Nieman Journalism Lab - Latest Comments

Re: The New York Times imagines the kitchen table of the future

Buy Domain Names — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 23:54:06 -0000

Wow..It is seriously going to rock in the market..And i hope it comes as soon as possible..

Re: The Boston Courant: Proud not to have a website until the owner sees “a profitable end game”

Markus Menno Jong — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 17:00:19 -0000

Why did he hire somebody from the Ukraine for 50.000 $ ? Why not somebody from Boston ?

Re: A partnership too valuable to give up: Why The Miami Herald and WLRN are sticking together

Choire — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 14:56:38 -0000

"With the Herald moving into a former military complex 10 miles west, in the neighboring city of Doral" is more than a little dramatic, if technically accurate. And also possibly reflective of some or much of the newsroom's distaste for the move.

But in reality, much of the staff doesn't live in Miami either. The publisher of the Herald lives in the non-"neighboring city" of South Miami, farther than Doral from the current office. I don't know where the current editor lives, but she grew up in the barely-adjacent city of Hialeah, which just for a little bit brushes the corner of Miami, at the airport.

My point is: the city of Miami is actually quite small. In terms of square miles, it's not really that much bigger than Manhattan. Perhaps it's high time the paper was located more centrally, actually. There's a lot of Miami-Dade, and a lot of it is under-served, and most of it that's newsworthy isn't located next to the Arsht Center.

Still, it's a shame that the "Miami Beach bureau" office was closed; David Smiley and whoever else reports on Miami Beach will probably have the lengthiest trip to and from the office. They should lobby for all of $750 a month for a little office.

Re: The Boston Courant: Proud not to have a website until the owner sees “a profitable end game”

Ben Ilfeld — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 13:03:55 -0000

David, I'm glad you are doing what you love and making a profit. I'm glad you are focusing on what you can deliver for your community.

That does not mean that others are unable to make money online. There is no "secret" to making money with online ads. It is the fastest growing segment of the advertising industry, now at $30 billion dollars. Online advertising has eclipsed print in the UK and just yesterday in Russia. In the US, it will likely eclipse print in 2012.

People who make and distribute content are also making money online as well as those who provide services. Niche sites like the Gawker group sites or Mashable are serious businesses and have been for years. Networks like Federated Media help them navigate those waters.

Traditional newspapers and weeklies also have found ways to make money with a hybrid approach. In fact, in competitive markets, the issues that most adversely affected newspapers had nothing to do with the newspaper website competing with print, but with services delivered online competing with services that used to be bundled in newspapers. Take classifieds for example. Online, the tools are better and cheaper thanks to sites like careerbuilder and cars.com. It's a good thing that newspaper conglomerates invested in these tools, because as their classified revenue plummets, they are seeing profits from owning those ventures. Ask McClatchy if they would even be in business were it not for investments in digital.

Take a long look at Digital First while you're at it. They produce both dailies and hundereds of weeklies and their new strategy has pulled them up out of a bankruptcy.

Disruptive news organizations can deliver general news too. I visited The Huffington Post a couple weeks ago. They also operate a huge and growing newsroom out of a slick downtown office. They got there by creating a large and engaged audience that advertisers pay to access, just like you.

Now, all of this is not to say that you should be like any of the examples above. I believe strongly that we are best when we serve our community the way we know best. I know digital—you know print. I believe weekly print newspapers will be around for a long time. Even daily print papers still make money one day a week: Sunday. Keep serving your community and delivering profits and growth to spite the nay-sayers! And if it ain't broke, don't fix it. There may not be a "first mover" advantage online, and if your audience demands it, you can always respond with a new strategy (although, an 8 year old site will probably not be the one you launch).

Re: Looking to Europe for news-industry innovation, Part 1: Sanoma’s big bundled success

Reed Reibstein — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 19:18:43 -0000

Mario García compares Helsingin Sanomat to the Philly papers: http://garciamedia.com/blog/ar...

Re: How ‘Grammar Girl’ turned a single hobby podcast into a growing media network

Jonathon Owen — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 16:48:55 -0000

Very true. The vast bulk of the rules of English are unconscious and unnoticed. Sometimes English seems rather lacking in rules compared to other languages that are full of inflections like verb conjugations and case endings, but that's really just the tip of the iceberg of English grammar. There's syntax, phonology, morphology, semantics, and pragmatics.

English spelling, style, and usage, though, certainly are a mass of inconsistency.

Re: The Boston Courant: Proud not to have a website until the owner sees “a profitable end game”

Joe Banks — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 13:59:57 -0000

Mr. Jacobs will not concern himself with the pennies you are picking up while he makes dollars. Insta-sites like yours come and go with tedious regularity in communities, and most people don't read them. If they did, we'd already be getting our news from them. Ask a random citizen in the street where they get their news, and guaranteed your freezer-dried, templated sites aren't among them.

