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ORIGINAL URL:
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/business/20050828-9999-1b28classif.html

By David Washburn
SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
POSTED: August 28, 2005

In an attempt to maintain readership of its classified advertising in the face of competition from growing Web sites, The San Diego Union-Tribune will begin offering free classified ads to individuals.

Beginning tomorrow, the newspaper will offer three free lines of advertising for seven days on its classified pages and Web site to any individuals wanting to sell a car or other merchandise worth $5,000 or less. The offer does not apply to commercial advertisers.

Although newspapers nationwide constantly offer deals to lure classified customers, the Union-Tribune is the first big-city daily to give away ad space on this scale.

"It is a bold move," said Gordon Borrell, president of Borrell Associates, a media consulting firm in Virginia. "This is the model of the future for newspapers."

Classified advertising has long been a profit center for newspapers, and a decade ago giving away classified advertising would have been looked upon as heresy.

But declining readership and Web sites such as eBay and San Francisco-based Craigslist have changed the dynamic in recent years, industry experts say.

In 10 years eBay, which allows people to auction merchandise online for a small fee, has grown from a startup operating out of a San Jose living room to a $3 billion behemoth.

Though not nearly as big as eBay, Craigslist also has become a force. Founded in 1995 by Craig Newmark, it began as a sort of counterculture message board for young people in the Bay Area. It gradually expanded and is now the place in most major cities for the under-30 crowd to sell merchandise, find apartment rentals and offer services, as well as search personals and job listings.

"You have this guy in San Francisco who has suddenly created the Google of the classified advertising business," Borrell said. "Newspaper publishers have to sit up and take notice."

While eBay and Craigslist have thrived in the new millennium, newspapers have watched their readership drop to historic lows. And their once fat classified sections have become much thinner.

"Seldom has a new medium come along and completely killed another," Borrell said. "But . . . the Internet is squeezing newspapers into a niche product. Classified is being walloped."

Unlike display advertising, classified advertising is considered content, and when there is less content there are fewer readers, experts say."In this day and age when newspapers are struggling for readership, offering free classified can be an enticement to read the paper," said John Morton, a newspaper analyst in Maryland.

Classified ad revenue for U.S. newspapers has declined steadily since 2000, and is expected to be about $16 billion this year . about equal to what it was in 1997, according to the Newspaper Association of America. Hardest hit has been help-wanted advertising, where revenue is half of what it was for newspapers in 2001. Automotive classified advertising has performed almost as poorly, with six consecutive quarters of decline.And real estate advertising, the lone winner in recent years, had its first declining quarter since 2000, according to the newspaper association's data.

Recent second-quarter earnings reports among large newspaper companies indicate that things are getting worse.Knight Ridder, which owns 32 newspapers including The San Jose Mercury News, The Miami Herald and The Philadelphia Inquirer, reported classified auto advertising down 7.1 percent in its larger markets and off 6.6 percent at smaller newspapers. Other chains posted similar results.

The McClatchy Co., which owns newspapers in Sacramento, Modesto and Fresno, reported auto classified sales down 7 percent. And Tribune Co., owner of the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune and other papers, said classified sales were off as much as 9 percent.

The Union-Tribune is a privately held company and does not release financial results. But executives said the newspaper's classified revenue has actually grown by double-digits over last year's.

Most of the growth can be attributed to San Diego County's hot real estate market, said Dexter LaPierre, the Union-Tribune's director of classified advertising. Ads for automobiles have declined, and employment ads are up slightly from last year.But in the past 10 years, the number of classified ads placed in the Union-Tribune by individuals has dropped by 30 percent. And the paper has lost circulation in recent years.

"Newspapers are still an efficient advertising buy. In many markets the newspaper is the only true mass medium left," Morton said. "The Achilles heel is that if circulation keeps declining, it will no longer be an efficient buy."

Using free classifieds to try to grow readership may be a gamble, but the newspaper is gambling with a relatively small portion of its overall revenue, said Scott Whitley, the Union-Tribune's director of advertising. Ads bought by individuals selling merchandise account for less than five percent of the paper's advertising revenue, he said. The paper will still charge car dealerships, real estate firms, landlords and employers for their ads.

"This is not a move out of desperation," Whitley said. "It really is about growing readership with content . and advertising is content." Other observers, including some newspaper advertising executives, said the Union-Tribune is on the leading edge of a trend.

"I think every newspaper will have to seriously consider that move," said Pete Casillas, the classified advertising manager for The Miami Herald, which this year began offering free ads for merchandise valued at $500 or less. "I would not be surprised to see other newspapers follow suit very quickly."

Analysts said that if this becomes the norm, newspapers may be able to "one-up" Craigslist. "I can't imagine that it is a mistake. There just too many pluses to it," said George Whalin, president of Retail Management Consultants in San Marcos. "Auto Trader and small newspapers can't do it . it's their livelihood. It gives (the newspaper) a competitive advantage."

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David Washburn: (619) 542-4582; david.washburn@uniontrib.com

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ORIGINAL LINK posted Oct. 30, 2005:
http://www.sptimes.com/2005/10/30/Business/Information_Age_finds.shtml

EXTRACT: This report by a columnist for the St. Petersburg, Fla., Times, is a thorough roundup of thinking about the challenge U.S. daily newspapers faces in adapting to the changing information needs of their customers. It quotes key thinkers and cites recent data on layoffs, profits and revenues in the industry. The messages seems to be that newspapers are struggling to adapt as their readers migrate away from paper and toward online.

Information Age finds newspapers unready

By ERIC DEGGANS, Times Op/Ed Columnist
Published October 30, 2005
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

This is something my bosses and colleagues may not want me to say. But newspapers are in some serious trouble these days, and not just for the reasons we usually cite.

Yes, we have suffered from shrinking circulation figures for some time. The latest dip was an average of 1.9 percent for the six-month period ending in March, according to data from the Audit Bureau of Circulations.

And, yes, there are the disappointing revenue figures - thanks to expenses from hurricanes and rising newsprint costs -- which have spurred job reductions and bureau closings at the Boston Globe, the Baltimore Sun, the Hartford Courant, the San Jose Mercury News, the Philadelphia Daily News, the Philadelphia Inquirer and the New York Times.

But the most discouraging piece of this decline may be its cause: newspapers have a tough time satisfying readers who live in an on-demand media world.

And while evidence grows that potential readers want their news delivered a different way, newspaper companies are spending millions to redesign and shrink a product fewer customers want.

"People under 30, under 35, want their news online ... delivered in a way so they can search it and be in control of the agenda-setting," said Tom Rosenstiel, director of the Project for Excellence in Journalism. "What's disappearing is the 7-day-a-week reader. And (newspapers) need to make the case (to advertisers and stockholders) that this is not a problem, it's a transition."

Brian Toolan, editor of the Hartford Courant, saw the economic climate spur elimination of 14 positions at his company this month, including six people in the newsroom. And he's increasingly concerned that the expansive,
something-for-everyone quality of newspapers - usually considered the form's greatest advantage - may now be its biggest stumbling block in cultivating new readers.

"The thing that keeps me up at night is, the younger readers we're not getting just don't want the mainstream quality of newspapers," said Toolan, who nevertheless unveiled an ambitious redesign of the Courant's Sunday magazine Oct. 16.

"They're looking for alternative venues because they like them more, they trust them more or they have cutting-edge qualities that a newspaper which lands (at) a home with (parents, grandparents and kids) ... couldn't risk giving them," he said.

And why should you care about this, unless you work for a newspaper or are related to someone who does?

Because the information gatherers in a major metropolitan daily fuel the news process for nearly every other strain of news media - from online to TV and radio.

Every newspaper fields dozens of staffers who reach into the community and dig up original, often unknown information. TV and radio stations, already working with slimmed-down staffs, use print reports as important signposts; many bloggers and news Web sites, which never had large reporting staffs, often link to or build on reports developed by major newspapers.

"A newspaper's core product isn't news or information. It's community influence," said Philip Meyer, a professor at the
University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill and author of The Vanishing Newspaper: Saving Journalism in the Information Age. "That's created with high-quality editorial product ... (In cutting staffers), newspapers aren't just eating their seed corn, they're burning down the barn."

Some experts have suggested newspapers develop story ideas thinking of the Internet first, with expansive, multilayered content online that is truncated for the print paper. Meyer expects newspapers eventually will publish less frequently, with breaking news handled by well-read Web sites.

"The newspaper business needs a lot of crazy ideas," he added, citing the success of USA Today, which journalists once
derided as "McPaper" for its short stories and colorful layout.

