Comments on: Newspapers that aren’t dying: Four success stories and four lessons

By: Ross H

Ross H — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 11:12:48 +0000

The split is the key to digital media success – while they are carrying legacy millstones they can never succeed.

By: Muhammad Abd Al-Hameed

Muhammad Abd Al-Hameed — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 05:11:21 +0000

The separation of paper and digital operations will suit the most the big ones, such as The New York Times. The problems is there are no listeners to out-of-the-box solutions. They are doomed to fail.

By: Jose Huitron

Jose Huitron — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 06:38:24 +0000

Excellent post! I spent several months studying the Journalism industry as part of my grad studies. Very insightful post. I look forward to seeing the transformation of newspapers considering the growing influence of technology. Definitely aligns with Eric Newton’s perspective stemming from his writings at the Knight Foundation.

By: Darren Johnson

Darren Johnson — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 14:29:12 +0000

Experimenting too much may water down the main product. If you take print people away from their main duties, the print paper will suffer.

Papers that are seeing a decrease in sales may want to look at how they circulate. Look at every store where they are sold. Does their place in the stores look appealing? Modern? Are the delivery guys doing a good job of keeping the racks looking clean and vibrant? Could there be new stores in town that may want to carry the product? Is the paper’s Newspapers In Education program really getting younger folks to read the paper (are you sending guest speakers in to talk to students and get them excited about journalism), or are schools just a place to dump off a couple of bundles of papers?

By: Tim Allen

Tim Allen — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 15:18:34 +0000

Paid copies gives a promise of readership, but no guarantees can be made about unique visitors from one day (or week) to the next.

By: Rich

Rich — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 23:18:58 +0000

“Experimenting with alternate digital media revenue strategies is a luxury that few publishers can enjoy.”

That’s like saying that in 1900 few horse-drawn buggy manufacturers could afford to put gasoline engines in their buggies.

By: Mathew Ingram

Mathew Ingram — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 22:42:27 +0000

Thanks, Brian — that’s certainly the most extreme example of a certain strategy, but given the right market I suppose it could work.

By: Tom Foremski

Tom Foremski — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 21:21:28 +0000

Experimenting with alternate digital media revenue strategies ia luxury that few publishers can enjoy when they are trying to figure out just the daily bread…

Also, there comes a time when the digital marketing unit of say, The Santa Rosa PD becomes weighed down by having to support the print side, and could become uncompetitive against rivals that don’t have the same handicap. In the digital world it’s very easy to cherry pick, that’s what Craigslist did,it took the ads, and dropped the expensive news articles. Now, just 32 staff at Craigslist provide classified ads for more than 300 cities and they’ve taken away more than $16 billion a year in revenues from the newspaper industry while making about $150m a year.

By: Brian Donohue

Brian Donohue — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 17:31:48 +0000

Also worth looking at the TriCity News in Asbury Park, NJ. It’s chock full of ads and quite a success story? Their secret? No web site. People have to read the paper.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/22/business/media/22carr.html?_r=0