The Final Days of the New York Times

BNET TalkbackShare your ideas and expertise on this topic

Subscribe to this discussion via Email or RSS

•  
  1

  myson1

  12/19/08 | Report as spam

  RE: The Final Days of the New York Times

  Dave,
  
  Thanks for the consistently terrific work! There has been so much negative news and so many predictions about who the winners and losers in the new media economy will be that I get the sense we're getting alot of spin and wishful thinking as companies/technologies jockey for position. As recently as July I saw a spot on one of the business cable networks where one of our political leaders was saying how Fannie and Freddie were just fine. Great call!?! No question the newspaper publishers better figure out a better way and fast, but does anyone really know how this plays out? For some reason I get the sense the quarterly "cutters" concerned with a short-term view of their balance sheets are going to wake up with a bit of a hang-over come the spring.
  
  myson1

•  
  2

  hotweir

  12/19/08 | Report as spam

  RE: The Final Days of the New York Times

  Thank you so much, myson1, for this supportive comment. It is very hard to divine what kind of future awaits the media industry. Every day I hope to find a glimmer of hope somewhere. But what hope I had for the NYT, for example, has dissipated...

•  
  3

  tramky

  12/19/08 | Report as spam

  RE: The Final Days of the New York Times

  Regardless of all this stuff, it defies explanation why bloggers have any audience. I've read blogs, and they are consistently boring and self-serving. They spend much of their energy justifying themselves.
  
  And they don't have the resources to actually report on anything worthwhile.
  
  It is incredible that an institution like the New York Times is on the ropes--but there are a number of incredible things going on these days, like the impending collapse of General Motors.
  
  The United States is in the throes of moving into its virtual dotage, and we are witness to the devolution of this country into a second-class nation. We have raided the Treasury, devalued our currency, and trashed our economy in ways the extent of which we don't even understand as yet.
  
  Job hunting in this country now is an enormous game of lies, disingenuousness and secret codes that ignores simple competence.
  
  If I had any money left, I'd leave the country, never to return.

•  
  4

  eclisham

  12/19/08 | Report as spam

  RE: The Final Days of the New York Times

  Yeah, we're trying to work on this here at Newspaper Next Central (www.newspapernext.org). Newsrooms are starting to get it; revenue departments not so much, and senior leadership are struggling worst of all. Many of them didn't sign on for, and aren't equipped to handle, the disruptive change that's buffeting them right now. The biggest problem: online revenue growth will in no way replace lost print revenue, and the entire industry is in a quandary about how to address that. We're engaged in a series of dialogs with senior leaders to try to identify some ways out of this crisis, and will communicate plans as they emerge. Stay tuned ...

•  
  5

  myson1

  12/19/08 | Report as spam

  RE: The Final Days of the New York Times

  A couple of comments...
  
  Dave - Any prognosticator that claims they know what lies ahead should be taken with a tractor full of NYC street salt (it's snowing today). I believe many of the job cuts have to do with the fact that many - not all - leaders throughout the publishing industry were either arrogant enough to believe their properties were immune to disruptive technology/generational shifts or just too slow (or took half-measures) to truly integrate their offerings. Regarding the NY Times, they were experiencing erosion in reader trust (Jason Blair, no real coverage of the Iraq/UN Food for Oil Scandal, editorializing above the fold, etc)and circulation well before the current economic/advertising meltdown. Some of the content credibility problems they ran into and loss of readership certainly had to have some impact on their print advertising performance. I'm not at all discounting the clear impact the web has had on newspapers but it does appear the folks at the NYT were exhibiting a lack of good judgement which certainly had to carry-over to judgements about how they needed to re-invent their business.
  
  Tramky - Good luck with your hunt! Don't give up...and don't give up on the US. We have our flaws but I'd prefer to live nowhere else. Regarding the challenges facing established media, you might want to get your hands on The Wisdom of Crowds by James Surowiecki. It "explores a deceptively simple idea that has profound implications: large groups of people are smarter than an elite few, no matter how brilliant???better at solving problems, fostering innovation, coming to wise decisions, even predicting the future". This concept goes a long way toward explaining why this media "revolution" is taking place. Some really good learnings...
  
  myson1

•  
  6

  hotweir

  12/19/08 | Report as spam

  RE: The Final Days of the New York Times

  Thanks for the discussion tramky, eclisham, and mison1. The story of the demise of The Times is rich with much detail that you guys mention and which I have not dug into here. My intent is just to chart the course of the business model, and try to anticipate their next moves. So far, my suggestion that a large wave of layoffs was coming has not proved to be true (unless they're doing them quietly with the pink slips that require silence on the severed one.)
  
