Sign of the times for newspapers
By Steve Outing on Mar 10, 2008 in News
This is the cover of the weekly TV guide insert in the Boulder Daily Camera that showed up in Sunday’s paper. (Click on the image to see the larger view.) Like many papers, the Camera has continued to cut back on elements of the print edition. At the same time, it recently raised the home-delivery price significantly. It’s the get-less, pay-more marketing strategy.
Actually, I applaud this move. Camera subscribers who still want the weekly printed TV guide can get it mailed to them, while the rest of us who couldn’t care less about it can feel better that our choice to abstain will save a few trees.
On Mar 11, 2008, Christopher Ryan
said:
I’m disappointed by this, but I doubt the economics of publishing a separate TV book work anymore.
That’s too bad — newspapers should build the print paper around what print does best. And I find the TV book hands-down the best way to quickly skim the week’s listings to see if there’s anything I want to watch (and then record with my TiVo…)
Mailing the TV book to the people who sign up for it is better than nothing — but it means the paper isn’t showing off the best that print can be. And that doesn’t bode well..
On Mar 12, 2008, Christopher Ryan said:
I'm disappointed by this, but I doubt the economics of publishing a separate TV book work anymore. That's too bad — newspapers should build the print paper around what print does best. And I find the TV book hands-down the best way to quickly skim the week's listings to see if there's anything I want to watch (and then record with my TiVo…) Mailing the TV book to the people who sign up for it is better than nothing — but it means the paper isn't showing off the best that print can be. And that doesn't bode well..
On Apr 21, 2008, Derek Scruggs said:
Harvard doesn't need me to defend it, but this comment seemed so… weird! "Harvard no longer produces captains of industry" Does he really not know the names Bill Gates and Jeff Zuckerberg?
On Apr 21, 2008, Pat Thornton said:
"'Online revenues will never equal the print model' is not a statement I agree with. It’s true if newspapers decide to stay in the same business they are in now. It can be different if they reinvent themselves and take advantage of the opportunities available in the Internet world. Or are newspaper people just not as smart as those who started Google, Yahoo, eBay, Monster.com, MySpace, Facebook, et al?" The answer is unequivocally no. Newspaper people by and large are nowhere near the intellectual stratosphere of the titans of Web innovation like Google. And their employees typically are no where near as smart as the software engineers at leading tech companies. There simply aren't that many good jobs in the journalism industry anymore. Smart people go where the money is, and there aren't many well-paying jobs left in the newspaper business.
On Apr 22, 2008, Amy Gahran said:
Great job of rounding up comments and responding, Steve. Pity this couldn't be done directly on the E&P site. When *will* they start publishing comments there directly? It would make their site so much more engaging…. - Amy Gahran