It's rare that there are three top-notch articles
about the newspaper industry in one week -- articles that strike the
correct tone about an industry that's actually awash in profits, stronger
than ever in many ways, but facing a very challenging future and a spate of
negative publicity. But this was such a week.
First came an
excellent piece by
Mike Hughlett of the
Chicago Tribune
on the front
page of the paper's business section on Sunday. (Disclaimer: He quotes
me when talking about classifieds -- and also this blog's
Rich Gordon.) He sets the perfect tone
with his lead two paragraphs: "This is not another story about the newspaper
industry's Internet-induced march to the tar pits. Then again, it's not a
contrarian 'everything's OK after all' article. That's because one of the
most important trends of the digital age -- the shift of classified
advertising from newsprint to the Web -- isn't a cut-and-dried failure or
success story for the newspaper industry."
Then came the prescriptive article -- perfect recommendations,
in my view, and I can't understand why so many newspapers are ignoring the
obvious (like most of these suggestions) -- by
Jon Fine of
Business Week.
The only thing wrong with
his comments, in my view, is that if all newspapers were to start following
them, my consulting business would be closing down sooner rather than later.
(Fat chance of that, for better or worse!)
Finally, there's Fine's
companion blog, which makes a number of excellent points. Two quick examples:
- "It's true that, on a certain level, the American daily
newspaper doesn't need saving. Virtually all of them are still bang-up
businesses that spew torrents of cash; most newspaper companies post profit
margins almost any other business would cut off a finger to achieve. But
it's the future that people are worried about, and there's a litany of
negative trends making themselves apparent."
- "There will be a daily paper for the foreseeable future.
Scale your suggestions (about saving newspapers) around this."
All three were worth far more than the price I paid for them.
Will executives in the "dying" newspaper industry listen?
