dmn a weekly?

[txsportsscribe]

ok, can't see this happening anytime soon but i found this story on frontburner, the d magazine blog. the following paragraph really caught my eye:

Newspapers taking drastic steps such as cutting home delivery are forced to the brink, with no other options. "Not one change alone will do it. I don't think doing one or two of them ad hoc will work," says Dave Morgan, ... (who) sits on the board of directors of A.H. Belo Corp., publisher of The Dallas Morning News. Morgan prescribes a combination of increasing subscription fees, decreasing distribution, printing fewer days and requiring payment for online information. "I don't think putting content behind a pay wall will save the seven-day-a-week paper," he says. Only printing on Sunday while running a 24/7 Web site would be dramatic change. "That alone would take out 50 to 60% of the cost -- maybe more."

http://frontburner.dmagazine.com/2009/01/26/will-the-dmn-go-weekly-or-twice-weekly/


http://www.thedeal.com/newsweekly/features/black-and-white-and-red-all-over.php#bottom

 

[mustangj17]

Sounds like a more extreme version of what the Detroit Media Partnership is doing. Most the advertising revenue comes on Sunday and (I think Friday). By eliminating the other days, you save a ton of money in printing costs etc.

 

[Johnny Dangerously]

dwn

 

[lone star scribe]

It's just one voice on the board of directors. Then again, one voice has led the Belo Death Star to do some incredibly stupid things in years past, too: cue cats, TXCN, etc.

 

[Armchair_QB]

What a bunch of ****ing idiots.

 

[Football_Bat]

I talked to my DMN carrier buddy yesterday. He's already taking it in the shorts with all the people quitting the paper. Now he says they've dropped an hour from all deadlines, which means that much less West Coast stuff. It's becoming a self-propelled ride down the drain.

 

[Mark2010]

Fine, let's just shut the whole thing down! Gutter the presses, close the doors, lay off everyone and just all go home.

Between television, radio, magazines and the internet, I honestly don't know if newspapers would be missed. At worst, people would get over it after a couple of months.

 

[Angola!]

Fine, let's just shut the whole thing down! Gutter the presses, close the doors, lay off everyone and just all go home.

Between television, radio, magazines and the internet, I honestly don't know if newspapers would be missed. At worst, people would get over it after a couple of months.

I think you are wrong there.

Newspapers have bigger staffs than TV and radio, even in our time of pain. We generate so much local content that TV's and radio couldn't do without, even beyond the idea they get all of their news from us.

People will miss us.

Something will fill the void.

I just don't know what it is.

 

[txsportsscribe]

Fine, let's just shut the whole thing down! Gutter the presses, close the doors, lay off everyone and just all go home.

Between television, radio, magazines and the internet, I honestly don't know if newspapers would be missed. At worst, people would get over it after a couple of months.

exaggerate much?

 

[Mark2010]

If that's the case, someone else can restart when the economic conditions are ripe for doing such.

 

[Drip]

Ask yourself this question. When was the last time you saw someone under 30 go into a store and purchase a newspaper? Better yet, count the number of times that you've seen someone under 30 do it.
The younger generation, which is the target audience for most advertisers, isn't reading newspapers. Until that changes, papers are going to be in terrible shape.

 

[Mark2010]

Why is that such a target audience for advertisers?

Do people under 30 have more buying power than the older generations? I don't see under-30s buying houses, cars or a lot of other items advertisers are selling.

 

[Pete Incaviglia]

I still think this is where we're heading — printing only on weekends and have a 24-hour news cycle on the web.

And, if that's the case, from a reporter's standpoint, I think I'm okay with it.

One of the guys I work with always says "they'll always need someone to gather the news and write it up."

It sort of makes more sense the more I think about it.

I cover a college beat. Why not file from the game, have those stories sent straight to iPhones and Blackberries via RSS feeds, etc.? And, of course, post them to the web.

Then, keep printing on weekends just for the coupons, inserts, ads, etc.

 

[NoOneYouKnow]

Well, Pete, the reason you don't just let reporters write and post directly to Web is because most can't edit for ****. End of story.

