Journalism's Risks Have Never Been More Intense

Editorial from Saturday's Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette (August 30, 2014):


Published: August 30, 2014 3:00 a.m.
Journalism's risks have never been more intense

Our friend Gary Pruitt, the president of the Associated Press, was on a recent Sunday news show and made a few points that in this day of anti-media sentiment are worth noting.

Pruitt naturally emphasized the AP. But what he says can be broadened to include all the Western media. Pruitt appeared on CNN's “Reliable Sources.” What prompted his comments was the beheading of James Foley of the Global Post by an Islamist nicknamed Jihadi John.

“It has been a difficult year, and a more dangerous time for journalists,” Pruitt told host Brian Stelter. “It's the most dangerous we've ever seen it, in part because journalists are being targeted now.

“It wasn't too many years ago that journalists would have emblazoned on their vests – press – or they'd be riding in vehicles that would have 'press' written on the vehicle, to provide a degree of more safety because combatants typically wouldn't target the media.”

Pruitt said the AP had lost 33 journalists in its history, beginning with the Battle of the Little Big Horn (in 1876) and with the latest death about two weeks ago. An AP video journalist, Simone Camilli, was killed Aug. 13 along with a freelance Palestinian translator working with him when ordnance left from Israeli-Hamas fighting exploded as they were reporting on the aftermath of the war in the Gaza Strip.

The excesses of the media are major topics on other TV and radio shows. Gasbags are frequently critical of what this reporter or that photographer did. But some of our colleagues, like Foley, pay the ultimate price in trying to cover the news.

The End of the Printed Newspaper?

Here are three paragraphs from a very stimulating story on the future of newspapers. Be sure to click through to the entire article using the link at the end of this excerpt.

The Roanoke Times, the local paper in my family home, is a classic metro daily, with roots that go back to the 1880s. Like most such papers, it ran into trouble in the middle of last decade, as print advertising revenue fell, leaving a hole in the balance sheet that digital advertising couldn’t fill. When the 2008 recession accelerated those problems, the Times’ parent company, Landmark, began looking for a buyer, eventually selling it to Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Media Group in 2013. The acquisition was greeted with relief in the newsroom, as Buffett had famously assured the employees at his earlier purchases “Your paper will operate from a position of financial strength.” Three months after acquiring the Times, BH Media fired 31 employees, a bit over a tenth of the workforce.

Many people have lamented the unpredictability in the media environment occasioned by the arrival of digital devices and networks, but the slow implosion of newspapers has been widely and correctly predicted for some time now. Print ad revenues have fallen 65% in a decade, 2013 saw the lowest ever recorded, and 2014 will be worse. Even a company like BH Media, with deep pockets and a long term outlook, can’t make a profit without cutting expenses, and can’t cut expenses without cutting jobs.

What happened in Roanoke — gradual financial decay punctuated by bouts of firing — is the normal case at papers all over the country, and more is coming. The next wave of consolidation is already upon us; big media firms like Tribune and Gannett are abandoning their newspapers (“spinning them off”, in bloodless business parlance.) If you are a journalist at a print publication, your job is in danger. Period. Time to do something about it.

To read the full article, click here.

Why You Might Want to Ditch Your E-Reader

Why you might want to ditch your e-reader and go back to printed books

By Caitlin Dewey August 21


If you’re one of those Luddites who still clings, technophobically, to the printed page, then a team of European researchers has some good news for you:

You have again been vindicated.

This latest study on the differences between e-readers and printed books — which was presented at an Italian conference last month and reported this week in Britain’s Guardian newspapaer — asked 50 people to read a short story and take a comprehension test afterwards. Half the readers got the story on a Kindle; the other half got paperbacks; everybody got the same story. But when it came to the test, results diverged: The Kindle readers, it turned out, were far worse at remembering the story’s plot than were the print readers.

To read the full article, click here.

The Value of an Internship

Here's some great perspective for journalism students on the value of having an internship with a publication:

http://www.freeportpress.com/how-to-succeed-in-magazines-without-really-trying/

USA Today Owner Spins Off Newspaper Business

USA Today owner spins off newspaper biz

By Brian Stelter @brianstelter August 5, 2014: 11:22 AM ET

Gannett, the owner of USA Today, joins the long line of TV-focused media companies to split off its newspaper business.
The spin-off plan, announced Tuesday morning, means the newspaper company will go it alone in a challenging print environment.

The television stations and websites currently owned by Gannett (GCI) will be operated under a new name, while the publishing company will retain the Gannett name. But make no mistake: it's the papers that are being shed.

