tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1033750.post9197449999443569474..comments2023-09-06T07:30:55.671-07:00Comments on Ted Shelton: The Butterfly of ChangeTed Sheltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09651155562346606560noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1033750.post-74537023345815269802009-03-31T11:16:00.000-07:002009-03-31T11:16:00.000-07:00One other thing fueling the ire of many "elde...One other thing fueling the ire of many "elders" is this: In the old newsrooms, they felt insulated from the business. Now, that insulation from bottom-line concerns has been stripped away. They (by which I mean "me and the people I worked with, mostly") felt free to report, write, edit, lay out and publish without thinking much about what the ad sales department was doing. We'd notice when the news hole was small. "Ad sales are down," we'd think. "Our story on the drought is getting trimmed or held. Hope we have more space tomorrow."<BR/><BR/>But, for some good reasons and for some that were purely convenient and circumstantial, it appeared that the bottom line was someone else's problem to figure out that business end. From most editorial folks, you heard little about the business end of things (except gripes about the size of paychecks), and virtually nothing about the economic structure of the business we were in. In that way, maybe newsroom folks have a lot more in common with car execs and autoworkers who were happy to go along with their companies and build SUVs while market conditions changed; whose idea of competing was telling U.S. consumers to buy American. <BR/><BR/>But of course, the business was always in the newsroom. On just the most superficial level: You need that screaming front-page headline, and that story about the drought, and the one about Princess Grace driving off a cliff, to get the eyeballs to attract the advertisers to pony up the cash to pay for the newsprint and so on. <BR/><BR/>I think a certain part of the anger and the resistance to change comes from resentment that engaging in the craft one loves--and performing a public service, too, for cripes sake!--has been overwhelmed by the sordid realities of finances, marketing, and new technologies. <BR/><BR/>Or maybe I'm just speaking for myself.;>Dan Brekkehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03261150572253464576noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1033750.post-91440308914876840932009-03-23T19:10:00.000-07:002009-03-23T19:10:00.000-07:00None of what anyone has said alters one fact.Newsp...None of what anyone has said alters one fact.<BR/><BR/>Newspapers were a commodity with artifically high held advertising rates via an effective monopoly.<BR/><BR/>Remove the monopoly.... watch advertising become a stark commodity.<BR/><BR/>Watch ad revenue drop.<BR/><BR/>Watch those publications overly beholdin to ad revenue wither and die. that most of them, so yes a new model willneed to arise. Just not from the elders.Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13730741923292001971noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1033750.post-80651492451273917332009-03-23T06:58:00.000-07:002009-03-23T06:58:00.000-07:00In reply to Kaps - on the first point, "Many Would...In reply to Kaps - on the first point, "Many Would Shrug If Their Local Newspaper Closed" (Pew) - http://people-press.org/report/497/many-would-shrug-if-local-newspaper-closed<BR/><BR/>On the second point - yes exactly! We are right there in that blue band of confusion where the old stuff isn't working and frankly, their thrashing about is making it harder to see which of the new stuff might work. And what is needed for there to be "new stuff" is lots of experimentation. You may not like the prescription from Dr. Shirky but it is a valid one - take two experiments and call me in the morning :-)Ted Sheltonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09651155562346606560noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1033750.post-59476900669887335822009-03-22T22:28:00.000-07:002009-03-22T22:28:00.000-07:00Several thoughts:1) It's not completely true to sa...Several thoughts:<BR/><BR/>1) It's not completely true to say that people (readers) are moving away from newspapers -- subscriptions perhaps are down, but that's not why the Rocky Mtn News or Seattle P-I have stopped the presses; it's because the publishers ran the businesses into the ground, and then (as you correctly pointed out) had no room to innovate. But that doesn't mean people don't want to read papers.<BR/><BR/>2) This is still a one-winged butterfly... think the SF Gate's main (angry?) point is that pundits like Shirky are great at describing the corpse and terrible at figuring what's next. What seems to be needed at this point are some business ideas and models that might work... or more focus on the ones out there that are attempting to do new things.Kapshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14599070956987993194noreply@blogger.com