Pay no attention to the man behind the screen (more Singleton)

Rumpleforeskin · Jun 10, 2008

I didn't find this anywhere, at least on the first two pages of the Journalism Topics board, but here's a speech Dean Singleton gave in Sweden during the World Newspaper Congress meetings:

And I’m sure the challenges for all of us today insure that none of us needs a lecture on arrogance. If we ever were arrogant, we’re surely not today.

We in the newspaper business must begin any conversation today by talking about the future. The present isn’t as much fun as the past, and many today dispute that we even have a future. I hope they’re wrong.

Novelist James Baldwin once wrote about the future being like heaven: “everybody exalts it, but no one wants to go there now.”

Well, we in the newspaper business need to go there, and we need to go there now.

Let’s see if you can guess what industries I’m talking about when I talk change.

The first industry has lost half its market share in the U.S. in the last 30 years and now has less than 50% share.
Click to expand...

and later...

Some newspapers in the U.S. won’t make it through this transition. Others will print smaller newspapers on fewer days. By my estimate, as many as 19 of the top 50 metro newspapers in America are losing money today, and that number will continue to grow. The large metros are the hardest hit by change, and they’re the most difficult to change.

Too many whining editors, reporters and newspaper unions continue to bark at the dark, thinking their barks will make the night go away. They fondly remember the past as if it will suddenly re-appear and the staffing in newsrooms will suddenly begin to grow again.
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http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/FineOnMedia/archives/2008/06/dean_singletons.html

Baron Scicluna · Jun 10, 2008

Yes. It's those whiny reporters and editors' fault that newspapers are struggling. Ever think that they're whining because you cut their salaries when you took their paper over, and then cut their jobs so you could get a bigger bonus, Dean?

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Pay no attention to the man behind the screen (more Singleton)

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Baron Scicluna Well-Known Member

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Pay no attention to the man behind the screen (more Singleton)

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Baron Scicluna Well-Known Member

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