 

[Pete Incaviglia]

Well, Pete, the reason you don't just let reporters write and post directly to Web is because most can't edit for ****. End of story.

Where did I say I'd post directly to the web? I said file, which means it goes to my editor like any other story. And then, instead of being typeset/laid out, it's sent in text form first to the web and RSS feeds.

 

[steveu]

I talked to my DMN carrier buddy yesterday. He's already taking it in the shorts with all the people quitting the paper. Now he says they've dropped an hour from all deadlines, which means that much less West Coast stuff. It's becoming a self-propelled ride down the drain.

*******. One of the best papers in the country and it's amazing what Belo's done to it.

 

[Armchair_QB]

I still think this is where we're heading — printing only on weekends and have a 24-hour news cycle on the web.

And, if that's the case, from a reporter's standpoint, I think I'm okay with it.

One of the guys I work with always says "they'll always need someone to gather the news and write it up."

It sort of makes more sense the more I think about it.

I cover a college beat. Why not file from the game, have those stories sent straight to iPhones and Blackberries via RSS feeds, etc.? And, of course, post them to the web.

Then, keep printing on weekends just for the coupons, inserts, ads, etc.

The reason you shouldn't be ok with it is simple - newspaper conglomerates are slowly turning the job of reporters/writers into nothing more than slave labor.

They're dumbing down standards for what is acceptable in print by slashing editing jobs to the bone and going to a web-first product where little things like proper grammar and spelling aren't important. And who wants to worry about pesky things like accuracy and sourcing? Run it and worry about it later.

And hell, how hard is it to write anyway? Anybody can do it. Hire a few kids out of college, work their ass off for peanuts and when the ***** about their pay can 'em and hire some more kids.

 

[lone star scribe]

I still think this is where we're heading — printing only on weekends and have a 24-hour news cycle on the web.

And, if that's the case, from a reporter's standpoint, I think I'm okay with it.

One of the guys I work with always says "they'll always need someone to gather the news and write it up."

It sort of makes more sense the more I think about it.

I cover a college beat. Why not file from the game, have those stories sent straight to iPhones and Blackberries via RSS feeds, etc.? And, of course, post them to the web.

Then, keep printing on weekends just for the coupons, inserts, ads, etc.

The reason you shouldn't be ok with it is simple - newspaper conglomerates are slowly turning the job of reporters/writers into nothing more than slave labor.

They're dumbing down standards for what is acceptable in print by slashing editing jobs to the bone and going to a web-first product where little things like proper grammar and spelling aren't important. And who wants to worry about pesky things like accuracy and sourcing? Run it and worry about it later.

And hell, how hard is it to write anyway? Anybody can do it. Hire a few kids out of college, work their ass off for peanuts and when the ***** about their pay can 'em and hire some more kids.

Ding! Ding! Ding! Business model!

 

[jps]

pete, I think you're right - or at least leaning in the right direction. don't see this thing fixing itself in the next six months at least, and I think many will begin to cut days and go to web in order to stay afloat before long. I'm not sure if it stays that way whenever the economy bounces back, but I expect it may.

 

[GlenQuagmire]

I still think this is where we're heading — printing only on weekends and have a 24-hour news cycle on the web.

And, if that's the case, from a reporter's standpoint, I think I'm okay with it.

One of the guys I work with always says "they'll always need someone to gather the news and write it up."

It sort of makes more sense the more I think about it.

I cover a college beat. Why not file from the game, have those stories sent straight to iPhones and Blackberries via RSS feeds, etc.? And, of course, post them to the web.

Then, keep printing on weekends just for the coupons, inserts, ads, etc.

That sounds great. Costs can be drastically cut.

But with fewer print days, where does the company make up for the lost ad revenue? No one has yet found out how to make money through online advertising.

It might not matter, though. With only one or two print days, the suits would cut 75-to-80 percent of the newspaper's jobs.

I'm sure the company would pass those savings on to the reader. My guess is the print editions would be more like tabs or magazine-format that would cost $2 or $3 a pop.