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?

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

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.

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.

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?

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.

A relative.