Worsening economics aren't making that task easy. Last month, after announcing a projected 20 percent drop in
third-quarter earnings, Knight Ridder Inc. revealed cutbacks of 75 newsroom jobs at its Philadelphia Inquirer, 25
editorial jobs at its Philadelphia Daily News and 52 newsroom jobs at its Mercury News in San Jose.

Similarly, the New York Times Co. outlined a cut of 500 positions company-wide, including 45 jobs in the New York Times newsroom and 35 editorial jobs at its Boston Globe newspaper (the Globe has already announced plans to close its national news department).

For journalists and readers, the job reductions may come as a shock, especially because newspapers - unlike the
near-bankrupt airline industry - still make significant profits.

The New York Times Co. last week announced a third-quarter revenue increase of 2.2 percent, with profits of $23.1-million (it was, however, a near-50 percent decline from the $48.3-million profit in third quarter 2004). In 2004, profit margins stood at 19.4 percent for Knight Ridder and 16.4 percent for the New York Times Co., according to industry analysts Morton Research, Inc.

But with advertising revenue rising slower than newsprint costs, those numbers are not good enough for Wall Street.

"The revenue growth is slower than the expenses growth; Business 101 tells you (these companies) ... need to run leaner," said Mike Kupinsky, an industry analyst for A.G. Edwards and Sons. "If the revenues were there based on the quality of the newspaper, why would revenues be going down?"

In response, some newspaper companies have decided to renovate their core product.

The Wall Street Journal, which has already debuted a new Saturday edition and tabloid format for its overseas editions, will save a projected $18-million annually starting in 2007 by shrinking its page width. The St. Petersburg Times hopes to save $3.5-million with a similar (but smaller) reduction next year.

The Star-Tribune in Minneapolis will join The Mercury News and Baltimore Sun in launching redesigns this year. Others (including the St. Petersburg Times' 2004 debut of the weekly tabloid *tbt), have created products aimed at building newspaper reading habits with smaller niches of consumers, such as young people or Spanish speakers.

But the Newspaper Association of America cites statistics showing that many more people read newspapers than pay for them: 77 percent of adults in the top 50 markets, and 60 percent of adults nationwide on Sundays. The trade group is urging members to sell advertising based on who uses the product (including free weekly editions and online).

And though millions of users access newspaper Web sites, online ads bring a fraction of the revenue they earn in print, partly because advertisers assume those who pay for the product pay the most attention to it, said Morton Research president John Morton.

So why aren't newspapers trying harder to make money on those online readers?

"Newspapers have never taken (spending on developing new products) seriously, because it has always been very easy to make money," said Morton, who resisted the idea that newspapers may be stuck in a permanent death spiral of declining circulation and staff cuts. "Now ... readers are dying off faster than they are being replaced."

And though it may be difficult for newspaper companies to find dollars for innovation, such effort is crucial to
newspapers' future, said Rosenstiel at the Project for Excellence in Journalism.

"You cannot expect business school graduates who work for stock market firms to understand where the media business is going," he added. "History shows, when an elusive audience congregates somewhere, advertisers eventually will pay to reach them."

Ball State University professor Bob Papper, who has co-authored a study analyzing 5,000 hours of media use among 400 subjects, said his numbers show newspapers should work harder to develop online environments.

In his survey, just 27 percent of those ages 25 to 34 looked at a newspaper daily, compared to 71 percent ages 65 and up. Those same 25- to 34-year-olds spent an average 3.6 minutes with a newspaper each day; from age 35 to 44, the figure jumped to 8.2 minutes, with both groups spending more than 10 times that duration online.

"(Newspapers) must stop defining (their) business as ink on dead trees," Papper said. "You need to define your business
as providing information to people. Ink on dead trees is just one way of delivering that information to people."

Times researchers Angie Holan and Carolyn Edds contributed to this report. Eric Deggans can be reached at 727 893-8521 or deggans@sptimes.com See his blog at www.sptimesphotos.com/blogs/media/
[Last modified October 28, 2005, 18:13:02]

© 2005 -- All Rights Reserved ÿÿ St. Petersburg Times
490 First Avenue South / St. Petersburg, FL 33701 / 727-893-8111
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The article above is copyrighted material, the use of which may not have specifically authorized by the copyright owner. The material is made available in an effort to advance understanding of political, economic, democracy, First Amendment, technology, journalism, community and justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' as provided by Section 107 of U.S. Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Chapter 1, Section 107, the material above is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this blog for purposes beyond fair use, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

ORIGINAL LINK: http://www.thetranscript.com/localnews/ci_3163337
ORIGINALLY POSTED: Saturday, October 29, 2005

By Jim Mulvihill
North Adams [Mass.] Transcript

WILLIAMSTOWN -- Among the 250 people who turned out for a lecture by political theorist George Lakoff at Williams College Thursday night (Oct. 27) were a handful of diehard Democrats who first saw Michael Dukakis speak at Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts in North Adams, then raced up Route 2 to catch the second half of Lakoff's address in Williamstown.They may have been chagrined to find that their party's present looks a lot like its past. Lakoff spent the bulk of two hours explaining how the Republicans have secured a stranglehold on public discourse that could take years for Democrats to overcome.

Lakoff, a linguistics professor at the University of California, Berkeley, exploded into the mainstream this year with his book "Don't Think of an Elephant! Know Your Values and Frame the Debate," which has elevated "framing" into a buzzword worthy of an 8,600-word feature story in The New York Times Magazine last summer.

The idea is that politics and winning elections is about framing your ideals in a way voters will identify with, regardless of whether your message is relevant, or even accurate. Thanks to the billions of dollars they've spent establishing conservative think tanks, publishing companies and even their own booking agency to maximize media exposure, Republicans have dominated this game, disseminating an increasingly focused message while Democrats struggle to define what they stand for.

''It's not an accident,'' Lakoff said. "Conservatives have turned 'liberal' into a dirty word. Over the years, what they've done is branded it.''

To illustrate how the Republicans properly frame their agenda, Lakoff pointed to President Bush's tax reform plan.

"On the first day that George Bush took office, (former White House counsel) Karen Hughes put out a press release that used the phrase 'tax relief.' A linguist looking at the phrase tax relief says, "Ah-ha! When you have a word like relief, what do we know about it? Every time you hear the word 'relief ' there is what we call a "conceptual frame."

If relief is in the works, the reasoning goes, there must be an affliction. There must also be a reliever who takes the pain away, and anyone who stands in the way of relief must be the enemy. "Add 'tax' to that and it says 'taxation is affliction,''' Lakoff said.

This kind of wording frames tax reform within the context of the Republican party's desired image as the man in charge who can get things done and protects your personal interests.

Another prime example of how the Republicans use language to their advantage, Lakoff said, is the war in Iraq. Lakoff credited Republican adviser Frank Luntz with coining the phrase "War on Terror," which helped to vaguely link the conflict to the World Trade Center terrorist attack.

"During the beginning of the 2004 campaign he sent out a memo that recommended that during the campaign, everybody will not say the 'Iraq War,' but 'The War on Terror.' And then Fox News, every time they'd put up a picture of the Iraq War, it would say 'The War on Terror.' What that did was associate 9/11 with Saddam Hussein."

According to Lakoff, a University of Maryland survey of Bush voters demonstrates the success of this strategy. "Turns out 80 percent of them believe that Saddam Hussein was behind 9/11," he said. "Why? Luntz."

The notion that Republicans are better at sticking to talking points and spreading catchphrases is nothing new. Lakoff, however, utilizes his cognitive science background to explain why and how these methods win people over. The book's title refers to a classic challenge posed by meditation gurus to advanced students . whatever you do, don't think of an elephant. Of course, the student goes off and can't think of anything but elephants.

Lakoff uses this lesson to demonstrate how our minds naturally associate words and phrases to ideas whether we know it or not. The professor hypothesizes that there are two understandings of America . the Strict Father Model and the Nurturing Parent Model. The "strict father" is the Republican party and the "nurturing parent'' is the Democratic party.

Everyone understands both models, but people respond more favorably to the one they relate to most. Republicans capture swing voters by appealing to the part of them that trusts the "strict father" to raise an upstanding citizen.

This means using language that conjures discipline, self-reliance and tough love. Lakoff said that Ronald Reagan "gained the nation's trust because of the character he projected and not because of policies."

Democrats didn't understand why Reagan was winning when people didn't agree with his positions," Lakoff said. "Bush is doing the same thing."

If Democrats are to compete in national elections, they have to frame debates in ways that are acceptable and easily digestible to the subconscious.

