Sad State Of Affairs: Apple Ipad Billboard At Miami Herald

Miami Herald allows billboard blocking Biscayne Bay views of folks in editorial -- and the publisher. Deal is worth "low six figures." Money is being used to pay junior reporters. It is a good business move, but the irony is that the billboard advertises the Apple Ipad, a symbol of the Internet that is pushing newspapers like the Herald out of business

http://www.cjr.org/the_business_of_digital_journalism/introduction.php

 

That story doesn't say the money's being used to pay junior reporters. It says it's enough TO PAY a few junior reporters. Big difference, as we all well know.

 

The iPad isn't pushing the paper out of the business.

Craigslist did far more damage than any tablet computer could ever hope to do. Newsprint costs did more damage. Benefit costs did a lot of damage. A drop in display advertising did more damage.

The iPad is simply a guy walking by on a dusty Old West street, firing a round into a corpse to make sure it's gone.

 

Well said. People don't realize how much classified advertising has killed newspapers.

At this point, if you're trying to sell something and you pay to put it in the paper, you should be slapped for being that stupid.

We have a rental property. Three years ago, we put it in the paper and got no calls the first week. Then, I put it on Craigslist and got 20 the first day.

 

That might be true in the big metros, but in smaller towns Craigslist is a wasteland.

 

We're not a "big metro" by any means — I live in a town with a population of 100,000.

Whatever Craigslist didn't gut here, the online job sites did.

 

You can't compete with free.

And assuming craigslist never existed and the "visionary" publishers thought of it first, the money made off the small percentage of ads that aren't free would only be enough to allow every newspaper in the country to hire . . . one person. Whoop de do.

 

Simple test:

Ask your publisher and editor this question:

If you could get it, would you rather have back:

a.) The revenue (and profit margin) from your classified ads, circa 1999, or...
b.) The revenue (and profit margin) from your circulation, circa 1999.

 

I'm in an MSA of 250k and Craigslist here is pretty barren. The paper has more classified listings than that site does.

 

Good point. My bad on misreading. The larger point is that the billboard is indeed a symbol of the Internet, whether that is Craigslist or the Ipad, and it is the Internet that is killing print.

 

Not directly related to the billboard and it may have already been posted elsewhere, but I talked to a friend at The Herald yesterday who said they are all taking 10-percent pay cuts.

I'm covering baseball for them as a stringer fairly soon and they are not only paying 40-percent less than they did in the fall, they also would only pay for Game 1 of the series because the other two games start early enough for the SID to send in a writeup before deadline.