Re: How ‘Grammar Girl’ turned a single hobby podcast into a growing media network

Won Gi Kevin Jung — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 12:15:33 -0000

I strongly agree on Owens comment, "luck...played its part". Most of the time when I read recent successes of SNS viral marketing and Podcast, I usually feel like reading about 20th century entrepreneurs and 19th century inventors. We hear accomplishments and entrepreneurship and creativity of such people, but meanwhile we intentionally or inadvertently ignore all the 'connections' that mold their business model and inventions. Not degrading grammar girl's passion and experiences that led her to success, just wanted to note that miscellaneous failures of today's podcasts are not merely due to lack of podcaster's insight. Good Article. Thanks for sharing this story.

Re: The Boston Courant: Proud not to have a website until the owner sees “a profitable end game”

Greg Reibman — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 12:09:21 -0000

Dave: It's unfortunate that you saw this as a cheap shot at you when I was really challenging the reporter's claims of your success without offering the numbers to verify it.

Then again, maybe I struck a nerve?

Re: The Boston Courant: Proud not to have a website until the owner sees “a profitable end game”

Won Gi Kevin Jung — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 11:55:27 -0000

Thank you for your reply. Many shortsighted newspaper publishers and local media enterprises failed to achieve the expected goal, for they didn't notice the crux of the newspaper business: ads and profit. I don't have much insight on journalism business, nor I have profound experiences in the field, but I hardly doubt that the economies of scale can also be applied to the journalism business. Though, influences of viral marketing through the online subscription and sporadic exposures in internet network cannot be ignored. (at least in South Korea, I consider, the magnitude of such strategy is noticeable) Still, I agree on Jacob's viewpoint. Perhaps, as you said, this bewildering puzzle could only be resolved by further researches and accomplishments of SNS journalism.

Re: How ‘Grammar Girl’ turned a single hobby podcast into a growing media network

Joshua Benton — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 11:42:11 -0000

Touché.

Re: How ‘Grammar Girl’ turned a single hobby podcast into a growing media network

Stan Carey — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 11:37:22 -0000

Nice profile. But I wouldn't say that English "lacks concrete rules". The language has many rules – of syntax and inflection, for example – that we learn in childhood and which are used instinctively by native speakers.
For example, in the phrase "a language rife with inconsistencies and lacks concrete rules", changing "and" to "that" or (better) "lacks" to "lacking" would make it grammatically sound. I use this example not to nitpick, but because it's convenient and it illustrates my point, or so I hope.
"Rules" of English as they are popular imagined are more often conventions of usage and style whose validity varies a great deal, which is perhaps what was intended.

Re: The Boston Courant: Proud not to have a website until the owner sees “a profitable end game”

Be Prepared — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 10:23:02 -0000

So we as a news business are just supposed to turtle and hide our heads in our shells and hope the internet goes away? I understand the fact the print is a more lucrative business model, but the proliferation of the 'digital lifestyle (tablets/smart phones/laptops)' are quickly making that model obselete...

Re: The Boston Courant: Proud not to have a website until the owner sees “a profitable end game”

Mike Donatello — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 08:35:09 -0000

No offense, but this has been the industry's mantra for decades. I don't hear too many others congratulating themselves on that decision.

Re: The Boston Courant: Proud not to have a website until the owner sees “a profitable end game”

Mike Donatello — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 08:28:12 -0000

Archetype of the risk-averse publisher. His strategy of milking a loyal segment makes perfect sense, if he does not care about the longevity of his business.

Then again, if he's such a shrewd businessman, why the heck did he fork over $50K for a site design without any business plan behind it?

Re: The Boston Courant: Proud not to have a website until the owner sees “a profitable end game”

kdardis — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 06:37:01 -0000

Re: "But that's not how people consume news."
Phil: You'll find no argument from me on most of this - today. Habits do take awhile to change but, when the floodgates open - as they did for newspapers with Craigslist (and auto advertising in print) - there's no stopping the flow. Those media that refused to prepare for change are left looking for new revenue streams or folding. As more local merchants explore accountable advertising, this move of ad dollars will quicken.
Mr. Jacobs has found his niche, and is being rewarded for it. From my view, though, a staunch refusal to explore the future for any business is a methodical way to end up with little relevance. His readership (and, I am just guessing) is in the same demo as Mr Jacobs, which will soon die off. (Where do you fit, demographically?) The Boston Courant's employees' skills will soon be sparsely needed in an industry that's moved on. As a BTW: I'm 60, and use the above mentioned news services from Google and Bing.
I stated my experience is outside newspapers, in broadcast (and software design), so I'll use radio's "Music of Your Life" format - or the older "Elevator Music" stations as examples of my thinking on "The Boston Courant's" approach. Both are dead in radio.
For Mr. Jacobs, it's great now and he reaps the rewards. Just, how many people in your response of "that's not how people consume news" are in the lower end 18-35 demo groups. The data I see says news consumption is changing quickly in these groups. Go to a college campus an observe the students for a day. Look for newspaper distribution boxes while you're there.
If you don't change distribution, with the younger folks' changed habits, now, you will lose them forever.
Good discussion. Thank you.