"When you repeat a word over and over, people learn the word and the meaning that goes with it," Lakoff said. "Their brain has to change. Over 35 years, a lot has been said by conservatives over and over again until they become part of people's brains. This is not brainwashing. Brainwashing is done under duress. It's just ordinary, normal repetition. And it's not illegal; it's just smart."

Copyright, 2005, New England Newspapers Inc., All Rights Reserved.

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This article above is copyrighted material, the use of which may not have specifically authorized by the copyright owner. The material is made available in an effort to advance understanding of political, economic, democracy, First Amendment, technology, journalism, community and justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' as provided by Section 107 of U.S. Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Chapter 1, Section 107, the material above is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this blog for purposes beyond fair use, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/editorialsopinion/2002587927_newsed28.html

The dangerous march toward monolithic media has now threatened the
irreverent and vibrant alternative press. The latest assault on the
independent press is the creation of a mega-chain of weeklies that stretch
from Florida to Seattle.

The merger of Phoenix-based New Times Media and New York-based Village
Voice Media, which owns the Seattle Weekly, is bad for democracy. The
merger places 17 weeklies under the control of New Times, which will take
the name of the company it cannibalized. The new Village Voice Media will
have a free circulation of 1.8 million readers, or 24 percent of the
circulation of the 126 weeklies that make up the Association of
Alternative Newsweeklies. The Department of Justice, which must approve
such a far-reaching merger, should keep the public's interest in mind and
reject the agreement.

For nearly three decades, independent newspapers, television and radio
stations have been steamrolled by bottom-line-driven consolidation and
corporatization. Now it is the turn of the alternative press to feel the
cold grip of consolidation. Just as daily newspaper corporate behemoths
like Gannett have too many tentacles in too many communities, the newly
minted Village Voice Media has overstepped its bounds.

The folding of the Weekly into a large chain became nearly impossible to
escape when local owners sold in 1997 to the Village Voice. Weekly
editors, who have enjoyed autonomy since the sale, will now report to
corporate in Phoenix, which will control 62 percent of the company.

The 11 New Times papers tend to look similar and do not weigh in on the
public dialogue with political endorsements. This Phoenix-dictated
approach is a stark contrast to the public discourse Seattle Weekly
readers have come to expect since its founding in 1976.

So when does the "alternative" press lose its claim as the feisty underdog
that is intensely connected to its community? Judging from the New
Times/Village Voice's very corporate press release, which contained lines
like "current portfolio of newspapers and online assets," any alternative
in 17 cities died with Tuesday's announcement.

Readers are ill-served when newspapers cease to be viewed as newspapers
but as assets in a portfolio. The consolidation of another layer of the
press is a blow to democracy and a loss for Seattle.

Copyright © 2005 The Seattle Times Company

ORIGINAL POST AT 9:57:08 AM, Oct. 28, 2005
http://nationaljournal.com/powers.htm

The real lesson of NYT scandal isn't that the media are evil

National Journal

"It's that the Age of Media Arrogance is over," says William Powers. "The
news culture is under the public's thumb. It is more transparent, more
answerable for its mistakes, and more likely than ever to clean up its
act." The news business has gone from operating as a kind of private club
to behaving more like a public utility in which every news consumer is a
stockholder, says Powers.
> Bradlee: Is it a goal of the news media to be trusted by the public?
(PT)
> The assault on journalism has reached a new high, says Geddes (APME)
> Listen to NYT managing editor Geddes' APME conference talk (APME)

Posted at 9:57:08 AM, Oct. 28, 2005

URL: http://money.cnn.com/2005/10/27/smbusiness/local_newssites/

Entrepreneurs start Web-based, highly local news sites. Can they compete with the local paper?

October 27, 2005: 10:42 AM EDT

By Steve Hargreaves, CNN/Money staff writer

NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - They're only online, produced on the cheap and aim to replace your local paper as your primary source for neighborhood news.

Content ranges from professionally produced news stories, arts and entertainment listings and columns to classified ads and local restaurant menus.

Not a blog and not merely the Web site of an existing newspaper, these start-up local news sites, sometimes called "hyper-local" sites, are attempting to crack what their founder's see as an untapped market.

"People appreciate having real-time information," said Gordon Joseloff, a former foreign correspondent for United Press International and CBS News who two years ago started the online-only news site WestportNow, covering Westport, Conn.

"It's a ripe field," he said.

In many small towns or neighborhoods the local paper comes out once a week. In addition, as smaller media outlets are gobbled up by larger conglomerates, local news is sometimes replaced with more generic fare.

Enter the local news Web site, where cheap publishing software, no distribution overhead and, in some cases, the use of "citizen-journalists" allows daily updates for very little cost.

Surfing in Maine

It's not just weekly papers that some of these sites are going after.

"With the Internet I now have the ability to scoop the daily," said Chirs Busby, who recently launched the online alternative news site the Bollard (www.thebollard.com) in Portland, Maine. "For me, that's a big thrill."

Busby, who used to edit a now-defunct local print alternative weekly, started the Bollard with $3,000 in cash.

The site has a section of local news, mostly written by Busby himself, columns from other writers, comics, movie and food reviews, and nightlife listings.

As far as online news sites go, the Bollard is a bit costlier than some. Busby says he's planing on a budget of roughly $2,300 a week, mostly to pay freelancers, himself and two designers. Like most online news site publishers, he'll also
handle the advertising side by approaching businesses door to door.

But he and the designers are currently working for free; Busby figures he needs 3 million page views a month to woo advertisers -- the goal is for $4,000 a week in revenue.

Busby has big hopes for his site but they are grounded in the numbers of another Maine online news site, Village Soup.

Founded in 1998 by Derek Anderson and his father, Richard, Village Soup (www.villagesoup.com) covers two counties in Mid-Coast Maine with a combined population of around 60,000 people.

The site now has a full time staff of 36, including separate editorial and advertising departments.

The father/son duo have dropped big money into the site, some $5 million so far, but their investment is finally starting to pay off. This year they are expecting to turn a profit of $100,000 on revenue of $1.9 million.

"People have thought the World Wide Web is a great place to find out about news from the other side of the country," said the younger Anderson. "But it's a great way to find out what's in your community."

Gone digital in Brooklyn

Other sites are done on more of a budget.

Steve McFarland, a recent journalism school graduate, started B61 Productions (www.b61productions.com) about 4 months ago covering the Red Hook section of Brooklyn, a poor but gentrifying part of town that's facing a number of development
issues.

The site, named for a local bus line, has yet to see a dime in ad revenue (McFarland has since taken another day job and doesn't update the site as frequently as before), but costs are low.

While the number of page views McFarland gets is modest, just 30,000 to 60,000 a month, he's undeterred.

"I had to turn off the logic part of my brain in order to jump in," he said, citing a local population of just 11,000 as an obstacle. "But the population will increase, and the population moving to the neighborhood now is the low-hanging
fruit."

Outlook

Joseloff's WestportNow (www.westportnow.com) may be the best of both worlds.

The site, which has many of the same sections as a local paper including news, classifieds, arts, business and letters to the editor, generates 125,000 page views a month for what Joseloff says is very little cost (he started the site for $200
using blogging software), costs which are more than offset by ad sales.

He uses up to 60 volunteer "citizen journalists" -- those having no formal training or experience in the business -- to help gather stories, which he then edits.

He says that he hasn't had much time to develop the site, but he has taken out domain names for surrounding towns and thinks that if he delved into building the business full-time he could generate between $100,000 and $200,000 a year in
revenue.

"It stared as a community service," Joseloff says. "But I do see it as a viable business model." It won't be easy.

"I think we'll see more of these niche news sources, but I don't see them being big money makers," said Chris Charron, a vice president at Forrester Research. "They serve more of a social purpose rather than a business purpose."

But Steve Klein, coordinator of the Electronic Journalism Program at George Mason University and a former editor at USA Today, says these sites could "absolutely" compete with local papers, especially if they become credible in the eyes of
readers. "If they gain a certain level of traffic and build a good model, they can be economically viable."

And while mainstream papers say they aren't loosing much ad revenue to online-only sources yet, the sites haven't not gone unnoticed.

"All of this activity has been really hot for the past 12-18 months," said Rob Runette, director of electronic media communications for the Newspaper Association of America.

Runette says traditional newspapers are learning from their online cousins and tailoring their sites accordingly. "We've seen the numbers, we've seen the usage. We're watching all the developments with digital media very carefully."

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The article above is copyrighted material, the use of which may not have specifically authorized by the copyright owner. The material is made available in an effort to advance understanding of political, economic, democracy, First Amendment, technology, journalism, community and justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' as provided by Section 107 of U.S. Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Chapter 1, Section 107, the material above is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this blog for purposes beyond fair use, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

Luxembourg, 20 October 2005 - Metro International S.A. ("Metro") (MTROA, MTROB), today announced its financial results for the third quarter and nine months ended 30 September 2005.

