“Newspaper Industry” Items

PAFET Review of Media Landscape, 1994

The PAFET Operating Committee had several tasks. The most important was to keep the Strategic Committee, i.e. the Big Bosses, abreast of technology and changes in the media landscape. One of the tools we used was a report [monthly at times] that could be distributed across various “C Suites” and lower in an organization.  Here’s what I wrote about the first edition:

The purpose of the Pafet Review is to keep you abreast of the changing alliances and their potential impact on the media industry. The report is prepared by the Yankee Group under the direction of the Operating Committee.

In the future, the committee plans to add more analysis. This analysis will not only include broad implications, but also the impact of the changing landscape upon Pafet’s mission.

Media Companies Launch Consortium

This is the official launch of PAFET, Partners Affiliated for Exploring Technology. It was a consortium that hoped that by exploring technology together, these companies would benefit from shared knowledge in the creation of new businesses and/or services.

“Our purpose is to maintain and strengthen our competence in collecting, packaging and marketing information, making use of the best of evolving technologies available. As a group we can invest in research on new information technology that larger companies are pursuing,” states James N. Rosse, president and chief executive officer of Freedom Communications, Inc., who will be the first chairman of the PAFET management committee

Presstine Magazine Covers 2000 Design Project

The industry publication Presstime covered the results of the API’s design seminar in its October, 1988 edition. The article’s lede:

Two dozen movers and shakers in the field of newspaper design pondered the substance and form of 21st century newspapers at the American Press Institute’s annual J. Montgomery Curtis Memorial Seminar.

The round-table seminar, conducted at the institute in Reston, Va., Sept. 11-13, used as a focal point hypothetical front pages dated 2000 and beyond that were designed by participants and posted on the walls of the seminar room.

Ironic, isn’t it: “posted on the walls…”

I got a mention for my presentation on the future of graphics:

Howard I. Finberg, assistant managing editor of The Arizona Republic, said the overwhelming majority of editors he questioned predicted graphics will play a greater part in newspapers in the year 2000. But this priority seems to shrink when talk turns to money: The editors told Finberg they would spend 70 percent of any extra funds for reporting and editing, and only 10 percent for graphics.

Sad and not surprising.  Given the visual nature of the Internet, would newspapers be in a better position today if they had invested in something other than words? Just wondering.

Pagination and a Look Into the Future of Newspapers

In 1999 I was asked to contribute to a book about pagination being published by the Society of News Design and the Association of News Editors. You can download the entire book from here.

At the end of the article I made some “bolder, out-on-a-limb” predictions:

  • Design as a unique job function in newspapers will slowly dissolve into other editing responsibilities.
  • Editing will encompass more than the technical aspects of copy editing and take on more responsibilities for the entire infopacks.
  • Computers will automatically handle most of the routine production responsibilities, freeing editors to do lust what we have always wanted them to do – make journalistic choices on behalf of their readers and the community.
  • Most, if not all, maps and charts will be produced by software. There will be fewer artists at newspapers doing “art work.”
  • The presentation of information will be of such importance for the organization that the senior editor with such responsibilities will report to the publisher.

I like my final paragraph:

Newspapers are on the verge of freeing themselves from the limitations of their production equipment. While I would not predict the end of newsprint as we know it, the era of print-centric delivery is coming to an end. We need to look beyond technology to find the solutions to organize and motivate our workforce for the new millennium. If we are successful, this is the last pagination book you will ever read.

Technology and Pagination

In 1999 the Society for News Design and the American Society of Newspaper Editors published a book about how managers could more successfully integrate new technologies into their newsrooms.  This project include a number of chapters from the leading technologists in the newspaper industry, including:

  • David M. Cole
  • Heidi de Laubenfels
  • Olivia Casey
  • Ed Kohorst

While pagination, strictly speaking, is an outdated technology, the concepts about workflow and organization are still very valid. 

I wrote about Embracing Change when it came to future technologies. There were a few things I got right:

  • Working at home, even doing newspaper design
  • Always connected to a network
  • Using databases to edit and present content
  • Constant feedback on what consumers are reading

How Consumers Spend Their Media Day

How consumers use media has always been an interesting topic. However, it never really got the attention of those at the top of newspaper organizations.  One of the better studies was this one:

The Center for Media Design at Ball State University conducted the Middletown Media Studies in 2003-2004. These investigations tracked the ways in which ordinary Americans residing in and around Muncie engage with the many new forms of media available in the twentieth century. More details are available in the CMD Reports and White Papers listing.

Here’s a copy of a paper about the study in the International Digital Media & Arts Association Journalism from Spring 2004.

Here’s a link to Ball State’s documents about the project.

The Newspaper Industry’s Inflection Point

At Editor & Publisher’s 13th annual Interactive Conference and Trade Show in San Jose I gave a presentation titled “Digital Deliverance: Impact on the Newspaper Industry.”

