State of the newspaper biz

OK, I'll admit I laughed at that.

That is horrible, though. That sign would've been turned off completely, or else fixed, the moment I saw it if I worked there.

 

Silly me. I actually believed Donald Trump when he said his Apprentice would be running the renovation of that building.

 

You're a little confused. Donald has built his tower on the site of the old Sun-Times building. It sits on the river just west of (or behind) the Wrigley Building which is across Michigan Ave. from the Tribune Building.

The current building that houses the Sun-Times is further west along the river, just past the Merchandise Mart.

Couldn't tell you how involved the Apprentice was in its construction.

 

In these times, you stay open 24/7 and make the most out of the space you've got. It's called working smarter.

 

I'm pleased to say our circulation is growing, even with a rate increase, we're adding new inserters and a new unit to the press and our sports section will be expanding from a size that's already twice the size of most papers our size to something that will rival major metros twice a week.

We might also be hiring soon.

Note the lack of blue font. I'm pretty damn happy.

 

This is precisely what I'm talking about.

It's not only not important. It's irrelevant. Take the name off the building if the lights go out. Who cares who knows where the building is? Most of the paper's best writers probably step in it once a week as it is.

 

Why isn't it important to maintain a brand?

 

Congratulations.

The 10 a.m.ers around the country who wear the suits and the frowns all day will say you are lying. Can't happen, you know? Nobody reads or advertises in a newspaper anymore for gosh sakes. Maybe the higher ups at your newspaper should go on a nationwide tour and try to save the industry by telling clueless newspaper executives that somebody still is putting out a damn fine sports section and people are actually buying it and advertising in it.

What a concept. Add pages? Make your sports section so good it rivals a metro? And it's working? Nah. Impossible. Nobody reads a newspaper anymore. It's a dead business model, you know? See, the way to make money (innovator Gannett/USA Today tells us so) in the future is to go digital. Our advertisers are just salivating over the chance to sign up 'cause everybody wants to read those tweets. Yes, those 24/7 barrage of tweets and short little newsbursts are gonna make all those newspaper publishers sooo much money, while your little 'ol newspaper that stayed the course is going to fold. You just wait. It'll fold soon.

 

Well, I haven't been to Chicago in about 20 years, but, yeah, he was goldbricking ...

 

Speaking of the state of the newspaper biz, anybody hear from CNHI yet? It must be fourth-quarter furlough announcement time. Any chance there won't be?

 

I'm really shocked that you would say this.

Yeah, if you can't keep the lights on, then take the sign down, but it shouldn't be that big a deal to keep the lights on.

And when you don't, people notice. Employees notice. It affects moral.

If they can't afford to change the light bulbs, how much longer can they afford me.

I worked at Continental Airlines. CO was formed though the combination of a number of airlines including New York Air, Peoples Express and others. Before I got there, they had planes painted in any number of liveries. It was embarrassing. Employees noticed. Customers noticed.

One of the first things Gordon Bethune did when he became CEO was to get the damn planes painted.

If you don't give a shit about the brand, no one else will. You can't instill pride in your workforce when your workspace looks like crap. And if the lights are out on the sign on the building -- or the planes all look different -- then the workplace looks like crap.

When the CO-UA merger goes through, I will be surprised if they don't get all of the planes repainted in the new livery very quickly. (As opposed to when America West & US Airways merged.) It's that important.

 

The trend of newspapers abandoning choice downtown real estate for cheaper digs on the fringes is a sad, but telling truth about the business.
Used to be newspapers wanted to be big and rub shoulders architecturally with the other city's major players (city hall, big business) - now they are content to sell the property for a quick boost to the quarterly bottom-line and slink off to an office park out by the Interstate.
Used to be local newspaper folks would drink at the same places as the movers and shakers, maybe get a hot tip and phone it back to the city desk. Newspapers were situated where people were - folks would come in off the street and (sometimes) actually have an important story to share.
Used to be a thrill to walk through the doors of many newspapers, realizing some of your personal heroes had walked through those same doors. Not so much anymore.