MANAGEMENT ISN’T THE
PROBLEM. NEVER WAS.
That’s the conclusion of Mark Schaver of the Louisville, Ky., Courier-Journal, who has looked at the last quarter-century of newspapering and concluded that while it’s fashionable to criticize news execs as being out of touch and slow to react, it just ain’t so.
He details industry experiments — especially by Knight-Ridder — in Videotex in the 1970s and an early browser called Mosiac in 1994. He writes:
I read a lot about journalism online these days and there’s an endless refrain that goes something like this: The people leading newspapers are imbeciles, and if only they had more foresight, had planned ahead and embraced the Internet sooner, newspapers wouldn’t be in the quagmire they’re in now. What’s amusing is that a lot of this commentary comes from people who, as best I can tell, have never met a payroll, who know absolutely nothing about the advertising business and how it works, and who have never created a truly successful blog, much less an entire self-sustaining, profitable Web site, themselves.
I’m not saying there aren’t stupid, shortsighted newspapers executives, because undoubtedly there are. I’m not saying that newspapers can’t do a better job on the Web, because they can.
What I am saying is that powerful economic forces, forces that are vastly more complicated than the simplistic drivel about newspaper curmudgeons and their resistance to change, are behind the news industry’s malaise today.
An interesting point. And it makes me feel a little better.
But only a little.
—
‘THE FINANCIAL MODEL THAT
WORKS IS THE PRINT MODEL’
Don Ward of the Seattle Weekly profiles regional newspaper magnate David Black, who owns 32 papers in the Pacific northwest.
Munching on a cookie at his desk, Black downplays his past triumphs, giving the impression that it’s no great accomplishment that his media empire is not only profitable but expanding while other newspaper chains are currently bleeding red ink.
“It’s not rocket science,” he says simply.
Pretty good. Even better is Ward’s wrap-up:
For the time being, Black doesn’t see any need to turn his focus away from the print editions of his papers. Providing readers with the tactile and olfactory sensation of ink on newsprint is still the business model that works for him. Although neighborhood Web sites and volunteer bloggers do provide stories on a touch-and-go basis, the main source of news coverage for rural towns and the suburbs is still the community newspaper.
“We will certainly grow on the Internet as much as we can,” Black said. “But at the moment, the financial model that works is the print model.”
Read it in the Seattle Weekly.
So, what’s the deal? What is Black doing that the rest of the industry isn’t? Is Washington state insulated from this recession? Or is Black simply better suited to weathering a downturn in advertising revenue?
Classes in video journalism
It’s odd that I didn’t meet Schaver while I was there. He’s absolutely right, listening to people bemoan the industry in comments on these blogs is like listening to 10 year olds discuss politics. Most people don’t have the education to know what’s going on so they blame the same things over and over again. Saying things like multimedia is the answer to a failing business model, for one example, or that the Internet is the answer (thought it’s part of it, it’s not the whole thing).
Don Ward is also right, the business model isn’t failing; business is failing. No one really talks about it but TV news is losing money at an even higher rate (gee, wonder why). And aside from media, has anyone noticed Starbucks and other companies who are crashing? In a sad way, it’s comforting to know that we’re all on our way down and it’s not actually the Internet’s fault entirely (if at all). It’s the overall worth of the dollar.