Lots of news in newspaper land recently, with both Journal Register and the Philadelphia Newspapers filing for bankruptcy. And then, there is the swirling debate over whether newspapers can charge for their content, which began with Walter Isaacson’s Time magazine piece and was the focus of Gordon Crovitz’ Information Age…

If you want to watch news travel fast, make sure it’s about the newspaper industry. Fitch, a credit-rating service, has predicted that some daily newspapers will go out of business as their parent companies default on their debt and are forced to liquidate. But this prediction is extreme: There are…

The overall panic that has taken hold of the financial markets made its way to online advertising yesterday with the release of the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s third-quarter online ad figures: online advertising up only 2% quarter-to-quarter and 11% year-over-year. But before you scramble to lower all of your estimates once…

NBC Local and Fox announced last week their plan to pool resources to cover local news in certain markets, an encouraging sign that TV stations are beginning to understand the desperate need to rationalize their massive newsgathering costs. Is there too much local TV news? I think yes, and it’s…

Over the last six months, we have noted several newspapers that have decided not to print one or two days a week. Then last week’s news that the Christian Science Monitor would cease daily publication and become a weekly. And now, U.S. News and World Report is going monthly. This…

Tired of the doom and gloom in the financial markets? Looking for growth? It’s fantasy football time of year. Sports content is still an area which will likely continue to grow in spite of the current economic climate. While advertising is its main economic driver, the traffic continues to grow,…

Business media, used to up-to-the-minute coverage through wire services, has been opened up. That will place pressure on “closed” business media companies like Bloomberg, noted Lauren Rich Fine, ContentNext Media’s research director, in opening remarks at ContentNext’s Future of Business Media conference. Despite the doom and gloom across the economic…

Not surprisingly, the circulation figures for the six months ended Sept. 30, as compiled by the Audit Bureau of Circulations, were pretty horrible. In some cases, the declines were planned as circulation was cut to certain areas considered less important to advertisers. Interestingly, two national papers, USA Today and Wall…

Newspapers are still profitable! In a seasonally small third quarter, McClatchy Co. (NYSE: MNI), against all odds, still reported positive net income. Ad revenues down 19 percent, enormous interest expense on $2.1 billion of debt, but STILL PROFITABLE. Admittedly, I am a little more removed than I used to be…

We’re very pleased to announce that Lauren Rich Fine has joined our company’s executive team as our Research Director, a new position for ContentNext. Building upon our existing report business, Lauren will author a series of research reports and briefing notes on the digital media industry as it continues to…

Despite an amazing day in the stock market on Monday, it’s still safe to assume we are on the precipice of an economic slowdown. Ad forecasts are getting slashed, including online, which is rational albeit sobering. I believe a good portion of the market share shift to online has taken…

The recent turmoil in the financial markets would not appear to have any particular silver lining for the media industry. While local newspapers might be experiencing an uptick in local bank ads touting their safety and CD rates, there is not much else about which to feel good. Consolidation of…

Our contributor Lauren Rich Fine is also practitioner-in-residence at Kent State University’s College of Communication and Information. In that guise, she was a moderator at this week’s Whose Rules? conference on media ethics jointly programmed by Kent State University School of Journalism and Mass Communication and The Poynter Institute. The…

The Tribune announcement to measure journalists based on their productivity and move to a 50-50 ad-news ratio came midway through the Florida Press Association’s annual meeting, in which I participated. The meeting was being hosted in Orlando, home to one of Tribune’s papers. Similar to what I have sensed at…

Many in the newspaper industry were stunned by the Capital Times‘s decision to move to an online-only edition. IDG Magazines decision to drop the print edition of InfoWorld, while equally surprising, is quite different and vastly more logical. Magazines, in most cases (and certainly in the case of InfoWorld’s), are…

My former associate was laid off from Merrill Lynch earlier this week as part of its job slashing. I can assure you it wasn’t a comment on his talent but more a confirmation that you don’t need an analyst to tell you what direction newspaper stocks are headed. As I…

Newspaper and internet analyst Lauren Rich Fine retired last year after 19 years with Merrill Lynch. Her post-ML activities include Practitioner in Residence at Kent State University’s College of Communication and Information and the Advisory Board of the Poynter Institute. Rupert Murdoch is – a) addicted to newspapers, b) addicted…