Secrets of the City

I would love to see Kersten try to be a reporter.

They’ll be making it very difficult to justify the cost of a subscription.

Could this be the end of C. J.?

Although, what is there in the print edition that isn’t found online? Aside from the coupons on Sunday, I haven’t been able to justify a subscription. However, I am comfortable and prefer going online to get the news than having some of it delivered to my doorstep.

Not the biggest fan of either Kersten or Coleman, but this leads me to agree with mnblrmkr. If they sacked Sack, I would basically have no reason to read their paper edition anymore.

It would be weird if it were the end of CJ, to me she kind of fits the gossip/society/entertainment that the Strib has been trying to include more of to get younger readers.

I hope some of the Strib’s good young writers survive the fallout. It would be a shame for someone like Kara McGuire or Pam Louwagie to lose their job just because they don’t have seniority.

But who will people complain about if they both leave?

I’m surprised some of you still actually pay the Star Tribune money for their paper.

I’m old fashioned. I don’t want to be stuck at my desk reading the news on my computer all of the time. Sometimes, I like to read it while eating breakfast/dinner at a restaurant, or in the cafeteria at work, or a park, or any other number of places.

mnblrmkr- I can do that on my cell phone with the mobile version of their site

(They recently redid their mobile version, so it’s not too bad. It used to be much worse.)

One other point: I still find reading a newspaper more rewarding than online. It’s too easy to miss the stuff that’s inside, and doesn’t appear on the front page of the web site, and the electronic print version is cumbersome and slow to work your way through.

Not all of us have cell phones though, Julie.

I find reading the real newspaper more enjoyable than reading it online in the rare occassions that I do see a print newspaper. I also usually read the whole thing cover to cover, unlike online where I just search out sections I’m interested in.

I like reading the Sunday paper with a cup of coffee and then clipping the coupons. It’s my Sunday morning ritual…

Whaaat? Dude, Sidekicks are a good deal if you don’t use voice, my prepaid unlimited web/text/IM/relay is $1/day. It’s not a Blackberry, but whatever. It’s a hearing loss classic! (If I weren’t broke, I’d do a Blackberry.)

Most of my anti-print is limited to newspapers, I would rather read a book than an e-book. Easier for me to remember where I’ve left off.

I also pay for the subscription, because I want to support the work of the more than one-hundred journalists who are out there trying their best to dig up the news about our community that helps feed the “new media” beast.

I too find myself reading stories in the print edition that I’d never click on.

I know they face tough budget decisions there, and don’t envy those decisions. But losing big name columns doesn’t seem very wise to me.

Almost as dumb as eliminating home delivery (a la Detroit).

I could live without either one. The lack of writers to complain about is a non-issue, because nobody will be around, unless the Strib becomes the lone anachronistic holdout, like the odd cobbler or haberdasher.

Eventually the Strib will lose all of its local content and become merely a vehicle for syndicated content and AP stories. Analogous to radio.

Addition by subtraction if you ask me.

There hasn’t been much content in the Strib for a while, but I’ll miss the swift kick in my blood pressure every time my eyes pass over her “analysis.”

well even the AP content will go away in a year or so then what will we have?

Sometime ago, I heard a local media expert predict the Pionner Press would be the only daily left in the Twin Cities in a couple years. It seemed hard to believe then, but I believe it now.

What a sad and bizarre end to the Strib-PiPress rivalry, which brought us Parr Ridder, as well as Fake Parr Ridder.

As Springtien sang, “Hard times had come to my home town…”

Those who say “I read it on my phone (or computer)” are missing the point. It’s the advertising that’s going away, and it can’t be replaced by ads on a web site. If the ads go, you can’t pay for the reporters. If you can’t pay for reporters, there’s nothing worth reading, no matter the medium. It’s a loss for our community, and the nation, that newspapers are dying. For example, it was the Chicago Tribune who did all the reporting on Blagojevich long before he was charged by the US attorney. Who is going to do that work for our country? God help us all.