"Gannett's newspapers are a drag on its earnings," news industry analyst Ken Doctor wrote in a blog post ahead of Tuesday's announcement. He said Gannett is "now alone among the big newspaper companies" -- all of its peers have already enacted similar spin-offs.

Tribune (TRBAA) was the most recent. The spin-off of its publishing unit took effect Monday, which means newspapers like The Los Angeles Times are now separate from Tribune's more lucrative television assets.

Through a complex transaction announced just last week, two owners of both newspapers and TV stations, E.W. Scripps and Journal Communications, agreed to combine their stations and spin off their papers.

Time Warner (TWX), the parent of CNN, spun off its magazine unit, Time Inc., earlier this year.
Doctor wrote Monday that "the standard three-word explanation for all these splits is the desire to 'maximize shareholder value.'"

Indeed. Gannett also said its spin-off would give each company a "more competitive position" in the marketplace.
Gannett CEO Gracia Martore, who will run the broadcasting company, said, "The bold actions we are announcing today are significant next steps in our ongoing initiatives to increase shareholder value by building scale, increasing cash flow, sharpening management focus, and strengthening all of our businesses to compete effectively in today's increasingly digital landscape."

The Newspaper Crisis, By the Numbers

Here's a sobering--but realistic--look at what's happening in the newspaper industry. These are the first few paragraphs -- to read the entire article, click here.

The newspaper crisis, by the numbers

Roughly a decade after the commercial debut of the Internet, America’s newspapers posted record high advertising sales of $49.4 billion in 2005, leading many publishers to think their businesses would not be seriously affected by the digital revolution. But they were wrong.

Since hitting that high note in 2005, the industry has undergone a dramatic and traumatic contraction, losing nearly half of its print readership and more than a third of its revenues. With the pre-tax profits of the publicly held publishers cut by 39% since 2003, newsroom staffing has dropped to a historically low level. In spite of the declared determination of most publishers to pivot from print to pixels, the industry's share of the digital advertising market has plunged by more than 50%.

Charging for the Campus Newspaper?

University newspaper gains 500 subscribers after implementing paywall

With many campus newspapers struggling with the same challenges as their mainstream counterparts, one university newspaper has succeeded in charging for its content, signing up 500 paying online subscribers.

In 2011, Oklahoma State University’s Daily O’Collegian became the first university publication to begin charging for its content, instituting a metered paywall for readers who were not university students or employees. For $10, readers outside these categories could access unlimited content on the paper’s website.

At the time, newspaper general manager Ray Catalino said that the value of the content produced by the student journalists extended beyond the paper’s free distribution.

While a revolutionary move in the college media industry, critics were not optimistic about the paper’s approach.

According to Dan Reimold, Assistant Professor of Journalism at Saint Joseph’s University (Philadelphia, United States), campus newspapers have the advantage of low staffing costs combined with the lack of expectations to generate profits.

“Along with potentially turning away readers without generating much revenue, paywalls at heart also go against the purpose of the student press. For the moment, campus media are still learning vehicles more than moneymaking ventures,” Reimold wrote on his blog College Media Matters. “In that spirit, students must be able to share, share, share their work with others, without restriction, enabling them to join a larger conversation and learn firsthand about reporting and interacting with the public beyond the classroom or campus.”

The goal for the first year was a paid subscription base of 100. The newspaper exceeded expectations, picking up 173 paying readers.

However, three years later, the newspaper’s landmark strategy is continuing to pay dividends. In an interview with WAN-IFRA, Catalino said that there are now approximately 500 paying customers.

The price of the subscription has also increased.

“We have raised new subscribers' fee from $10 the first year, $15 the second, and now $20 for the year,” Catalino said. “Subscriptions are automatically renewed each year, unless cancelled by the customer. Renewal costs remain the same as the initial year the customer signed up.”

The draw for readers is that campus newspapers cover their universities far better than other publications.

“Campus newspaper like ours cover the campus better than commercial newspapers in almost every college market I am familiar with. We do not use any wire service, so we generate all content ourselves,” Catalino continued.

Catalino said that there are no plans to charge students.

Thus far, the three year experiment has proved to be a success, but as WAN-IFRA detailed in December 2013, The Daily O’Collegian isn’t the only student newspaper finding innovative solutions to the challenges facing all print media.

George Washington University’s The Hatchet began offering sponsorship opportunities in its facilities, while the University of Oregon Daily Emerald rebranded itself as the Emerald Media Group, updating its student media offerings.

As these publications have proven, some forms of student media are thriving in the changing digital environment.

This post has been updated to correct that The Daily O'Collegian is the newspaper at Oklahoma State University, not the University of Oklahoma