Newspapers

Can the Kindle Save the L.A. Times?

October 23, 2008 by Kirk Biglione

I’ve developed something of a ~~love~~ like/hate relationship with the Los Angeles Times (LAT) over the past decade. I ~~love~~ like the LAT as a news source, but I hate the LAT as a physical product.

It’s been a long downhill slide for the physical edition of the Times since they scrapped the tabloid format Calendar section, then split that section into multiple parts. That change worked out so well they decided to make the same mistake with the Comics. If you’ve ever spent a Sunday afternoon searching for the Business section buried deep in the bowels of the auto classifieds, then you know just how bad the LAT reading experience can be. It’s like a fracking scavenger hunt.

Apparently the LAT unveiled a new design earlier this week. To which I can only say, so what? Each iteration of the paper’s physical design seems to make the news reading experience just a bit worse. Even if this new version of the Times is a huge improvement, it’s still too little too late. The days when I’ll buy a print edition of the LAT are long gone.

Walking out to the curb to pick up a soggy bundle of yesterday’s news seems like an antiquated concept. And yet, that’s exactly what I had been doing until very recently. The sad truth is that my LAT subscription remained active until just a few months ago.

The LAT Wakes Up, Realizes It Missed A Decade

July 7, 2008 by Kassia Krozser

To wit:

“We’re great about putting out a paper; we’re getting a lot better at putting up a Web site,” [Russ Stanton, editor of the Los Angeles Times] said. “We’re not very good on TV or radio, and we don’t do mobile at all. We need to do all of those things going forward.”

I don’t know about you, but if you’re the editor of a major metropolitan newspaper in mid-2008 and you’re saying any that you’re “getting a lot better an putting up a web site”, then, wow, can we look forward to a 2018 quote to the effect of hey, lookee here, it’s the Facebook!

Newspapers have known for a long time now that the audience is changing. Fifteen years at least; that’s a good amount of notice. Fifteen years ago should have been the start of “what are we going to do next?” conversation. Ten years ago, a time of great experimentation (this period, we recall, was dominated by pointless registration tactics). Five years ago, the online team should have been seamlessly integrated into the editorial team and strong forays into blending the social web with solid news begun.
[Read more…] about The LAT Wakes Up, Realizes It Missed A Decade

Saving Newspapers The Practical Way

June 29, 2008 by Kassia Krozser

When I was a mere pre-blogger, one of my life’s fantasies was to become a journalist. I still remember my first published article, written when I was a high school freshman. I did a story on teenage mothers who were finishing school while caring for their babies. They were doing this in what was my former elementary school, previously closed due to budget cuts.

I still remember how weird that felt, talking to girls my age who were learning algebra and how to raise babies in the place I learned to read.

Time went on and I became co-editor of my school paper, together with one my best friends. Around then, I realized that, to be honest, I was more of an opinion columnist than journalist. Sometimes facts get in the way of the story. This might be why I also write fiction. But I’ve always loved newspapers, more for what they represent than what they are.
[Read more…] about Saving Newspapers The Practical Way

Newspaper Freak-Out: Publishers and Journalists Need Remedial Training In New Media

May 9, 2007 by Kirk Biglione

It’s no secret that the newspaper business is in serious trouble. Circulations are plummeting and advertising revenue is in a free-fall. It’s widely agreed that the Internet is to blame, so you might think that newspapers would embrace new technology and work to establish strategic partnerships with companies that could help them deliver news in the manner that their readers prefer it. Instead many in the newspaper business seem to be waging an ongoing battle against all things new media. They’re responding in a way that media dinosaurs have traditionally responded to any new threat — with lawsuits and name calling.

A few weeks back I noted that would-be Tribune Co. owner Sam Zell doesn’t seem to understand the value of search engines. He’s not the only one. A number of European news services have been fighting Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft over links to European news websites. Apparently these publications prefer to limit their readership to the small number of individuals who might actually type the paper’s URL into their web browser. Since advertising revenue on the Internet is directly related to the number of visitors a website receives, suing Google probably isn’t the best business decision.

Regaining Advertising Dollars…One Job Search At A Time

June 22, 2006 by Kassia Krozser

“As online advertisers migrate to the Web…”, as opposed, I suppose, to email, the need for newspapers to keep classified advertising revenue in-house is critical. Enter CareerBuilder, which has put itself up for sale. Sort of.