NINE MONTHS ENDED 30 SEPTEMBER 2005

25% year on year increase in net sales to US$ 258.4 million (US$ 207.0 million)
Operating loss of US$ 8.0 million (US$ 13.1 million)
US$ 15.9 million profit on the sale in the first quarter of a 49% interest in Metro Boston to The New York Times Company
Net loss of US$ 12.9 million (US$ 14.4 million)
Weighted average basic loss per share of US$ 0.02 (US$ 0.02)

Bill Gate's told the French daily Le Figaro that 40% to 50% of people will read their news online in five years and he adds: "To conserve their readership, newspapers must develop their electronic approach."

Long-time media analyst and academic Ben Compaine resurrects comments he made 14 years ago about the slow decline of the newspaper industry -- and suggests it is a natural process which yields new opportunities.

On Aug. 12, 2005, the Institute for Interactive Journalism at the University of Maryland-College Park, organized a one-day summit in San Antonio, "When Consumers Become Creators." Innovators at three citizen-journalism efforts were among panelists: Mary Lou Fulton, of Northwest Voice at the Bakersfield Californian; Clyde Bendley of MyMissourian.com in Columbia, Mo.; and David Wiseman, of Loudon [Va.] Forward.
LINK: http://www.j-lab.org/aejmc05.html

Posted: Sun., Aug. 28, 2005, 6:00am PT

By BRIAN LOWRY
Variety Weekly

IN WELL-EDUCATED CIRCLES, THE mention of local television news will likely evoke derisive laughter. As U. of Illinois communications professor Robert McChesney put it, one source of mutual agreement across a politically divided U.S. is that everyone thinks their local news must be the country's worst.
It comes as something of a surprise, then, to see a study suggest the process of renovating local news has already begun -- not under the traditional "There's more to life than news, weather and sports" banner, but rather localized cable news channels and, increasingly, the Internet and broadband.

Of course, this encouraging pattern has somehow skipped over California, but with the weather out here, you can't have everything.

The assertion that the sky isn't falling -- and might actually be expanding -- comes from Adam Clayton Powell III, a senior fellow at USC's Annenberg School for Communication and director of the engineering school's Integrated Media Systems Center, following a comprehensive examination of local news.

In "Reinventing Local News: Connecting Communities Through New Technologies," Powell found there are more than two dozen regions where local cable channels are thriving, from New York 1 to News 8 in Austin, Texas.

Cable alternative

Powell's analysis deems 24-hour local cable news "a more serious, detailed, editorially solid alternative to the traditional 6 and 11 p.m. news broadcasts." And if those channels often amount to a modicum of original reporting and plenty of filler, it's a no-frills template that mirrors all-news AM radio and the recycling news wheels on stations like WINS in New York and KFWB in Los Angeles. (Even newsradio has taken something of a beating lately, with L.A.'s KNX adopting a goofy news-lite format with happy-talk anchors.)

One of the reasons that improvements in local news have gone mostly unnoticed, Powell suggests, is that the image is tethered to broadcast outlets in U.S. media capitals New York and Los Angeles, where key stations are owned and operated by their parent networks. Many smaller markets, by contrast, are better served.

This isn't to say that local broadcast news hasn't done much to warrant its shoddy reputation. McChesney, an outspoken critic of media consolidation and its effects, has called local news appalling, and the inexcusable dearth of political coverage documented in an exhaustive USC-U. of Wisconsin study of news broadcasts preceding the 2002 and 2004 elections remains a national embarrassment.

Some pundits have gone so far as to conjecture that localism itself is on life support, thanks to cost-cutting group owners such as Sinclair Broadcasting, which employs a widely scorned "centralcasting" approach, feeding its stations from a main hubhub. Even news execs have waved warning flags. In a 2002 Pew Research survey, half of TV news directors polled agreed that their profession is "heading down the wrong track."

Still, cable news brings a high degree of utility to the local news game, with a tighter focus on government and community matters. Small wonder that the general manager of Orlando's cable operation refers in the report to serving "customers," as opposed to viewers.

For whatever reason, Los Angeles remains the largest U.S. market without a 24-hour local channel, after similar ventures in neighboring Orange County and San Francisco failed.

One explanation regarding L.A., where broadcast news frequently seems to consist of an endless series of car chases, is that hodge-podge cable franchising undermined such an enterprise -- a dynamic that could change as Comcast and Time WarnerTime Warner parcel up the market after absorbing Adelphia systems.

"If they can make it work in Milwaukee, you'd think they can make it work in even half of Los Angeles," Powell says.

Another wild card is Fox News Channel CEO Roger Ailes' expanded oversight of Fox's TV station group, a profit center that hasn't exactly been associated with grand innovation in news. Although there's reason for caution about what "Fox attitude" might mean for local stations, Ailes' wrinkles couldn't be worse than the rock 'n' roll newscast on UPNUPN's News Corp.-owned L.A. affiliate KCOP, where the hipster anchors behave as if they're introducing clips before heading out for a night of clubbing.

As with any cultural excess, critics shouldn't overlook public complicity in such broadcasts, especially when "weather" invariably tops the list of information for which people tune in. Trend-setting L.A. is again a trailblazer here, as most of its weathercasters now resemble the winners of "America's Next Top Model."

Relying upon technology remains an imperfect solution to TV news' woes, but it's clear alternative information streams with newer business models are crucial to local news' future. And while forecasting is always dicey in such a fast-moving sphere, there are at least indications in Powell's findings that looking ahead, this news might not be all bad.

Date in print: Mon., Aug. 29, 2005, Weekly

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The article above is copyrighted material, the use of which may not havespecifically authorized by the copyright owner. The material is madeavailable in an effort to advance understanding of political, economic,democracy, First Amendment, technology, journalism, community and justiceissues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' as provided bySection 107 of U.S. Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C.Chapter 1, Section 107, the material above is distributed without profitto those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the includedinformation for research and educational purposes. If you wish to usecopyrighted material from this blog for purposes beyond fair use, you mustobtain permission from the copyright owner.

Community Media: People, Places, and Communication Technologies
Cambridge University Press, 2005
Paperback $34.99; 324 pages
ISBN: 0521796687

"While transnational conglomerates consolidate their control of the global mediascape, local communities struggle to create democratic media systems. This groundbreaking study of community media combines original research with comparative and theoretical analysis in an engaging and accessible style. Kevin Howley explores the different ways in which local communities come to make use of various technologies such as radio, television, print and computer networks for purposes of community communication and considers the ways these technologies shape, and are shaped by, the everyday lived experience of local populations. He also addresses broader theoretical and philosophical issues surrounding the relationship between communication and community, media systems and the public sphere. Case studies illustrate the pivotal role community media play in promoting cultural production and communicative democracy within and between local communities. This book will make a significant con!
tribution to existing scholarship in media and cultural studies on alternative, participatory and community-based media."

-- Balances a theoretically informed discussion of community media with engagingly presented empirical detail

-- Situates a comprehensive discussion of community media in terms of the global struggle for communicative democracy

-- Includes four, richly described case studies of community media organizations

A complete description and review excerpts can be found at:
http://www.cambridge.org/us/catalogue/catalogue.asp?isbn=0521796687

Kevin Howley is Assistant Professor of Media Studies at DePauw University. Dr. Howley¹s work has appeared in the International Journal of Cultural Studies, Television & New Media, Journal of Radio Studies, Journalism: Theory, Practice & Criticism, Social Movement Studies, and Ecumene. His latest documentary, ³Victory at Sea? Culture Jamming Dubya² had its broadcast premiere on Memorial Day, 2004 over Free Speech Television.

ORIGINAL URL:
http://mclabeacon.com/media/paper802/news/2005/10/06/News/Densmore.Brings.Experience.And.New.Project.To.The.College-1010797.shtml

HEADLINE:
Densmore brings experience and new project to the college

The Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts Beacon - News
Issue: October 6, 2005

By KARA TAJIMA, Senior News Editor

Bill Densmore did not expect when he answered the phone that he would be teaching a college class the next day. A "visiting lecturer," Densmore teaches "Issues in Journalism," a 400 level English class which meets every Tuesday and Thursday. "There was almost no syllabus, no books had been ordered and the first class met the next day," remarked Densmore.

"It was such an impossible situation. I figured I had nothing to lose to try it. It was rough getting started in the classroom, but the mechanics of getting set up on the computer network, getting employed and learning the campus couldn't have been smoother, with great help from folks all along the way," said Densmore.