  As for Surowiecki's book, it's one of my all-time favorites and provides the intellectual framework for the startup I also work for -- Predictify.com.
  
  We invite users to predict future news and evaluate the "crowd wisdom" that results.

•  
  7

  myson1

  12/19/08 | Report as spam

  RE: The Final Days of the New York Times

  Enjoy the holidays Dave...

•  
  8

  hotweir

  12/21/08 | Report as spam

  RE: The Final Days of the New York Times

  Happy Holidays, myson1 & all readers and comment-makers -- today is Winter Solstice, which is about as holy as it gets!

•  
  9

  PaulScott59

  02/07/09 | Report as spam

  RE: The Final Days of the New York Times

  As a wise colleague pointed out to me, what do you think all these small media types are using as the basis for their blogs? It's the news from these same unpopular, unwieldy, uncool, and untrendy big media organizations like the New York Times.

•  
  10

  hotweir

  02/09/09 | Report as spam

  RE: The Final Days of the New York Times

  Paul, you are right about your observation. The NYT provides a magnificent amount of original coverage on any range of issues. So, none of this is about the reportage.
  
  It is the business model at the Times that is broken.

•  
  11

  Mike Van Horn

  02/24/09 | Report as spam

  RE: The Final Days of the New York Times

  I read nyt and wsj online every day. The difference: I have a paid subscription to wsj. Something like $99 a year. Apparently this is working for wsjonline.
  
  How many online papers charge for subscriptions and get enough to keep the (virtual) doors open?
  
  I just read that my third paper, San Francisco Chronicle, may go under any moment. I would hardly miss it, since outside of local sports, most of its content comes from nyt anyhow.
  
  Conventional wisdom says that no-one will pay for content because it's always available free somewhere. But when central news sources like nyt begin to disappear, info won't be available -- free or otherwise. Then people will say, "Hmmm, if I want my news, maybe I'd better get my credit card out."
  
  Blogs can't replace newspapers any more than TV could replace movies. If newspapers didn't exist, we'd have to re-invent them -- and charge for them.
  
  Perhaps a bunch of bloggers would get together, and say "Let's provide breadth of coverage, diversity of opinions and information, fact checking, good editorial quality" etc., etc. "We have overhead, and our stringers need to get paid, so we'll have to sell ads, charge readers of articles a micro-payment, and give people unlimited access for an annual fee."
  
  Whaddaya think?
  
  mvh
  
  
  
  
  
  

•  
  12

  hotweir

  04/11/09 | Report as spam

  RE: The Final Days of the New York Times

  Hi MVH:
  
  You are right to raise the WSJ issue in the context that "all content wants to be free," which has been the Internet's mantra re: news since Day One. There are other examples, BTW, including the Financial Times and Reuters Financial News. It appears that the only viable paid content model involves that content other businesses will pay for. Sure, many WSJ subscribers are individuals but they often can get reimbursed by their employer or at the very least, write off the cost as a legitimate business expense.
  
  The problem with other content -- political, sports, travel, etc., is that there are abundant competing sources to step in if anyone tries to hide it behind a paywall.
  
  The core issue may be that we never did build a *news* business; it was an advertising model supporting news. Who pays for news? Advertisers pay for news. No ads, no news, it is that simple.

•  
  13

  MinnesodaMan

  04/13/09 | Report as spam

  RE: The Final Days of the New York Times

  Newspapers have three options since MILLIONS access their sites and newspaper versions each week:
  
  1). They steal from Craigslist, and put listings on for free. BUT they then sell premium positions within the list(s) at the top through a bidding process. In addition, they offer sponsorship of categories. So the category is sponsored by retailer or website 'X'; they then have three premium positions at the top sold through a bidding process.
  
  2). Adopt EBAY model where items are offered on the newspaper site, and they receive either a percentage of the sale OR they credit the seller with ad space. Big ticket items would be featured in print since the newspaper will get substanial $$ if it sells.
  
  3). Sell the print newspaper as a way to save $$$. Who cares about the news? If I save $25 off my grocery bill, I would be an idiot not to spend $1.75 for the paper.
  
  How hard can this be?????
  
  People also need to look at their competition. Radio, yellow pages, television are all in worse shape. Cable is on longterm lifesupport because it won't take long to figure out you don't need cable for you HD tv. All you need is access to the internet.