Entries from lucasgrindley.com blog | Exploring the new way for journalism tagged with 'Rule No. 2'
Fairy tales for failing
With the Star-Tribune selling for about half of its original value, you’d think folks at that newspaper would take a hard look in the mirror. Instead, they’re telling journalism fairy tales. In this once-upon-a-time, the villain is usually wearing a...
Newspapers can go online-only and pay the bills
Howard Owens disagrees with Wired Magazine’s prediction that a major newspaper will stop printing and go online-only in 2007. Although Wired’s punditry might be a little overly optimistic, Howard’s rebuttal is equally pessimistic. Howard alleges that newspapers can’t possibly support...
Go tabloid, then circulation goes up
This analysis of how newspaper redesigns affected circulations numbers should make us all wonder why American papers haven’t followed the Europeans and replaced broadsheets with a tabloid size. The graphs from NewsDesigner.com demonstrate that switching often results in higher circulation....
Reassign beats now, or cut reporters later
In earlier posts, I’ve warned about the impending consolidation of coverage. And here’s a real-world harbinger. The managing editor for the Winston-Salem Journal was faced with the need to cut his budget. And when looking around the newsroom, he saw...
Or, Do Google One Better
What Google is on the precipice of teaching us is a new business model. Google isn’t as interested in selling advertising on its own site as it is in selling ads on everyone else’s. It wants to be the one-stop...
The birth of open source advertising
National advertisers have repeatedly told this industry that they wish for some easy way to advertise in the medium. One that doesn’t require navigating the disparate staffs and processes they find at the nation’s hundreds of newspapers. And that’s why...
Next Steps
Obviously this report doesn’t have all the answers. Questions abound. Would a newspaper like this comply with ABC standards? What kind of equipment exists to deliver a personalized newspaper? How does this affect Accounting? How does it affect the way...
Feeding the junkies, and paying for it
The Zoning By Interest business model lets newspapers take a lesson from cable companies and other modern content providers. TV junkies buy more TV channels. But news junkies get the same amount of news as everyone else, and pay the...
Create more products
When a new section doesn’t have to be sent to every subscriber, it becomes easier to create new products. It becomes less costly to experiment. That means the newsroom can be more responsive to the laws of supply and demand....
If you let me choose, I will let you help me
It is usually a veteran editor who makes the argument against the “a la carte” news idea. “If readers are allowed to subscribe only to the news they want, they won’t get the news they need,” or so the thinking...
Stop Wasting Paper
Newspapers are one of the most inefficient products on the planet. Companies spend thousands of dollars every edition to print pages and hand deliver them to subscribers who just throw them in the trash bin. The truth is not everyone...
Zoning by Interest
Readers want more coverage of the things they’re passionate about, but our passions vary. In response, newspapers depend on mass appeal. Topics that interest the majority get covered more than those that interest a few fanatics. The result is a...
Why Sunday circulation?
For an example of what will happen when newspapers don’t listen to their readers, just look at the latest dismal Sunday circulation numbers released today. Here’s how E&P; reported it: While the estimated decline 2.8% for daily circulation for all...
Some newspapers need economics lesson
Spending all this time working online has led me to a theory. All news – no matter the subject or how targeted its audience – should be free. First of all, the goal of any newspaper or magazine is to...
Surviving CraigsList, Part 6
6) Disrupt CraigsList Instead of learning from our failed newspaper brethren, let’s take a lesson from CraigsList itself. They stole our lunch by giving away something we couldn’t or weren’t willing to give away ourselves. It’s our turn to steal...
Surviving CraigsList, Part 5
5) Identify competitive advantages What CraigsList offers is not the same service as the newspaper. Newspapers have printed pages; CraigsList does not. That’s the one thing CraigsList can never give away: Printed listings, delivered directly to your neighbors’ homes. So...
Surviving CraigsList, Part 4
4) Cut expenses Even if the newspaper does start selling advertisers around its classifieds content, it’s probably never going to recoup all of the lost classifieds revenue. There are consequences to that realization. The Classifieds section must shrink. Just like...
Surviving Craigslist, Part 3
3) Identify the actual advertisers If core Classifieds are placed by readers, then who are the advertisers? Newspapers print all kinds of content. No one pays us to print stories. How did we make a business out of that free...
How Newspapers Can Survive CraigsList
The six steps to overcoming a disruptive business model and creating a new one to live by. With CraigsList in your market, the time for hand-wringing and worrying is over. It’s time to do something. So far newspapers like mine...
Syllabus for 'The New Way'
The New Way for newspapers comes with a few “new rules,” as Bill Maher likes to call them. Only these are serious. 1. If newspapers are going to survive, first some newspapers will have to die. And it’s every man...
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