Born in Worcester, Mass., Densmore now lives in Williamstown, with his wife, Betsy Johnson, since they moved here in 1983. Together, they bought control of what was then called the Williamstown Advocate. They changed the name to The Advocate, the newsweekly for the Berkshires/SW Vermont, and tripled circulation and advertising revenues in four years. Densmore then sold the paper in 1992 to Ellen Bernstein, who owned it for nine years and sold it to BoxcarMedia Inc. (Ozzie Alvarez' outfit). Early this year Ozzie sold it to MediaNews Group Inc., the Denver-based owner of the Eagle, Transcript and Bennington Banner.

Densmore started his journalism career early, doing public radio as a teen-ager in Worcester. "At UMass, I was writing album reviews for the literary supplement of The Massachusetts Daily Collegian when my car was towed from campus," said Densmore. "I was annoyed, and looked into how the towing contract was awarded. It turned out the wife of the owner of the towing company worked in the contracts-administration office at UMass. After our story ran, the contract was rebid," explained Densmore.

"Until then, I had always considered writing a chore and I wasn't very good at it," said Densmore. "But now I discovered that writing could have a purpose -- to convey the results of inquiry and curiousity and that it could make a difference. I was hooked."

"I pretty much abandoned academics at UMass (although I did graduate) and went full time with The Collegian, also stringing for the Springfield, Northampton and Boston papers and for The Associated Press. The rest is on my resume. My passion is making a difference. It sounds corny, but as I think of it, that's the simplest answer," stated Densmore.

When asked about accomplishments or achievements, Densmore answered, "No great achievements but there are things which give me tremendous satisfaction. Helping inspire up-and-coming journalists, though the hiring we did at our weeklies, teaching and the Media Giraffe Project," said Densmore.

In Densmore's "Issues in Journalism" class, the discussion is revolved around stories and interviews which play a role in mainstream media. The class looks at a variety of journalistic issues such as: "The Project Censored", ethics questions, writing and posting class collaborative allegations on different issues, and getting their feet wet with Densmore's "Media Giraffe Project" (MGP).

"I was intrigued by the fact that the work we're doing with the Media Giraffe Project is all about 'issues in journalism.' And that was the name of the course I was to teach," said Densmore.

"As far as the MGP, like many career journalists, I have been discouraged for years about the way profit pressures and changing markets have shrunk the resources available for watchdog reporting of government and social issues."

Densmore went on to explain how consumers have gotten out of practice at spotting and enjoying truly quality reporting because they now see it so seldom. "As a result, our ability to function as a participatory democracy is really seriously threatened. Uninformed voters can be manipulated and I think we are starting to see that in the United States now," explained Densmore.

With that background information , Densmore began to contact some of the deans of the journalism world about two years ago with the idea for the Media Giraffe Project.Aware of the Giraffe Heroes Project in Washington state (www.giraffe.org) Densmore called the founder and got his permission to appropriate his idea. "People stick their necks out for the public good, in the specifically media context," stated Densmore.

While working days as advertising director at The North Adams Transcript, Densmore consulted nights with journalism's senior practitioners and put together the current project.So far Densmore has identified over 260 potential giraffes. There are interns at UMass, at the College and at Williams College who are researching and profiling these folks for the website.

A number of 25 or so will end up featured in a book and about five will be part of a documentary film. The film will capture what inspires people in the media field to be stand-out performers in journalism.

If you have any questions or would like more information on The Media Giraffe Project, you can contact Bill Densmore at: densmore@newshare.com

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This article above is copyrighted material, the use of which may not have
specifically authorized by the copyright owner. The material is made available
in an effort to advance understanding of political, economic, democracy, First
Amendment, technology, journalism, community and justice issues, etc. We
believe this constitutes a 'fair use' as provided by Section 107 of U.S.
Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Chapter 1, Section 107, the
material above is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a
prior interest in receiving the included information for research and
educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this blog
for purposes beyond fair use, you must obtain permission from the copyright
owner.

ORIGINAL URL:
http://www.thetranscript.com/Stories/0,1413,103~9054~2836766,00.html

The North Adams Transcript
May 10, 2005
North Adams, MA

HEADLINE: Densmore hopes to bring out journalism's best

By Karen Gardner, North Adams Transcript

WILLIAMSTOWN -- Concerns about the state of journalism in America have led one local resident to embark on a project that aims to find and spotlight people who are making sustainable, innovative use of media.

The "Media Giraffe Project," directed by Williamstown resident William "Bill" Densmore at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, is looking for individuals willing to stick their necks out for the sake of journalism that fosters participatory democracy and community.

Sticking their necks out

Once identified, these "giraffes" will be featured on a Web site, mediagiraffe.org, in a book, and also in video materials to include a documentary film. The project is a one-year initiative housed with the UMass-Amherst journalism program.

"Everybody's concerned about the way journalism is going," said Densmore. "Where are the people who are doing good works in journalism? And, is there some way that we can find them, spotlight them and describe what they're doing so that other people can emulate them?"

Many have left the profession to go on to write books or articles, expressing concern about their perception of the existing system, Densmore said. Under that system, he continued, public corporations must produce ever-increasing earnings, which is changing the way journalism is practiced.

"Oftentimes, resources that might have been available for additional staff for long-term journalism projects is not always as available as it once was," Densmore said.

When a group of newspapers is purchased by a company for tens of millions of dollars, he said, it could cost that company $1 million to $2 million each year in interest alone to carry that debt.

"As a result, you can't spend as much on the newsroom," said Densmore. "What's happened in the last 20 or 30 years, is a historic shift from family ownership of newspapers to largely corporations. ... Anybody that bought them couldn't have continued to put the same amount of dollars into reporting that they used to." What's more, said Densmore, circulation numbers are declining in many markets.

"Therefore, it's very difficult to maintain the kind of revenues that people would like to maintain to be able to grow their journalism operations," he said. Another issue is the nature of non-local ownership of a newspaper, radio, or television stations. "It changes how news is gathered and presented," said Densmore.

He hopes the project will profile people who are doing noteworthy things in the world of journalism. He also wants to present these profiles in a way in which others may replicate in their own communities what others have done elsewhere.

"The third thing I hope will result, is that by focusing attention on some positives about what's going on in the media, that we can encourage the people that run today's media companies to recognize that they have a responsibility to make sure that they continue to provide citizens of our democracy the information that they need to be responsible, participating citizens," Densmore said. "That may, to some degree, trump the obligation to have ever-increasing profits and always trying to get larger and larger."

The project is being funded in part by UMass-Amherst, and through private donations gathered by Densmore. But, "I need to raise quite a bit more money to keep this thing going," he said. In addition to funding support, Densmore is looking for "media giraffes" to profile.

For more information, contact Densmore, (413) 577-4370, e-mail at densmore@journ.umass.edu or go to www.mediagiraffe.org .

Copyright ©1999-2005 New England Newspapers, Inc.,
a member of MediaNews Group, Inc.
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The article above is copyrighted material, the use of which may not have
specifically authorized by the copyright owner. The material is made available
in an effort to advance understanding of political, economic, democracy, First
Amendment, technology, journalism, community and justice issues, etc. We
believe this constitutes a 'fair use' as provided by Section 107 of U.S.
Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Chapter 1, Section 107, the
material above is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a
prior interest in receiving the included information for research and
educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this blog
for purposes beyond fair use, you must obtain permission from the copyright
owner.

In May 2005, Tim J. McGuire was the Reynolds Distinguished Visiting
Professor at Washington & Lee University in Lexington, Virginia. He viewed
the demise of newspapers as precipitous, but not necessarily fatal, in an
excerpted text below, of this May 3, 2005 speech. He says a key solution
is for newspaper companies to figure out to be satisfied with 15%
operating margins so that they can re-invest in the information business.
He titled the speech: "Apocalypse Now! Reinventing Newspapers in the
Public Interest." McGuire is former editor, general manager and senior
vice president, The Star Tribune, Minneapolis, Minn. He was president of
the American Society of Newspaper Editors in 2001-2002.

The full text of his speech cites data about the decline of newspapers.
ORIGINAL LINK AND FULL TEXT:
http://journalism.wlu.edu/Reynolds/mcguire.html

Another speech by McGuire, sounding similar themes, and entitled: "McGuire
to editors: Show some courage," is at:
http://poynteronline.org/dg.lts/id.14294/content.content_view.htm

By Tim J. McGuire, May 3, 2005

Newspapers are in trouble, but so are the insurance industry, the health
care industry and the American auto industry. But few say it is time for
funerals in those industries. I fear we're making a cottage industry out
of predicting newspapers' death. Hand-wringing has become sport.

