Denver Post to lay off two-thirds of its copy editors and ask reporters to edit articles
One of Colorado’s most popular papers is in such dire financial straits it is reportedly firing two-thirds of its copy-editing staff and asking reporters to help out with everyday editing.
A Denver blog posted the memo from Denver Post editor Greg Moore, who noted how print revenue loss are so steep, they have to make drastic cutbacks. “We have focused our attention on consolidating steps in the editing process so that traditional copy editing is done at the content-generating level. That is going to result in a reduction in the ranks of copy editors,” the memo states.
Essentially, this means the Post’s reporters will also have to do double-duty as copy editors. Those tasks may include writing headlines, editing copy, finding pull-quotes, double-checking sources and more.
Moore goes on to add: “We understand that a major move like this is not done without anxiety and pain. But the way we have been doing things must change, and we have to find creative ways to streamline our production process for both print and online.”
Besides being creative with its editorial operations, the Post is also trying to find revenue elsewhere, beyond print. The paper will begin marketing space in its building that will be vacated next year after administrative offices for the Colorado Supreme Court and justice administration relocate. Earlier this year, the Post made buyout deals with more than 19 staffers, including well-known columnists.
Murdoch plans to launch Sun on Sundays
News Corp chairman Rupert Murdoch promised the U.K. a Sunday edition of the tabloid The Sun will launch soon, according to local media.
He said, as reported by the Guardian: “We will build on the Sun’s proud heritage by launching the Sun on Sunday very soon.” He went to say News International had a duty to launch the Sun on Sunday in order “to expand one of the world’s most widely read newspapers and reach even more people than ever before”. “Having a winning paper is the best answer to our critics,” he noted.
Visiting the Sun newsroom recently, Murdoch also stood by his staffers. He backed members of staff arrested by saying “everyone is innocent unless proven otherwise.” Nine journalists were arrested this month after information was passed to the police by an internal body to deal with inquiries into telephone hacking and police corruption.
He also lifted all staff suspensions, BBC News writes.
Media commentator Steve Hewlett said Murdoch was facing the kind of “ructions” in his company he had never seen before, BBC News adds.
“What he’s trying to say to the people here is ‘look we really are on the same side’, but the fact is he is between a rock and a hard place and these are both of his and his company’s own making,” he said.
Paywalls — How to evaluate a New York Times subscription
by Paul Wallis (Guest Contributor/Digital Journalist)
Some will have noticed I’m not exactly a great admirer of mainstream media. It took me ages to decide to subscribe to The New York Times, and the reasons weren’t what I expected.
It was a popup that started it. I had 2 articles left for the month. Did I want to subscribe, and if so, why? The only thing that ever bothered me about New York Times subscriptions was that they might pull the plug on the NYT the way they have on other papers. That would have been a loss, because NYT is one of the few good sources of news online without that weird editorial Kama Sutra approach to information. I’ve been reading the NYT for well over a decade, made a few comments and it’s one of my few compulsive mainstream media stops when looking for information on any subject.
Even so, I baulked at a subscription. The NYT gives you 20 free articles a month. That’s pretty good value, and it’s been enough for my needs as a writer and a consumer. That said- Some other issues popped up. Paul Krugman alone writes roughly that many articles per month. So do David Brooks and Frank Rich. These are guys who know how to put together an argument, and if I don’t always agree with them, I can at least respect their talent and ability to make their points. That can’t be said for many other mainstream media outlets.
I read at least three news sites a day. I read Bloomberg, The New York Times, BBC, ABC Australia, PBS and sometimes Washington Post, in the search for non-rabid news. I’ve got Reuters and AP bookmarked, and Google News on tap.
So, the evaluation works out like this:
1. The New York Times contains a lot more depth in major articles and op-eds and degrees of literacy which are notably missing from other sites.
2. I’ve had more than enough of politically motivated troll-news, and if the NYT has a Democrat flavour, it’s not based on clichés and macro-posts like other sites.
3. Do I use NYT research commercially? Yes. It pays for itself, and the site is pretty good in terms of searching for specific information.
4. The raw material approach from NYT is stronger and much broader
5. Do I need to see opinions from Krugman, Brooks, Rich, et al? Yes. They provide perspective, whether I agree or not.
6. Does the information value justify $1.10 a day? Yep.
7. Do I prefer to subscribe to things like this using PayPal rather than a credit card? Yes. I don’t use credit cards online unless it’s absolutely 200% essential.
8. Am I the sort of cheapskate that figures things out this way? Yep.
9. Is there a cancelation/refund policy? Yep.
Having read the NYT for well over 10 years and found a 99c offer for the first month (as distinct from $35, I signed up. Rupert Murdoch was right – Quality sells.
I still don’t agree with paywalls. I think that advertising revenue from fixed prices and marketing news site products (imagine a Best of The New York Times historical package 2000-2010, let alone the rest of its history) is a better and more realistic commercial option. I’m still worried that lousy business models will obliterate good news media. I still don’t like, or trust, MSM as a whole. But I’ll go along with this.
This article originally appeared in Digital Journal [Link]
Guardian to become digital-first publication
Guardian News & Media is the latest news organization to announce it will reorganize its strategy to focus on its digital initiatives.
“By becoming a digital-first organisation we’re taking the next natural step, one which we believe all newspapers will eventually have to take,” said Alan Rusbridger, editor-in-chief of London-based GNM, in a press release. He also informed employees that GNM would “move beyond the newspaper, shifting focus, effort and investment towards digital, because that is our future.”
Print will remain key to GNM operations, but “the strategy would involve changes to its newspapers over time and investment in digital initiatives such as a new US operation based in New York and new mobile offerings,” the release added.
Andrew Miller, chief executive of parent company Guardian Media Group, said, “The opportunities presented by the growth of digital media are immense. The Guardian’s journalism has never been more widely read. However, the same forces driving opportunity in digital are creating challenges for newspaper publishers across the developed world, including GNM.”
In May 2011, its site guardian.co.uk garnered more than 50 million monthly unique browsers and 2.8 million daily unique browsers globally. The national newspaper grew its paper readership by 3 percent against declines in the UK print press market of between 8 and 15 percent.
Other publications proclaiming their operations to be digital-first include The Journal Register Co. in the US and Postmedia in Canada.
Photo courtesy of mac steve
New York Times online traffic dips since paywall debut
New figures released this week found NYTimes.com traffic dropping since the company introduced a paywall on March 28. Its share of American pageviews for all newspaper websites decreased from 13 percent in March to 10.6 percent in April, its lowest share in 12 months, according to a study from ComScore, as reported by AdAge.
The study discovered pageviews on NYTimes.com from March to April declined 24.4 percent.
The ComScore study supports analysis by Hitwise, which announced in early April that traffic to NYTimes.com slowed by up 15 percent “most days during the 12 days following the paywall’s launch, compared to days during the previous period,” PaidContent reports.
A New York Times Co. spokeswoman was quick to point how many news sites saw a traffic decline this month due to the high volume of news traffic in March, due to major events such as the tsunami in Japan. “Despite that, and given that this is the first month where you can see the traffic patterns post-digital subscription launch, these are actually better numbers than our internal projections,” she told AdAge.
Also, Times execs said during its first-quarter conference call in late April 1 that it had already added 100,000 subscribers. What has yet to be determined is if those subscribers will continue their membership after the 99-cent introductory rate soon ends.