May 20th, 2007 | |
Posted in Media
Everyone knows newspapers are struggling to deal with lower circulation and advertising revenue but the San Francisco Chronicle’s decision to slash 25% of its staff within a few months is eye-opening news. While this move will likely incite more concerns that newspapers are dying a death of a thousand cuts, the most interesting - and troubling - aspect is Chronicle publisher Frank Vega’s admission the success of the newspapers’s Web site, SFGate.com, is coming nowhere close to offsetting the money being lost on the print side of the house. Reflections of a Newsosaur suggests the job cuts will save the newspaper $8-million a year compared with first-quarter losses of $25-million.
 A big part of the problem is that online ad revenue isn’t as lucrative as newspaper advertising, which has been falling as online rivals such as Craigslist and, most recently, Facebook carve out more business in the lucrative classified and display ad markets. The question is whether the Chronicle’s troubles reflect the industry’s woes or whether it has more to do with the fact tech-savvy San Franciscans are getting their news online these days.
So what do newspapers do to survive other than cutting employees while making the remaining employees work harder by having them write for the newspaper and the Web, as well do podcasts and blogs. The Toronto Star, for example, has decided to drive even deeper into local coveage - a pragmatic move given the Web still doesn’t do local well, including local search. On May 28, the Star will launch an improved - and physically slimmer - local section featuring new type and a focus on Toronto news. It will also put more local news on the front pages of the paper. To its credit, the Star also has an aggressive online unit, including a new social networking/recommendation service called Our Faves.
It’s left to be seen whether local - or a strong Web presence - will save the day for newspapers. My own faith in newspapers is being tested when I look at how my own reading behaviour is changing. I used to love getting the three Saturday papers - the Toronto Star, Globe & Mail and National Post - because there were hours of good, coffee-fueled reading to be done. But recently, I’ve quickly cruised through the papers after reading just a handful of stories. How come? I think it may have to do with the fact I read so much news online that when it comes to newspapers, I don’t want news. Instead, I want context and perspective in tight, well-written packages. (Of course, this doesn’t apply to the Sunday New York Times, which still ranks among the best newspaper reads anywhere).
My sense is most newspapers are doing the best they can to adapt to the new readership and advertising landscape but still finding the going tough. At the end of the day, newspapers won’t disappear but they will be smaller operations employing fewer people and covering fewer stories. This isn’t a sad development. It just reflects how the world is changing. And it doesn’t mean consumers won’t be able to find the news, even local news. For Toronto news, I’m getting more of my news from places such as Spacing Wire.
For more, check out Recovering Journalist, who rightly wonders why a big newspaper chain hasn’t stepped up to buy an online advertising company such as DoubleClick or aQuantive.
“Good question,” he said. “It would have been a very smart acquisition, a real bet on the future. The technology companies seem to have that vision. The newspaper companies apparently don’t.”
Meanwhile, Signal to Noise advocates the future of newspapers is “hyperlocalism”. “This is the demand for community-oriented news that can’t be gotten anywhere besides a local source that lives and breathes within the community it serves.”
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