In 2002, when I addressed the American Society of Newspaper Editors as the
society's president, I said this: "It is high time we show some courage.
It is time we dig deep and tap into those values and morals and allow them
to guide us in our leadership of American journalism. We must stop
wringing our hands and ruing our fate. No more ruing."

Every new communications tool that that comes along is proclaimed as the
death of newspapers, when in fact they are not much more than media hula
hoops in terms of constancy and penetration. The new technologies, the new
ideas and the new challenges to readership are threats only if newspapers
and newspaper companies stand still, and refuse to change. A man I've
respected deeply for many years, Leonard Downie, the executive editor of
The Washington Post, is perhaps the sanest voice in media today. He says
"newspapers aren't dying, they are trying to adapt."

I think Len is right. Hes also correct when he says one of the impediments to
that adaptation is excessive newspaper profits. Len says 15 percent profit
margins would be plenty. I would not be so prescriptive, but I do believe that
it is crucial that newspaper executives face up to the fact that they are
milking their industry for profits and failing to invest in the long term
health of the news gathering and the advertising franchise.

[In 2002], I went on to say in that speech, "Every editor, every publisher and every newspaper company CEO in America is living in a
special, critical moment for American journalism. We need to find the
personal courage to overcome our feelings of isolation, fear and
powerlessness."

In the last three years newspaper companies have
continued
to demand high profits despite this avalanche of news that newspapers are
in deep trouble. Newspapers have been slow to invest and slow to react to
this readership crisis. There's lots of planning going on in newsrooms,
but most of the orders to find solutions to the industry.s deepest
problems come with one instruction: Dont spend significant money. I know
several editors who have been told to research some radical new solutions,
but then told to do it on the cheap.

Publishers want to restore excitement
to newspapers without spending a precious dime of that 21- to 35-percent
profit margin. Won't happen. It is time newspaper corporation CEOs and
publishers come to grips with history -- the history they are writing.
Those executives must start imagining that if newspapers are indeed in the
death throes, it is they who will be judged.

The media history books could
well show them watching their industry die for a few percentage points of
profit. A new contract with Wall Street needs to be forged in the public
interest.

In "The Vanishing Newspaper," Meyer describes the Harvest Market
position as "raising prices, reducing quality and taking as much money
out
of the firm as possible." Meyer writes: "I know of no newspaper company
totally committed to that strategy. But, on some days, there are very
strong indications that they are drifting in that direction, egged on by
short-term investors."

I think the esteemed Mr. Meyer is being polite.
When your franchise is under attack from every angle and you are obsessed
with inexpensive, incremental solutions, then you are guilty of
harvesting, or milking, or negligence. You choose.

Not long ago a
newspaper publisher balked when I suggested he needed to really blow
things up and create significant change in his processes and his
structures. He said he needed to go slowly and show caution for fear he.d
wreck everything.

My friend, the time for caution is gone. That iceberg is
no longer on the horizon. The iceberg is hitting us right now, and we've
already suffered some serious damage to the ship. Unless newspapers
reinvent themselves immediately something precious and dear will be lost.

I think the concept of sustainability is one newspaper executives need to
contemplate. Many people think sustainable development is only an
environmental concept. I would argue it is deeper that. Jeffrey Hollender,
in his fine book "What Matters Most," says, "Sustainable development
seeks
to meet the needs and aspirations of the present without compromising the
ability to meet those of the future." Hollender goes on to argue that it
is simply impossible to continue to do business as we have been doing it
without incurring dire consequences. He says the status quo is
unsustainable and that we are breaking an unspoken moral contract with
members of the next generation.

That perfectly describes the newspaper industry. We cannot go on as we have.
Unless we radically change the status quo we are going to deny future
generations the community building, the shared experience, the authenticating
role, the watchdog role, and the guardianship of openness that newspapers have
stood for all these years.

The title of my speech makes it clear that I think the reinvention of
newspapers should be done in the Public Interest. I argue that that is a
capitalist-loving statement and not a communistic one.

The public good should not be a goofy concept, and it should not mean your
company becomes an unintentional nonprofit. A socially responsible company can
be a high-performing, high-standards company. It does not have to be soft,
mushy and an earnings drag. Phil Meyer wrote this in "The Vanishing
Newspaper":
"While today's investors might think it perverse, the notion of service
to
society as a function of business is neither new nor confined to those
protected by the First Amendment. Henry Ford argued that profit was just a
by-product of the service to society that his company performed."

Reinventing newspapers in the public interest and for the common good is of
course the right thing to do, but just because it would be altruistic does not
mean that it can't be profitable. Doing "the right thing" can make lots
of
money. Altruism does not require sack cloth and ashes.

Reinventing newspapers in the public interest and for the common good can
provide the unity of information that consumers will require, desire, and
demand after a few years of an increasingly fragmented society. Rescuing
consumers and advertisers from "The Daily Me" fostered by special
interests,
blogs, small information niches, and increasingly insular segmentation and
fragmentation will be big business. Maintaining, restoring and reinventing
vehicles that will restore a sense of a shared self will drive profits and
serve the public good.

Susan Goldberg, the editor of the San Jose Mercury News, told those college
students a few months ago that she believes that a person who began his or her
career in the "glue-pot era of journalism" probably won't find the full
answer
to newspapers' problems. "Deep down," Goldberg said, "I believe the
fundamental change in our industry may begin to be figured out by our
generation -- but will fully realized by yours."

Goldberg may be correct, though there are some pretty creative old codgers out
there, too. I don't claim creative or technological wizardry. I do hope
experiences, observation and lessons taught me by some great mentors and
industry bright lights allow a fossil like me to muse about five fundamental
principles that might guide a radical reinvention of newspapers in the public
interest.

1) The reinvention must be radical.
2) We must build the broad democratic (small D) community with integrity.
3) We must cultivate citizen journalism, but serve as an authenticator.
4) We must reaffirm our watchdog role with a return to great writing and
storytelling.
5) We must choose thoroughness, completeness and sophistication.

Let's talk about each of these five.

1) The reinvention must be radical

As Goldberg said in her speech, and as I.ve said today, we are not talking
about "tweaking" newspapers and newspaper companies. We can no longer
afford to
dawdle. The newsroom naysayers have to give it up. We need to radically rethink
things with the creativity that inspires so many of our brethren.

We cannot be committed to killing trees and plastering ink on them.

We must creatively use the Internet, but we must look beyond it, too.

We must energetically pursue the electronic tablet ideas of pioneers like Roger
Fidler and the University of Missouri. The vehicle with which newspapers
deliver information and advertising should not be limiting. That doesn.t mean
we have to toss newsprint. It does mean we have to look for the best ways to
engage readers and accomplish our other four tasks no matter the delivery
method. To save newspapers, we may be talking about saving something that
doesn.t look like it has looked for the last 100 years. And, we may be talking
about a hybrid of delivery vehicles that includes print and electronic media.

We must explore new markets and new ways of serving as a connection between
advertisers and consumers. With all the call for rethinking news, not enough
effort has been invested in rethinking the revenue streams of newspapers. One
of the most promising solutions lies in industry coalitions like Career
Builder, the job site that is going head to head with Monster.com. That is an
important, groundbreaking alliance, and I was thrilled during the Super Bowl
when it became obvious Career Builder is willing to spend big advertising money
to make that idea work . monkeys or not..

We must redesign our newsgathering and selling processes. Newsrooms and
newspapers still look too much like that assembly line Henry Ford invented, and
not enough like the creative, imagination-fueled workplaces of software makers
and video game designers. You cannot create a radical future with a
horse-and-buggy work environment.

2) We must build the broad democratic (small D) community with integrity.

Newspapers have enhanced democracy in America because of the power of shared
information. Americans have mobilized and coalesced around that shared
information to integrate schools, to achieve more, but not perfect, equality of
race and class, and to address problems like child abuse, sexual predators and
mental health.

The power of information to mobilize society and to keep our democracy in
balance is probably newspapers. greatest contribution to the common good, but
that role is being eroded by too-justified assaults on our integrity.

Many attacks on our integrity are little more than ideological spin. But too
many charges are sticking. From Jayson Blair to Jack Kelly to the Detroit Free
Press, journalists are gambling with the trust and integrity that must be our
ticket to reestablishing ourselves as a keeper of the public interest.
Dramatically improved ethics training, higher integrity standards, a renewed
commitment to avoid deception and unfairness, and more respected credibility
auditing procedures are essential to serve the public interest.

Newspapers must be dedicated to removing ideological and class bias from
our news pages. Last year L.A. Times Editor John Carroll publicly decried
his newspaper's tilted language on abortion and life issues. Other editors
must copy Carroll's courage and enforce strict bias standards.

