Tim Oren: trust, transactions, and the risks to MSM bundling as a business model. Interesting reading. Alan Mutter on the qualitative implications of newspaper profits growing at a faster rate than revenue growth (something is being squeezed).
Category: Media
State of the Blogosphere, 2005
Technorati is now tracking over 7.8 million weblogs, and 937 million links. That’s just about double the number of weblogs tracked in October 2004. In fact, the blogosphere is doubling in size about once every 5 months. It has already done so at this pace four times, which means that in the last 20 months, the blogosphere has increased in size by over 16 times.
Related: Katherine Seelye: Can Papers end the Free Ride Online?
Tom Fenton: Networks no longer in the news gathering business
Diane Rehm show: former CBS correspondent Tom Fenton says that the networks are no longer in the news gathering business. Via Dave.
What’s Missing from News is News
Frank Rich nails it:
What’s missing from News is the news. On ABC, Peter Jennings devotes two hours of prime time to playing peek-a-boo with U.F.O. fanatics, a whorish stunt crafted to deliver ratings, not information. On NBC, Brian Williams is busy as all get-out, as every promo reminds us, “Reporting America’s Story.” That story just happens to be the relentless branding of Brian Williams as America’s anchorman – a guy just too in love with Folks Like Us to waste his time looking closely at, say, anything happening in Washington.
Even NPR. I woke up the other morning at 6 and Morning Edition’s lead story was Martha Stewart (not Sudan, Lebanon, Iraq, the dollar’s ongoing meltdown, or any of a number of domestic issues).
Daily Newspapers face a Kodak Moment?
Frank Ahrens takes a look at the plight of daily newspapers in the internet era (Here’s a great chart on the changes):
Frank A. Blethen, publisher of the Seattle Times, said his industry has some breathing room left. But not much.
“The baby boomers are going to continue to drive print [sales] for some time,” he said. “The problem we have are the . . . 18- to 35-year-olds. They’re not replacing the baby boomers.”
Others are more blunt, if hyperbolic.
“Print is dead,” Sports Illustrated President John Squires told a room full of newspaper and magazine circulation executives at a conference in Toronto in November. His advice? “Get over it,” meaning publishers should stop trying to save their ink-on-paper product and focus on electronic delivery of their journalism.
I believe the changes in the newspaper industry mirror Kodak’s plight: the sharp, ongoing drop in formerly very high margin film sales. People are still taking pictures, in fact, more than ever. Kodak is just not capturing the kind of dollars they did in the past.
Newspapers face a similar issue. Their high margin, very high overhead business model will likely not survive (this will take some time), BUT citizens still want information, in fact, due to the internet, we’re foraging for information at much higher rates than before.
I also think newspapers have not adjusted to their reader’s changing expectations regarding news accessibility, depth and content in the internet era. The traditional text article, designed for print no longer cuts it. Thus the rise of the blogs….
Watch the conversation (technorati).
Jon Stewart on the Bloggers
The Daily Show’s Jon Stewart on the growing number of bloggers. Quicktime video
Charter Cable’s CEO resigns
Local Cable Monopoly Charter Communication’s CEO Carl Vogel resigned yesterday amid a decline in subscribers and an accounting probe. Charter’s stock closed yesterday at $1.92/share, a 52 week low.
I think the cable folks have pushed the envelope with respect to pricing and “product”. I can’t imagine much growth is left in that business. The action is certainly shifting to the internet. Former Microsoft exec Paul Allen is Chairman of Charter. Allen went on a cable acquisition spree years ago, which loaded up charter with $19billion in debt (quite a bit, even for a billionaire).
Saturday Night Live has its way with Dan Rather & Rathergate
SNL lampoons Dan Rather’s document problems (transcript & video).
Newspaper Circulation Fun & Games: Third Party Sales
Jacques Steinberg & Tom Torok:
Across the country each week, more than 1.6 million people who are not on newspaper subscriber rolls are being delivered copies that did not cost them a cent – but they are still being classified as paying customers, an analysis by The New York Times has found. The papers, which are typically paid for by advertisers, are delivered by small and large dailies across the country, including The Miami Herald, The Wall Street Journal, The San Jose Mercury News and The Boston Globe.
iPods and personal mixes cut into radio time
iPods, personal mixes and to a lesser degree satellite radio are evidently cutting into traditional radio listeners time tuned in. I actually think that most radio stations have become ad vehicles rather than creative outlets. For example, I used to listen to 105.5 (triple m in Madison) rather frequently. However, the past two years, I listen to our fine student station 91.7, WSUM and my iPod. 105.5 has no shortage of commercials and a reasonably predictable playlist (they do offer up new music periodically).
The best station, hands down is Fordhams WFUV, available via mp3 stream.
Michael Booth says that Denver stations are trying to change…..