Through a series of mergers and acquisitions and sales, the news companies that own CareerBuilder have had their pie divided unequally, so they’re working out the kinks. But now other newspaper companies want in, too. And it’s good for CareerBuilder, already a name brand.

Though everyone I know automatically gravitates toward Monster.com. Not that I know any gainfully employed individuals who are looking for greener pastures. This is just me repeating what I hear around the wine bottle. The numbers certainly support the notion that CareerBuilder has the eyeballs — increasing the number of newspapers associated with the service can only help.

While the CareerBuilder news was interesting, what I found most fascinating was the nugget buried in the middle of the story: that newspaper companies are looking to partner with Yahoo! to leverage both job searches and news searches. I personally think that’s a strategy that will compliment an investment in CareerBuilder. I’m not one for exclusivity.

CareerBuilder to Sell Stake, and Suitors Aren’t Shy

Forget 2.0 WSJ Is Going Straight To 3.0

June 2, 2006 by Kirk Biglione

Contrary to the impression I may have given readers previously, I don’t hate newspapers (except for the Sunday LA Times, which I loath). However, I do find that I read newspapers less these days. Much less. That’s because I’m online accumulating news throughout the day from hundreds of sources.

While I doubt we’ll see the death of newspapers anytime soon, one thing is clear: newspapers need to evolve in response to the challenges presented by the Internet, and that doesn’t just mean moving more of their news coverage to the web. Print news publications need to change as well.

No, No, Let’s Wait

May 19, 2006 by Kassia Krozser

We have not (yet) instituted a “Quote of the Week” feature here on Medialoper, but if we were to do so, this would win hands down.

t would be too bad if the elders of the news business decided that the way to apply the marvels of the Internet to their operations was by a bold new push for reporting that’s hasty, fragmented and half-baked. It would be even worse if redirecting newsrooms to online news ended up by degrading the working conditions of journalists and diverting energies away from the kind of richly detailed, thoughtful reporting that exemplifies the best in journalism.

[Read more…] about No, No, Let’s Wait

Why I Hate The Sunday Paper

May 14, 2006 by Kirk Biglione

It’s Sunday morning in Pasadena and my newspaper is sitting on the front lawn, untouched, while I write this story. The sprinklers went off this morning and I’m certain the paper is completely soaked. The delivery person (they don’t make ‘paper boys’ anymore) usually wraps the Times in plastic for just this reason. However, my experience has been that the bags leak just enough that my paper will have turned into a wet mass of newsprint dipped in black ink by the time I get to it.

It’s time for me to proclaimed something that I’ve been feeling for years: I hate the Sunday paper!!! And it’s not just because of the sprinkler thing.

For years now the Times editors have been tinkering with the format of their newspaper, hoping to attract more readers while simultaneously offering advertisers new formats. The result? The Sunday LA Times has turned into a fracking scavenger hunt!

Press Room? I Said Rest Room!

March 21, 2006 by Kirk Biglione

You’d be hard pressed to find a more digital savvy group of people than the ones who attend SXSW Interactive. The vast majority of conference attendees are armed with laptops and logged onto the ubiquitous wireless available throughout the City of Austin. Most of the attendees have at least one blog that they post to on a regular basis (I think the average is actually 2.32 blogs per attendee, but I’m having trouble fact checking that number). It’s like an army of field reporters have descended on a conference to provide coverage from every possible angle.

Don’t believe me? Check out:

All of this just makes the fact that there is still a SXSW Press Room seem that much more archaic. What the hell happens in that room? Seriously, what sort of special accommodations could “real” reporters need that aren’t already available to every attendee?
I’ve racked my brain on this one and the only things I can come up with are:

Comfortable chairs
Fax Machines
D Cell Batteries

On the last day of the 2005 conference renowned CSS Guru Eric Meyer was called to task for daring to take photos of his friends without proper press credentials. I guess security hadn’t notice the 9,000+ session photos uploaded to flicker over the previous four days. Meyer played along and was ultimately granted a press pass for his camera. Apparently media credentials are now just a bureaucratic formality.

Meanwhile, the SXSW Press Room lives on, like some kind of vestigial organ completely out of place in the 21st century.