Tom is right. The decisions may seem ridiculous on the surface, but it’s fundamentally a question of having the ad dollars to support quality news gathering. Where I think the newspapers have fallen down is in finding ways to capitalize on the the eyeballs they draw to their web sites. Startribune.com is one of the most visited sites in the state. It’s a tall order, but the lack of sympathy many people have for the situation stems from the fact that newspapers should’ve seen this coming for the last 8 years.

Sadly, the people who really get hurt by it are the employees and TC residents. Not the absentee landlords who’ll have a nicely packaged loss for tax purposes.

I’m also a paper subscriber–I like to spend time reading the whole thing, and spend enough time looking at a monitor at work. I’m not about to damage my eyes any further by getting my news that way.

Plus–cheap gift wrap!

Why does every take even on the posts have to have such a slant here. I’d register if I felt a little more welcome, but for being such ‘liberal’, ‘open minded’ people it is posting titles like this that keep me away. Why not add ‘Coleman Kicks It’ as well, he is at least just as bad.

You are welcome to post a about Coleman and title it what you like.

People of all views are welcome here, NPT. Really! Register and give it a try.

We are a snarky crowd, but we like clever people with something to say.

I’m pretty liberal, but I have to agree with NPT. Coleman is a horrible writer. I’m happy to see him gone as well.

There’s an essential difference between Coleman and Kersten–Coleman’s a reporter and Kersten is an ideologue. Coleman’s an old style, man on the street sort of columnist, like Terkel, Royko, Klobuchar, Breslin. There are good conservative columnists. Noonan, Brooks, Will come to mind, but Kersten is there merely to appeal to the “base”. Her agenda is transparent. Coleman, on the other hand, is willing to call out anyone who needs it.

For example, it was the Chicago Tribune who did all the reporting on Blagojevich long before he was charged by the US attorney. Who is going to do that work for our country? God help us all.

Gawker?  Girl Cat Bloggers?  Rex?

Good and relevant content always wins in the end. It seems the readership, or lack-there-of has spoken. It’s not about paper vs. electronic. It’s about relevance, and the Strib lost it, probably long before this economy went downhill.

Taulpaul, they displayed their total lack of relevance when they 1)Hired Kersten, 2)Thought that I gave a shit about high school football coverage.

The Strib jumped the shark when they went hardcore towards the burbs. Does anyone outside of Plymouth really care how the Plymouth girl’s water lacrosse team did?

the print version is nice to read on airplanes. it makes a 2 hour flight bearable. plus i’m such a captive audience i read every word, which never happens online.

Why does every take even on the posts have to have such a slant here. I’d register if I felt a little more welcome, but for being such ‘liberal’, ‘open minded’ people it is posting titles like this that keep me away.

Hey, guess what? I just gathered the link and info, and made a post! It’s an option also available to you, to make a post. Of course, you have to register first.

Does anyone outside of Plymouth really care how the Plymouth girl’s water lacrosse team did?

I doubt that there are very many people IN PLYMOUTH that really care how they did.  This ain’t Verndale.

I disagree. Many people with kids in HS sports would find that interesting. Just because it isn’t interesting to you, does not mean it isn’t worth printing.

Given the state of budgets these days, there may be plenty of people with kids NOT in high school sports soon enough.

Just because it isn’t interesting to you, does not mean it isn’t worth printing.
But does it being interesting justify the HS sports story about the Plymouth girls water lacrosse team being printed across the entire metro area? Does someone in Minnetonka find that same local story from Plymouth interesting? The Strib’s flawed attempt to provide blanket coverage of the burbs is part of why many have such a cynical view of that newspaper. Rather than do better at their strengths, they spread themselves too thin and became a running joke about what happened at the Bloomington city council meeting. No institution can be everything to everyone with one product.

I don’t take the paper, so I guess I can’t really relate to the metro-wide coverage that you are pointing out. But in some cases, parents might like to know how other schools in their kids’ division are doing.