I know this is an unpopular idea, but it is time for us to move ideological
metro columnists to op edit pages. The deft storytelling and incisive prods of
the Roykos and Breslins have, in many cases, been replaced by blunt-edged
political opinions that confuse readers about the independence of our products.

Even more controversial, it is time to reexamine single-ideology editorial
pages. Editorial pages began as a marketing tool in multiple newspaper markets.
Ideology sold newspapers. If newspapers want to present themselves as above the
ideological fray, and I think they must, editorial pages must move toward being
public forums for energetic community debate and abandon the all-knowing,
all-arrogant role of community pontificator and sometimes bully. Newspapers in
places like Shreveport and Anchorage have editorial pages representing
conflicting ideological stances. Those are remnants of two-newspaper towns, but
along with USA Today they represent models worth studying.

One of my favorite books is "Stewardship," by Peter Block. Block says
"Stewardship is to hold something in trust for another." Block says we
choose service over self-interest most powerfully when we build the
capacity for the next generation to govern themselves. That is the
challenge facing newspapers concerned about the public interest. No other
medium is as prepared to help the next generation govern themselves as
newspapers are.

It was heartening at the ASNE meeting to see my former newspaper, The Star
Tribune in Minneapolis, working with the Readership Institute at Northwestern
University to use the core newspaper to reach young adult readers. So many
efforts seem focused on creating entirely new products for young readers,
products that have no connection to the newspaper. I am convinced newspapers
have a better chance at survival if we can enlarge and improve the big tent to
allow all our readers to share information.

Newspapers must unify, not divide. Rather than falling into the divisive,
ideological, self-interest morass, newspapers must build the broad democratic
community with integrity.

3) We must cultivate citizen journalism, but serve as an authenticator.
Citizen journalism is good. Voices squelched too long are being heard. Public
debate is enhanced. Newspapers and networks have been too arrogant for too long
in believing that only their voices mattered. Democracy is served when we hear
more voices.

Blogs are good. I like blogs. I read blogs. Blogs have proven to be
powerful watchdogs on the press and other institutions. And yes, there is
a sweet justice to the fact that blogs look a lot like the pamphlets of
the Revolutionary era that the Bill of Rights aimed to protect. Let.s
treat the .bloggers as journalists. debate with the complexity it deserves
and avoid the food fights. It's a legitimate issue with big ramifications,
if we can raise the discussion above the playground level.

But we also need to slow the bloomin' train. Bloggers didn't invent the
wheel.
Blogs are not the next century's information vehicle. Blogs are a
refreshing
complement to the information spectrum, but they are not going to replace
newspapers, television or major sites. Blogs are an imaginative, democratic
information tool, but like other forms of citizen journalism they have severe
limitations. Too many blogs become tools of special interests, and too many
value shrill argumentation over trust, integrity and authenticity.

Newspapers need to figure out how to make citizen journalism and blogs a
crucial part of their information menu. Not only do newspapers need to fulfill
their longtime role as sense makers, but newspapers must serve as
authenticators. I had been playing around with terms to describe the
appropriate role when Tom Rosenstiel used that wonderfully descriptive term at
ASNE a few weeks ago.

There has to be an institution or process in the information stream that
guarantees accuracy, truth, fairness and perspective. Without that role
information in this society will collapse into chaos. Newspapers fill that
authenticator role best. Many critics, pundits and bloggers ridicule this kind
of position and say it is arrogance and a desperate final grab at power that
causes old newspaper editors like me to believe such a role is necessary. Peer
authentication will work for some topics, but the public interest will be
served well only if institutions and people committed to fostering and
protecting public debate monitor, mediate and authenticate the flow of
information.

When I use Google or other Internet search engines I am increasingly concerned
that I find information without any brand integrity. I want to know the
information I find has been vetted with the public interest in mind. But if
newspapers are going to occupy that role, bias and unethical behavior have to
be rooted out of newspaper organizations. The role of public conscience is a
crucial one, but it carries great responsibility, and to fulfill that role
newspapers have to make some significant improvements.

Newspapers need to make nice with blogs and figure out ways to comment on,
organize and clarify the important work blogs are doing. Creative partnerships
could make both information vehicles more credible.

4) We must reaffirm our watchdog role with a return to great writing and
storytelling.

I fear the corporatization of newspapers has contributed to an investigative
wimpiness that threatens the core mission of newspapers. The overpowering
desire to appeal to a broad readership has caused many editors to over-think
the investigative nature of their newspapers. There.s still some great
investigative work being done, but there's not as much and not enough.

Few things can be as important to a community as strong, penetrating
investigative work. Journalists who highlight problems, challenges,
opportunities and successes of communities can revitalize newspapers.
Investigative reporting is in the public interest, and it can win readers like
few other things you can do.

The key to improving investigative journalism is to concentrate on relevant
subjects. Too often our investigations are too esoteric, and they do not hit
readers where they live. The Readership Institute says the key to reaching
young readers is to offer information that young people want to talk about, and
the Institute says that young people want newspapers to look out for their
personal and civic interests. Those characteristics define all readers. Tougher
investigative reporting of issues that matter to people is a crucial way
newspapers can reinvent themselves in the public interest.

My good friend Rick Rodriguez, the new president of ASNE, has made
"Unleashing
the Watchdogs" the theme of his presidency. The Poynter Institute is
helping
Rick by convening a major meeting in St Petersburg to plot a strategy for
helping newspapers make investigative reporting the priority it must be.
Sophisticated reportorial training, an energized recommitment to empirical
computer journalism, and identification of great potential story ideas will
certainly be a part of that agenda.

Arguably the profit squeeze has impinged upon newspapers. abilities to tell
great stories. Increased pressure on productivity, a drive to cover the routine
just to show local volume, and reduced staff sizes threaten to devalue great
writing ands wonderful storytelling.
Newspapers make a tragic mistake if they cede storytelling to nonfiction books
and magazines. A fascinating new book called "The New New Journalism,"
edited
by Robert S. Boynton, says, "Rigorously reported, psychologically astute,
sociologically sophisticated, and politically aware, the New New Journalism may
well be the most popular and influential development in the history of American
Literary non-fiction."

That's the kind of work we need more of in newspapers. We need readers to
think of newspapers when they think of innovative, bold investigative
storytelling. Arguably, the most compelling thing I've read in newspapers
in recent months was the incredible excerpt from the new Enron book,
"Conspiracy of Fools," by Kurt Eichenwald. Eichenwald is a New York Times
reporter, and much of his work was done for The Times.

Other newspapers can do that kind of work, and they must. Newspaper
readers are willing to invest time in great work. But newspapers make a
mistake when they foist long boring work on readers. The most important
issue newspapers have to address in storytelling and investigation is
courage. Industry leadership must recover the conviction that raising hell
is an essential part of the journalistic birthright. Great investigative
journalism can make a difference. 5) We must choose thoroughness,
completeness and sophistication.

Newspapers' future lies in being the information general store, not a
series of boutiques. The theme of this speech has been that the
newspaper.s greatest strength is bringing all the fragments, segments and
special interests into one big tent. We have done that over the years by
offering news, sports, business, lifestyle and popular culture. It would
be a terrible error to abandon that completeness. You realize that
comprehensive packaging is an essential newspaper strength when you
struggle to find material on the Web. The ease of managing the package has
to guide future efforts to reinvent newspapers.

As newspapers struggle with space reductions to reduce costs they are pursuing
a foolhardy path. Thoroughness, which is communicating a sense that the
newspaper has covered everything we need to know, is a precious attribute of
newspapers. The dangers in this regard are especially frightening in the areas
of national, international, business and sports news. The electronic
competition in all four of those areas is formidable. Too many newspapers are
pushing in-depth sports and national readers like me to Web sites that give me
the thoroughness I need. Frittering away thoroughness could well mean
frittering away the franchise.

Carl Bernstein has kicked up a lot of controversy recently by decrying "the
triumph of idiot culture." I would not have used that language, but Bernstein
is not all wrong. His complaint that too much news has .deteriorated into
gossip, sensationalism and manufactured controversy. should be one to which
news executives pay heed.

And his statement that 'good journalism should challenge people, not just
mindlessly amuse them" should serve as a guiding light for newspapers.
I am not suggesting that newspapers ignore popular culture. On the contrary,
that can be one of newspapers' most important contributions to public
discourse. But if we abandon sophistication and insight in our coverage of
popular culture we do not distinguish newspapers as a trusted source of shared
information.