Re: The Boston Courant: Proud not to have a website until the owner sees “a profitable end game”

Mel Taylor — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 06:16:32 -0000

We love when this happens.

Local publisher puts up a paywall, or decides to have no site at all. We quickly move into that market. We install a low-cost CMS platform that features aggregation and proprietary editorial from a few local editors/writers. We then contract with stringers, a call center to set up client meetings, a local sales rep firm, and 3rd party revenue vendors.We love guys like David Jacobs. He can have the current print revenue in that market. We'll take the the fast growing web budgets. Seems to me, that Mr Jacobs is still blindly following journo-focused pundits & bloggers that claim to be searching for sustainable, online business models for news.Those models already exist. God Bless Mr Jacobs.

Mel Taylor
www.MelTaylorMedia.com

Re: The Boston Courant: Proud not to have a website until the owner sees “a profitable end game”

robelroy — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 02:05:35 -0000

I would like to put out a wager with someone...contact me and I will give my real name and will pay out real money. Here is the wager:

1. If the New York Times flagship paper (not the whole company) does not reverse its revenue declines and grow within one year of the inception of the paywall, I will pay you $1000.00. If the New York Times DOES grow revenue, you owe me $500.00. Any takers? About a month left until the anniversary.

Re: The Boston Courant: Proud not to have a website until the owner sees “a profitable end game”

robelroy — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 02:00:38 -0000

It means that it is working fabulously well.

Re: The Boston Courant: Proud not to have a website until the owner sees “a profitable end game”

robelroy — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 01:59:19 -0000

He is growing his business, and it seems like all you have to offer in retort are a bunch of abstract statements and conjectures.

Re: The Boston Courant: Proud not to have a website until the owner sees “a profitable end game”

robelroy — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 01:57:35 -0000

Mr. Jacobs, I admire you. To my dying day, I will always wonder why people can never see what is right in front of their face. I do not work in journalism, but have loved newspapers my entire life. I am terribly sad to see these people throw it all away. They will not listen to you, Sir, but thank you. At least one person is stating that the Emperor, indeed, has no clothes.

Re: Chasing pageviews with values: How the Christian Science Monitor has adjusted to a web-first, SEO’d world

Bateku — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 00:48:05 -0000

Monitor's recent transformation is a success story. The Monitor made a bold move when other media houses seemed to want to belong to both worlds. As a result, it is a trendsetting media organization headed towards the right direction. Given the continued struggle of the print media's place in today's "give me the news now" mode, the web is likely to continue to be the place to be in order to reach both the readers and the advertizers.

As trendsetters, there will always be anxiety among staffers. However, Yemma and Orr have steadfastly assured the staffers that the mission remains true to the founders, but only twicked to suit the current challenges. With time, staffers seem to have started trusting management and feeling comfortable. I was impressed with his idea of reaching out to employees to assist him in determining who to lay off as the day for change came close. Since there seems to be no turning back to the comfort previously found in the print industry, the Monitor's transformation can only go one way:forward.

Re: St. Louis Beacon test drives iBooks Author with “Meandering Mississippi”

Nightshadevk — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 20:15:05 -0000

The Beacon also just switched to a redesigned website. Which IMO is horrid.

Re: The Boston Courant: Proud not to have a website until the owner sees “a profitable end game”

phil loubere — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 19:13:31 -0000

But that's not how people consume news. I've worked at publications that have tried this feature of letting people design their own feeds, but few take advantage of it. If you ask most people what topics they want, they wouldn't know. I wouldn't know, I just want to know what's going on in any topic if it's interesting. That's the job of a news publication, whether in print or online - to tell you what you don't know, but organized so you don't have to sift through hundreds or thousands of sources. I want an experienced editor to do that for me. That's not google news or yahoo news - all they do is pick up AP or Reuters stories, but without categorizing and contextualizing them. That's not a very good news service.

And as long as the Courant provides local content that is probably not on the Internet, it has valuable content. That doesn't become obsolete.

Re: The Boston Courant: Proud not to have a website until the owner sees “a profitable end game”

Andrew Gentry — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 15:10:13 -0000

These detractors of yours that make their living as digital futurists generally avoid the realities of the bottom-line today and are never held accountable. Always the promise of becoming, never of being. Down south, we call that perpetually betting on the come. I've been hearing of the promise of digital for more than a decade, but all its done thus far was drain resources with promises of big things down the road. And now we've put these guys on top, not on tap, as Neuharth used to say, by this digital first nonsense. I'll believe it when I see it. Most of these guys are like anyone else, in my opinion - trying to get to retirement by outrunning the rock as it careens downhill.