I find it funny how people who criticise media manage to find ONE story and use that to illustrate a larger point. I live in Maple Grove and read virtually no stories about my community. I read plenty of crime updates about people in the cities that I don’t give a crap about. It’s the joy of the paper. Don’t like a story? Skip it and move to the next.

A lot of people live in the suburbs, more than in the cities. All media organizations are trying to figure out how to cover stories of interest to that population.

I think the harsh economic reality facing all media outlets, not just the Strib, is why they are facing cuts today, not the coverage of suburban news, sports or the hiring of a sub-par conservative columnist.

Don’t like a story? Skip it and move to the next.

I agree to some extent, except that when the paper is slashing it’s newsroom by 10% during each new round of budget cuts, what stories didn’t get covered that might have greater impact on more people?

To some extent you’re right bob, but remember, as yet, almost all of these papers are still operating at a profit. Just not the 20% margin the corporate owners grew accustomed to.

The Tribune Co. didn’t file bankruptcy because the Chicago Tribune or the LA Times were losing money (yet), They filed for bankruptcy because Sam Zell so over leveraged his purchase that he couldn’t meet the lenders debt ratios.

By demanding such high profit margins, the industry is forcing itself into a downward spiral: rather than diverting some of that profit to investing in their core product, better reporters or better coverage, they’re cutting the meat of the operations to maintain those profit margins. The more meat you cut off, the fewer reasons the reader has to come back, and the cycle continues.

Whether you agree with Strib’s or PPress coverage, it’s sad to see what’s happening to the dailies. Here as well as across the country.

RichG: Newspapers did see this coming, well, maybe not to this degree, but they knew long ago (95ish?) that the internets would change their business. They chose to not move faster because their core product (print) was still the largest revenue generator. Arrogance? A little and maybe too tied to having fat cat margins.

The online model certainly doesn’t support the ad revenue that the print version has, but I don’t doubt that someone will figure it out. I just don’t know if it will be in time to salvage what’s left.

Newspapers failed to react as the world around them changed drastically. The small players are best poised to weather this shakeout because they are far more flexible. They can provide the niche coverage of the HS sports, they have always operated with a far leaner staff and few relied strongly on classifieds. They don’t have huge printing facilities to staff or maintain and they realized that it’s easier to please more pockets of readers/users with targeted products. As for milking more ad dollars out of online, it’s coming but it will be a painful few years.

True enough, sornie, but the small players don’t all have enough capital to keep it going. There aren’t many players, corporate or small who are doing it well.

As far as the online ad dollars, I agree. There were newspaper sites who were trying to do it right, but it was an uphill climb when other media sites weren’t valuing their online properties.

The Strib is profitable – it’s just not profitable enough for the private equity firm who bought it. These guys don’t give a damn about journalism, they only care about profit maximization. Instead of accepting 7-8% return on investment, they want 20% plus. Why do they have to have 20%? Because they took on tons of debt to buy the paper and have to pay it back…and they’re also used to their millions in bonuses. Publicly traded newspapers are doomed not so much because of lost readership, but because they are not the cash cows they once were and the investment community won’t stand for it.

Not much longer before even the investment community will be thrilled to see a business with 7% returns.

Excellent. I’m going to set up my own ponzi scheme, who wants in? You invest $100K, I give you an 8% dividend check every year for the next 10 years then one day I’m sitting on a beach in Venezuela with all the remainder of your money and the rest of the money I have collected from your friends after you brag about the 8% you are earning every year.

I’ll probably even get you to invest more money after you start to see those checks rolling in.

The Strib is simply continuing an ongiong process of dumping anyone who actually costs them real money (read: editors who can actually edit, writers who can actually write). They’ve allowed and encouraged rabid (and mostly only quasi-literate) right-wing hatemongers to provide the majority of their content for free, by way of the Comments sections they attach to everything including the comics. My grandfather worked for the Minneapolis Tribune, back when it was a real newspaper. What’s left of the Strib is a pathetic shell of a shill, and the sooner it goes belly-up, the more merciful it will be. But I sure hope Nick lands on his feet — I personally have no plans to have anything to do with the Strib, in any medium, after he’s gone.