The logic of the business world escapes us
A trio of items with which to end your week…
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RICHARD CURTIS’ SALARY?
OK — So yesterday afternoon, USA Today’s Richard Curtis announces his retirement.
This morning, Gannett announces it’s repurchasing $117 million in old debt.
Coincidence? Of course it is. It wouldn’t be accurate to suggest that our pal Richard was making $117 million a year.
But it’d sure be a fun rumor to start. :)
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CHECK OUR MATH, PLEASE
2. We’re told that job seekers no longer come to print media to find jobs. They’re seeking jobs online.
3. CareerBuilder — jointly owned by McClatchy, Tribune and Gannett — is praised by Gannett CEO Craig Dubow for providing 80 percent of Gannett’s online revenues for the fourth quarter.
4. CareerBuilder cuts 300 jobs, roughly 15 percent of its work force.
So here’s our question: What does it take to not lose your job these days?
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WHY AREN’T WE RETHINKING CLASSIFIEDS?
Longtime readers of this blog know that one of our own favorite daily reads is SportsDesigner. It ain’t just stats and action photos, y’know. Rich Boudet of the Seattle Times and Josh Crutchmer of the Chicago Tribune provide meaty discussion on a great many topics.
Thursday, Josh posted a fascinating essay called “What if…”:
What if cutting back isn’t the answer?
To anything.
What if recognizing where our competition lies and actively doing something about it is?
This isn’t about making money in a day. This is about exposing yourself to a potential market, pointing out advantages you have to that market, and setting the table to tap that market for the next five years.
What if newspapers would aggressively go after a portion of Craigslist’s market?
What if instead of undercutting media competition, we were undercutting our revenue competition?
He goes on to outline a more effective TV ad promoting newspaper classifieds and to promote a multi-company free classifieds day.
People are out of work. They’re downsizing. They’re selling things they don’t need anymore and they’re looking for places to live that don’t cost what they’re paying now. That’s a reality. And we’re sitting idly by, lamenting about how they don’t use us anymore instead of getting in their faces and showing them how useful we can be to them at this time.
For what it’s worth, there is an entire website devoted to reinventing classifieds. It’s called — now, get this — Reinventing Classifieds. It’s run by Steve Outing and is currently offering a $500 prize for the best innovative idea to save the classified section.
Our opinion: Knight-Ridder was on the right track with a grid-based classified page it used in its infamous Boca Raton experiment, nearly 20 years ago. Their clean, well-organized, easy-to-scan grids were about the closest you can get on newsprint to today’s searchable, sortable online listings. But without the misspellings, misfiled ads and the porn spam.
And what did the newspaper industry do? It laughed its collective ass off.
What better way to end your work week tha to head over to SportsDesigner right now, check out Crutch’s essay and add your own thoughts?
December 17th, 2008 at 10:57 pm
You can scale back a business all the way back to a 1% work force. But who will buy your product other than the 1% that have money to do so?
December 23rd, 2008 at 12:49 pm
There’s a certain tipping point where there are not enough workers to provide a public service to their community. At that time it is unethical to continue serving that community and to exist as an incompetent company.
How fast are we approaching the point at which newspapers become unethical by continuing to exist at such a depleted stage?
December 23rd, 2008 at 12:51 pm
newspapers/a newspaper*
January 14th, 2009 at 11:15 am
So is there a sample of the Boca Raton experiment somewhere. I’d definitely like to see some new ideas beyond smaller type, more surly customer service, and a high degree of disorganization.