Secrets of the City

Shepard spends about $4,000 a year on bait, nearly all of it bought wholesale. He uses a system of remote electronic timers and remote cameras to track bear movements and to see how big the bears are. The timers and cameras come down when the hunter arrives.

After the bear’s been tracked, for God knows how long, and fed full of goodies, for weeks they shoot it in a sportsmanlike manner.

Susan A.’s departure from the Strib comes as no surprise after hearing that the investment group that owns the newspaper put pressure on her and the other editorial page writers to “lay off” support of a gasoline tax.

As the owners of the newspaper, it is reasonable that they would want their own opinions expressed through the official “voice” of the newspaper. The downside? They lost yet another talented, long-term employee.

I don’t have much of an opinion on the Gas Tax or spending a whole lot of time pondering affairs at the Strib. But idea of ownership leaning on an editorial department, any editorial department, is distressing

I don’t read the strib, for the same reason I no longer read comic books. But my guess is the business people are trying to stop the subscription hemoraging, and one gaping wound is the leftist reputation of the OpEd page, which automatically costs you 35-40% of potential readers.

I don’t read the strib, for the same reason I no longer read comic books. But my guess is the business people are trying to stop the subscription hemoraging, and one gaping wound is the leftist reputation of the OpEd page, which automatically costs you 35-40% of potential readers.

When they start leaning on the news department is the time to really worry, Rat. It’s happened before…

If you read the newspaper, you might be a less ignorant and more informed citizen, maz. I read both papers, and anything else I can find in print and online. If you are goin

Am I correct in recalling that newspaper subscriptions have slightly INCREASED on both sides of the river? It is the advertising income that is dropping, maz, not just here, but for all newspapers. Yes, at the conservative papers, too.

Whatever the owners are after, they’ll probably get.

I work at a local ad agency, and circulation is going up on both sides of the river. Newspapers across the country that are focusing more on local news are seeing an increase.

However I hate newspapers because we make little money off print. We try to talk our advertisers out of them, and go into radio and television. Why? Because it is easier for us to build margin, and therefore we make more money off broadcast than print. Radio and TV allow us to sign contracts and run all our advertisers under it while newspapers refuse to do that.

If newspapers let us sign contracts, then we will shift $$$ their way. They are shooting themselves in the foot.

Newspapers are doing a lot better than radio, yellow pages and broadcast TV. Lambert has run some very informative articles lately pointing out that local news ratings are down 10% – twice as much as newspapers.

I haven’t used yellow pages in 5 years nor have I listed to free radio since I got my IPOD.

It is not newspapers vs the internet, but traditional media vs. new media.

Jim Boyd, who worked on the editorial page with Albright for 14 years, wonders how this local focus can help the paper’s woes. Harte’s local-only approach is “a genuflection toward the belief that a newspaper must have such a page, coupled with a determination to make it as inconsequential as possible, a boring page to skip over during your morning read. How that builds readership for a struggling newspaper I do not comprehend.”

This is Maz’s Iraqi cousin once removed.

We are in the process of dis-owning him. He is kind of slow. Forgive him….

Allah be Praised

What’s so new about a publisher giving editorial direction? It’s their paper. Ben Franklin did it; Hearst certainly did it (and got us into a war with Spain in 1898). I just don’t understand why so many people are surprised. It’s been the nature of the beast since the first publisher published a broadsheet.

When they start leaning on the news department is the time to really worry, Rat. It’s happened before…

You’re an idiot if you think the line between news and editorial is never crossed.

As far as losses in newspaper revenue, subscriptions make up only a very small amount of revenue. The ad revenue is what is hurting newspapers because it is going to other outlets and the major shifts are classified-type revenue (auto, real estate, employment).

Sunday home delivery of the below Par daily is just $.50

A relative.

For those of you who are interested in the behind-the-scenes stuff going on at Star Tribune, it’s worth reading the comments following Deborah Rybak’s post on Albright. A number of Strib writers weigh in.

Am I correct in recalling that newspaper subscriptions have slightly INCREASED on both sides of the river?

Depends – PiPress may be up, but they downsized their base area to just the East side vs. Twin Cities Metro. Strib, I think, increased the daily subscriptions, but it’s not enough to make up for the losses on the weekend and from the last few years.

Radio and TV allow us to sign contracts and run all our advertisers under it while newspapers refuse to do that.

Adguy: not sure who you are dealing with, but Strib allows, or used to allow agency contracts. They may have made changes this year, but… I do know that startribune.com still allows for agency contracts.

Is anyone really surprised at what is happening at the Strib? Anytime there is a change in ownership, there is a change in staff/philosophy. McClatchy did the same thing – staff changes, shake-ups, but they did it over a longer period of time so no one really noticed the gradual changes. Investment firms are quicker at making changes and I don’t think Avistas lack of media experience is helping them in the public arena as they make these decisions.

“But idea of ownership leaning on an editorial department, any editorial department, is distressing.“

Why?

Seriously, why? Does the editorial department have some better knowledge of “the right view”, or some higher wisdom about what society needs – does it have ANY qualification that makes it the proper source of the position statements of the paper aside from good writing and editing skills?

An editorial is merely a public expression of the judgment of the paper, put out as persuasive speech, which, theoretically, the editors write on behalf of the owners. How could the owners be LESS qualified to express their own will than anyone else?

for those who care, looks like the strib axed the reader’s rep, too, as perry moves to health care coverage, according to Romenesko.

“How that builds readership for a struggling newspaper I do not comprehend.”“

No surprise there. I doubt Boyd ever comprehended that using his editor’s position as a tool to serve his own political bent might have played a significant part in that whole “struggling newspaper” concept to begin with, either.

Bingo!

Somewhere along the line since they dropped acid and enjoyed free love in 6O’s, the hippie “journalists” decided that THEIR freak flag waving opinions were what mattered.

Col. MCCormick is no doubt rolling in his grave.

for those who care, looks like the strib axed the reader’s rep, too, as perry moves to health care coverage, according to Romenesko.

oh noes! who will defend the paper from the Vita.mn sexscapades?

CAT – I was talking Sunday home delivered this summer. It is up. So is the PP.

From an ad agency perspective, we are dealing with a rapidly changing media landscape.

To be fair to both ST and PP, WCCO, KARE 11, and KSTP ratings dropped 10% and 15% marketshare (according to Nielsen Ratings) over the last year. It is really a battle between ‘traditional media’ and ‘new media’, not newspaper alone vs. the internet.

The problem for advertisers is that there are now 100 cable channels and billions of websites. So broadcast is having a lot of difficulty convincing people to advertise. They get less reach than they used too. It is a bigger pain than even three years ago. There may be an opportunity with outdoor now.

Newspaper appeals to the 40+, so they will be OK for the next 10 or so years. Yellow pages and free radio are in the most trouble. TV is OK for now, but combing computers and televisions will make it difficult to build brand image with theoretically millions of options.

Not sure what our resident conservatives are happy about. So less youngsters are looking at newspapers and WCCO TV. They are onthe Daily Show, Keith Obermann, Daily KOS and Mediamatters. What do newspapers have to do with advancing liberal ideology? Bill O’Reilly latest brouhaha is a case in point. Haven’t seen or heard anything from local news sources. At least with newspapers, you could write your own editorial…..

Thoughts?