the floor on a 14-inch-high platform, therefore press row seems to be in an orchestra pit. In past years, usually there are three rows of press tables along both sides of the floor. This year, I only saw two on either side.

The WSJ article went on to talk about the Beaver County Times, a paper published just outside of Pittsburgh, and that the paper is no longer covering Pittsburgh Pirates spring training, and is covering only a limited schedule of road games. The paper quoted the New York Times as spending $6,500 a month to cover the team on the road (the WSJ did not specify whether it was the Yankees or the Mets). And a trade-off seems to be in order in the nation's capital: the Washington Post will rely on the Baltimore Sun for coverage of the Baltimore Orioles; and the Post will rely on the Sun for coverage of the Washington Nationals.

This is just baseball. Of course, a baseball season is twice as long as an NHL or NBA season (162 games for Major League Baseball), so will this become something that happens to other sports coverage as well? Who knows? The WSJ article quoted Mark Cuban, the young, iconic owner of the NBA's Dallas Mavericks, who wrote in his blog recently that for newspapers to "die" would be a "recipe for disaster." Cuban believes that newspapers are the NBA's best medium to reach a large audience; and the decline as of late for newspapers can also hurt a team's marketing.

Here's one interesting statistic the WSJ wrote about papers in Detroit. Both of the city's newspapers (Detroit News, Detroit Free-Press) have cut their home delivery to three days a week. The Detroit Red Wings of the NHL conducted a survey, and they found that 65% of the team's season-ticket holders get their news from the newspaper.

So, maybe some good news still remains for sports beat writers in our local daily newspapers. But with the increasing use of social-networking sites, blogs and other user-created mediums, the president of the Baseball Writers Association of America might not be too far-fetched when he was quoted as saying, "We're waiting for that first domino to fall...."

You can read the full WSJ article by clicking on this link: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123906424665995337.html.

I apologize to any of my readers if you have been unable to post comments on this blog. In re-vamping the look of my blog recently, I discovered that the comment posting permissions weren't set correctly. It has been rectified and you should be able to comment without having to be a "registered user."

Thanks for reading.

Extra, Extra! Read all about it - somewhere else

It is a tough time for many industries; but the one that seems to be hardest hit is newspapers. Especially in the last month or two, it's really getting tough. First the Rocky Mountain News closes, then the Seattle Post-Intelligencer ceases print operations, and becomes online-exclusive.

Other newspapers, such as the San Francisco Chronicle are also in danger of ceasing operation; and the Minneapolis Star Tribune declared bankruptcy last month. Is this a result of the sagging economy, or a shift in the way people get their news? Might I suggest it's a little of both; but probably more of the latter, as opposed to the former.

When the Saint Paul Pioneer Press re-designed its paper last year, I saw so many posts on their website about "[There's] a print edition?" or people saying "I just read it online" messages like that were aplenty after the paper re-designed. People even went so far to say that they would cancel their subscriptions because of the re-design.

I have caught myself wondering whether or not the two Twin Cities papers would actually merge. The Pioneer Press is increasingly combining several sections into one. The front page, Local and Business are combined more often than not. The Star Tribune combines its front page and Local section on Mondays.

Fladung told me in an interview for an article I wrote for the June 2008 issue of PRSA Quarterly, the chapter newslettter of the Minnesota PRSA (Public Relations Society of America), "[The papers] could merge tomorrow...can the Twin Cities be a one-paper market?"
I'm not entirely certain we could be a one-paper market. Fladung also told me about news "agnostics," people who demand that their paper come from one source, and one source only.

The Twin Cities has lots of people like that. There are people who wouldn't be caught dead reading the Pioneer Press; and vice versa with the Star Tribune. And, after over 140 years, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer became an online-exclusive newspaper earlier this month. To some degree, with all the young, tech-savvy people in Seattle, I'm surprised the Post-Intelligencer didn't take that step sooner. Not to be guilty of insider trading, but reports say the Ann Arbor News in Ann Arbor, MI will follow the Post-Intelligencer's route in July, after 174 years of print publication. Even college newspapers are being hit. The Minnesota Daily, a newspaper published by students at the University of Minnesota, ceased the Friday print edition in December, 2008.

Get your print editions of newspapers now, they might not exist in a couple years. At least, we can still get a print copy of The Onion. But for how long?