One of the sections that rang true in 2002 and still relevant was about disruption:

With disruptive technologies, a company needs to throw off its existing culture and methods of doing business. While current customers are important, a disruptive technology demands that a company make sure these customers do not drive the company’s future direction. In other words, it means making sure old relationships — and their current economic value — do not drive business decisions needed for the future.

I argued that the newspaper industry was at “an inflection point.”  I think we have long past that point and the industry needs to quickly find ways to reinvent its business model.

What I liked about this presentation was the review of disruptive devices:

  • The Internet / Broadband
  • Information devices  / Wired and Wireless
  • Reading devices
  • Other digital devices  / Audio, Video, Gateways
(Remember, this is 2002.)

Brainstorming an Electronic Future for Newspapers, 1989

In late 1988, Jerry Ceppos, managing editor of the San Jose Mercury News, invited a number of folks to help design an ‘electronic’ newspaper designed to serve readers with “increasing access to computers and other modern technology.”  I was especially pleased by the invite, as I had abruptly departed the paper in 1985 after working there for only six months as graphics editor. [Ceppos was the managing editor.] The agenda and other material can be found here.

Here’s what Ceppos wrote about the gathering:

The only requirement is that our ideas be adaptable for newspapers today. Other than that, there is no limit to the ideas we can come up with; they can involve personal computers, videotex, fax, print, other technology, or a combination. And the content of the products is as important as the technology.

We met at the Mercury News for a day and brainstormed ideas about the future of news and newspapers.  It was an interesting mix of newspaper folks, academics and technology folks:

SEMINAR PARTICIPANTS
Dr. Yale Braunstein, professor, University of California at Berkeley
Jennie Buckner, Managing Editor-PM, San Jose Mercury News
Karen Ceppos, professor, San Jose State University
Jerry Ceppos, managing editor, San Jose Mercury News
Robert J. Cochnar, vice president and editor, Anderson (S.C.) Independent-Mail
Sue Cook, president, Palo Alto Consulting Centers, The Tom Peters Group
Jerry Dianond, general partner, EG&G Venture Managenent
Joe Donth, president, Startext, Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Roger Fidler, director/PressLink and newsroon technology, Knight-Ridder Inc.
Dr. Virginia Fielder, vice president/news & circulation research, Knight-Ridder Inc.
Howard I. Finberg, assistant managing editor, Phoenix Newspapers, Inc.
Ray Gniewek, managing editor/page one, USA Today
David Halvorsen, editor and vice president, Alameda Newspapers
Frank N. Hawkins Jr., vice president/corporate relations and planning, Knight-Ridder Inc.
James Houck, managing editor, Baltimore Sun
Bob Hucker, computer systems editor, San Jose l’v\ercury News
Ann Hurst, assistant managing editor/features, San Jose Nlercury News
Robert D. Ingle, senior v.p. and executive editor, San Jose Mercury News
Steve Landers, consultant
W. Terry Maguire, senior vice president, American Newspaper Publishers Assn.
Ron Martin, executive editor, USA Today
Scott McGehee, general manager, Lexington Herald-Leader
Kris McGrath, president, rvt:R.I Research
John McManus, professor, Santa Clara University
George Owen, marketing services director, San Jose Mercury News
Bob Ryan, assistant managing editor, San Jose Mercury News
Geoff Sharp, director/business information, Dialog Information Services
Dr. Roger Summit, president & CEO, Dialog Information Services
Mark Wigginton, assistant managing editor/graphics, San Jose Mercury News
Kathy Yates, senior vice president and general manager, San Jose Mercury News
David Yarnold, AM executive news editor, San Jose Mercury News

My notes from the meeting quoted Ron Martin asking the question “how do we stay alive?”  Ceppos talked about “time poverty”  and falling readership.  Even before the 1990s, we knew the industry needed to change.

Training that Changes Your Life: API Seminar

In early 1991 John Oppedahl, The Arizona Republic’s managing editor, nominated me to attend the American Press Institute seminar for Managing Editors [newspapers over 77,000 circulation] in Reston, VA.   That seminar did two things: 1. Strengthened some of my leadership skills and confidence and 2. Created some life-long friends.

Like most API [and Poynter] seminars there was lots of “homework” and instructions ranging from accommodations to laundry.  From the acceptance letter:

So your nominee may arrive thoroughly prepared, and for your newspaper to derive maximum benefit for the outlay of training dollars, may I respectfully suggest a day be set aside from regular duties so homework assignments can be completed.

Before members return home, I urge them to sift through the many materials collected while at Reston, with a view to conducting a mini-seminar for fellow staffers so the entire department many benefit from their API experience. I hope you’ll consider giving the process a try, assuming you don’t already have it in place.