I do not pretend that I have all the answers, but I believe that if we are to
reinvent newspapers in the public interest, that reinvention must be radical,
it must build community with integrity, it must cast newspapers as the
authenticator in a chaotic citizen journalist environment, it must emphasize
the watchdog, storytelling strength of newspapers, and newspapers must opt for
thoroughness, completeness and sophistication.

Three essential things will be required to execute this kind of reinvention
-- financial commitment, courage and trust.

Newspaper executives simply must take a hard look at their high margins.
Reinvention requires money. Reinvention requires a firm conviction that the
long-term future holds hope and promise. It requires a conviction that saving
newspapers is a higher calling than milking and harvesting short-term profits.

Reinvention of newspapers in the public interest also requires courage. It
requires courage to reinvent and end incremental .finger in the dike. thinking.
And it requires courage to say we can contribute to the common good, and take
an admired position in history, by saving newspapers.

And above all, newspapers must treat readers. trust as the blessed treasure it
is. That trust can give us the license to reinvent newspapers in the public
interest.

© 2003 Washington and Lee University
Lexington, Virginia 24450-0303

On May 10-11, 2005, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and the
Illinois Initiative for Media Policy Research conducted a conference
entitled: "Can Freedom of the Press Survive Media Consolidation?

Speakers include Seymour Hersh, Robert McChesney, U.S. rep. Bernie
Sanders (I-Vt.), Amy goodman, Naomi Klein, Linda foley, Orvill Schell,
Phil Donahue, John Nichols, Lee Hill, Robert Baskin and others.

Audio and video are available at:
http://www.comm.uiuc.edu/icr/about/initiatives/iimpr.html

New Book Release

Community Media: People, Places, and Communication Technologies
Cambridge University Press, 2005
Paperback $34.99; 324 pages
ISBN: 0521796687

While transnational conglomerates consolidate their control of the global
mediascape, local communities struggle to create democratic media systems.
This groundbreaking study of community media combines original research with
comparative and theoretical analysis in an engaging and accessible style.
Kevin Howley explores the different ways in which local communities come to
make use of various technologies such as radio, television, print and
computer networks for purposes of community communication and considers the
ways these technologies shape, and are shaped by, the everyday lived
experience of local populations. He also addresses broader theoretical and
philosophical issues surrounding the relationship between communication and
community, media systems and the public sphere. Case studies illustrate the
pivotal role community media play in promoting cultural production and
communicative democracy within and between local communities. This book will
make a significant contribution to existing scholarship in media and
cultural studies on alternative, participatory and community-based media.

-- Balances a theoretically informed discussion of community media with
engagingly presented empirical detail

-- Situates a comprehensive discussion of community media in terms of
the global struggle for communicative democracy

-- I ncludes four, richly described case studies of community media
organizations

A complete description and review excerpts can be found at:

http://www.cambridge.org/us/catalogue/catalogue.asp?isbn=0521796687

Kevin Howley is Assistant Professor of Media Studies at DePauw University.
Dr. Howley¹s work has appeared in the International Journal of Cultural
Studies, Television & New Media, Journal of Radio Studies, Journalism:
Theory, Practice & Criticism, Social Movement Studies, and Ecumene. His
latest documentary, ³Victory at Sea? Culture Jamming Dubya² had its
broadcast premiere on Memorial Day, 2004 over Free Speech Television.

SOURCE: MediaPost Publication's Online Media Daily blog
HEADLINE: New Search Engine Will Give Users Premium Content, For Free

by Gavin O'Malley, Thursday, Oct 13, 2005 6:00 AM EST

"A NEW SEARCH ENGINE, CONGOO, is currently partnering with premium content providers so that upon its projected launch a month from now, it can give that content away free. In a nutshell, consumers will be asked to fill out a basic registration form when they first search on Congoo. Then, when they conduct a search, Congoo will spider content from its premium partners, and display those results prominently above standard results from one of the top three search engines--with which Congoo plans, but has yet to partner."

Submitted Oct. 13, 2005 by
Steven Clift (clift@publicus.net) of Democracies Online

Listening to the City - Case Study
http://dowire.org/wiki/Listening_to_the_City

Executive Summary

In July 2002, The Civic Alliance to Rebuild Downtown New York,the
Port Authority of New York and New Jersey in association with non-
profits Web Lab and America Speaks created Listening to the City
Online Dialogues with a budget of $60,000. The dialogues focused on
two things; plans for redevelopment of the World Trade Center site
and the surrounding business district and neighbourhoods of Lower
Manhattan plus the creation of a permanent memorial for the victims
and heroes of 9/11.

The goal of the online discussions was to compliment the 5000 person-
to-person consultation and provide a means for citizens to have their
views heard and reflected in the decision-making process.During the
two-week discussion, 808 participants working in 26 parallel
discussion groups (half facilitated and half unfacilitated), posted
more than 10,000 messages and responded to 32 polling questions.
Listening to the City had an impact on guidelines for new designs,
the invitations to world-class architects to participate in a design
competition, and the final design. A final poll found that 84% of the
participants said they were satisfied with the dialogue and they
indicated the chance to “have their say” and the mix of “people and
perspectives” were the top reasons. Website:
http://dialogues.listeningtothecity.org

The full case study:
http://dowire.org/wiki/Listening_to_the_City

All case studies and briefs:
http://dowire.org/wiki/UK_highlights
^ ^ ^ ^
Steven L. Clift - - - W: http://publicus.net
Minneapolis - - - - E: clift@publicus.net
Minnesota - - - - - - T: +1.612.822.8667
USA - - - - Skype/MSN/Y!/AIM: netclift

Join Democracies Online: http://dowire.org

OhmyNews enlists army of 'citizen reporters'

ORIGINAL URL:
http://www.knoxnews.com/kns/world/article/0,1406,KNS_351_4146956,00.html

October 9, 2005

By VANESSA HUA
Scripps Howard News Service

The staff at OhmyNews fills only two floors of a small office building in
downtown Seoul, but it edits stories from thousands of "citizen reporters"
across South Korea.

The 150 or so stories posted on the site each day range from breaking news
about huge protests to sophisticated political analysis, from hit pieces
to tales of the daily ups and downs of people who feel ignored by
established media.

OhmyNews readers can offer instant feedback online and - if they really
like a piece - monetary tips. Readers poured nearly $30,000 into columnist
Kim Young Ok's account in increments of $10 or less in one week after he
criticized the constitutional court of South Korea last year.

"They're like street musicians or performers," Jean Min, director of the
international news division, said of the citizen reporters.

OhmyNews is much more than a soapbox, though. It is a cross between an
online news site and a sophisticated blog. Koreans flock to it. The site
gets 1.7 million to 2 million page views each day, a number that shot up
to 25 million during the December 2002 presidential election.

When reformer Roh Moo Hyun won the tight presidential race, he granted his
first domestic interview to OhmyNews - a slap to the conservative
corporate daily papers that supported his rival.

The privately held Web site has been profitable since September 2003 and
is projected to pull in $10 million this year, Min said. By contrast,
Salon.com in San Francisco pulled in $6.6 million in fiscal year 2005 and
had 1.1 million average daily page views in July, according to market
research firm comScore Media Metrix. The DailyKos, a popular liberal blog,
had 96,774 average daily page views, and conservative blog Instapundit had
32,258 in July.

The success of OhmyNews can be attributed in part to the high level of
public engagement in this heavily wired, young democracy, where less than
two decades have passed since military rule ended. Street protests are
common, and citizens are eager to speak out online.

With the motto "every citizen is a reporter," 5-year-old OhmyNews has
engaged its audience in ways that U.S. print and television news outlets,
faced with a steep decline in readers and viewers, only dream of.

The site has a cultlike following, among both writers thrilled to see
their views spread widely and readers who say they like getting an
uncensored, if uneven, version of the news.

"It is composed of so many citizens. It's more free than other journals,"
said Kim Won Joong, 24, a journalism student at Chunnam University in
Daejeon, in central South Korea. "But the opinions are scattered all
over."

The site began an English-language edition in May, at
english.ohmynews.com, and now has its sights set overseas. Several hundred
citizen reporters have already signed up. So far, about 36 percent of
English-language edition readers are from North America, 38.5 percent from
Europe, and 16.7 percent from Asia outside South Korea.

For publicity, the company relies on stories in other media, word-of-mouth
and the efforts of its reporters, many of whom are active bloggers, Min
said.

"Our readers don't simply sit there and read. They interrogate each
other," Min said during a slick hourlong presentation at the company's
headquarters. One of his charts called OhmyNews a "post-modern 'we media'
versus traditional 'elite media.' "

"People want to share their experience. It's more fun than simply watching
television," Min said.

(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, http://www.shns.com.)

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