Of course, I don’t remember getting too much time off from regular duties but it didn’t really matter.  It was fun and always best to be prepared.

Preparing Newspapers for Third Wave of Technology

At the invitation of Olivia Casey, I was invited to write an article for the “ASNE and SND Technology Survey ’96” report.  My topic was on the impact of technology and pagination upon the newsroom and journalists.

One of my key points was the need for editors to take more active control of the issues around pagination and other technology:

The challenge for today’s newsroom managers is to look at these new technologies and see how they might reshape the landscape of news and information gathering and how to make plans to adapt to those changes. It is time to get proactive and stop being so reactive to the changes that have affected and will continue to affect newspapers.

My concept was that newsroom technology was about to enter into a new wave or stage that would be driven by databases and computer systems that allowed for the easy storage and access of information bits and pieces. The industry’s attempts to modernize its backshop production can be divided into three
waves:

  • First wave – electronic paste-up
  • Second wave – electronic composition
  • Third wave – database publishing

Finally, I think I was pretty accurate about how journalists would need to be more generalists:

Where does that leave the journalist as specialist? My career advice is this – get new skills, learn new aspects of the business. This holds true whether you are a reporter or designer. In the future, newspapers will need more generalists, fewer priests guarding the gates of knowledge. These generalists will need the skills to deal with multiple forms of communication – the written word, the audio clip, still and video images. This new form of collaborative publishing will provide the potential of tapping a great number of people to assemble the news. And with more people involved, more and different ideas of how to inform, entertain and enlighten. That is the risk and reward of the third wave.

I also wrote a sidebar about how journalists need to think about the customer:

Tomorrow’s journalists — from reporter to designer to managing editor — must play an increasingly more important role in getting the customer to buy our newspapers, fax services and audio lines and to visit our online areas.  It doesn’t matter how good the content is if nobody reads it.

Again, its all about the customer.

 

Editors Told Big Changes Needed. Did They Listen?

Even though it was 2007, I was still making speeches to editors [and publishers] about the need to embrace change and transform the newspaper business.  One such plea for change was made at a Texas Associated Press Managing Editors convention in San Antonio. A fellow trouble-maker at the event was Michael P. Smith, executive director of the Media Management Center at Northwestern.

I said that not even popular online sites can rest easy and the challenge is young people who aren’t newspaper readers.  And I talked about “control”  of content and media.

From a story published in the San Antonio Express-News:

And editors can’t forget they’re dealing with an audience that’s “digitally equipped,” as more people own devices that give them control of a medium such as digital video recorders like TiVo.

These digital devices give control.

“No one wants to give up something that gives them control, Finberg said.  Young people, especially, “want to take somebody else’s content and add to it.”

 

 

Come Together: Defining the Complementary Roles of Print and Online

In 2001 I worked with the Newspaper Association of America’s circulation federation to develop a report on how print and online departments could work together to further the sales of subscriptions.  Working with me on the project was my consulting partner at that time, Leah Gentry.

From the report’s opening:

… the NAA Circulation Federation began looking at how consumers use print and online news sources and how their choices affect our business. We began looking at the challenges and opportunities both media would encounter as this new consumer channel developed.

Here’s what we wrote for the introduction to the report, which runs 72 pages.

Newspaper marketing executives confront more challenges and opportunities as the media landscape evolves at an ever-increasing pace. No longer can our audiences be solely identified as newspaper readership; online also is becoming an important path for customers to access news and information. As our customers select from an increasing number of routes to us, we conversely enjoy expanded opportunities for marketing to them through multiple routes and for using each platform to strengthen its siblings.

When we wrote the report, pay walls and online subscriptions were just a glimmer on the digital horizon.

The report is too large to load here, so I’ve put in my SlideShare account.

Helping the Newspaper Industry See into the Future

Randy Bennett, a friend and industry colleague for more than 20 years, ran an interesting project at the Newspaper Association of America during his time as a vice president.  Randy created the Horizon Watching initiative, with the hopes of being a ‘early warning’ system for newspaper executives.

Task-force participants, including newspaper executives and NAA associate members, set out to help publishers understand the external strategic forces that will shape the future of their industry.

I was delighted to serve on the committee. It was an interesting group to work with and I loved looking at the future.  I’m not sure the group got a chance to make the impact that I hoped would be possible. Presstime, the NAA publication, wrote about the project about a year after it started.

Changing indicators mean different things in different markets. “There is no right answer,” said Howard Finberg, director of technology and information strategies at Central Newspapers Inc. in Phoenix. The important point, from the task-force perspective, is to grapple with the indicators and create a process for dealing with their business consequences.

I did argue this point as well, often in various meetings:

“We’re trying to challenge the industry to think differently,” Finberg explained, adding, “We have no right to survive.”