The Register – Saturday 24th February 2007:
The newspaper industry has brought its financial troubles on itself, according to the chief executive of Craigslist, the company that has been accused of decimating the newspaper industry’s advertising business.
Jim Buckmaster told weekly technology law podcast OUT-LAW Radio that his business was not responsible for publishers’ problems. He said that a focus on money and profits has in fact damaged their business.
“Journalism as practiced at newspapers has been hurt by an excess of money over the years as you’ve seen newspapers bought and sold and consolidated into large chains run by corporate managers to maximise profit, and increasingly over decades have resorted to running wire stories, putting an ever-greater proportion of advertising into their newspapers and shying away from writing hard-hitting stories about corruption in high places,” said Buckmaster. “The financial position of newspapers has not declined, it has more plateaued.”
To obtain the profits, one must refrain from the profits.
Are the newspapers on planet Zoltar ?
Where have they been ?
Are they devoid of any reality ??
Reminds me of the music industry or the US car industry ?
legends in their own minds.
Overpaid in the top floors , while their employees slave away to keep their jobs working in spite of the shallowness and stupidity of their overpaid poorly focused management.
US car industry execs – they should be shot ” Lets avoid fuel and safety rules and the energy crunch and sell old trucks loaded with options and market the hell out of them to make them “cool””.
The recording industry lets gouge the two we hate ” musicians and customers”
The recording industry knows that they can easily be replaced and bypassed by teenagers and promoters with pentium 166s.
Wait till the tv industry is pulled away from their advertising sales graphs and charts when they realize young people are involved with members of the opposite sex on msn messenger and not watching survivor and its commercials.
The greedy eighties changed the market. The focus is on short term profit instead of steady growth. A board will not hire a CEO unless they promise spectacular results and quick dividends. No pride in ownership in public companies anymore. This day trader mentality is hurting most US industry.
#1 – “…Overpaid in the top floors , while their employees slave away to keep their jobs working in spite of the shallowness and stupidity of their overpaid poorly focused management….”
Ah, corporate America 🙂
What so disruptive about it that the newspapers could not do the EXACT SAME THING? They were into the net when Craigslist appeared. It isn’t the disruptive technology (essentially a 1985 type BBS) that caused this problem. It is the boneheads at the papers.
I publish a small newspaper in Warren County, Virginia.
I think that newspapers that rely on AP stories that are available in lots of other places are getting hit hard by the Internet–as they were by television and radio. Community papers that offer original, fresh, local content will do fine and are actually growing.
Having done both, I can tell you that there is still TONS more revenue in a printed product than in an Internet site.
But a chain newspaper that trims it’s staff and relies on content available in hundreds of other places the night before is a victim of laziness and greed, not technology.
As I said, local “Penny Slaver” type free papers are thriving while increasingly expensive newspapers without decent local reporting are dying off. I’m glad actual community papers are doing well, Dan, though I’m honestly not surprised. I imagine the free “Yard Sale Saturday!” papers are eating into local paper revenues too, but market ads and such probably make up for it. The big chains that bought local papers and fired the staffs aren’t doing as well, and got what they deserved in my opinion.
John, you make an interesting point about the listing sites, but nowadays everyone has a computer. In 1985, a BBS reached a much smaller, mostly pretty nerdy audience. Disruptive isn’t disruptive until you actually reach the more general market. After the web was already large, some big newspapers added classified listings to their local news sites as part of their classifieds service. I don’t know how that has worked out for them. Maybe someone else knows.
Newspapers out of date. Film at 11.
9. “Film at 11.”
Film way out of date, webcam interview at 11.
#10 – Actually, webcam interview 10 minutes from now.
n Denver the two newspapers merged and ad rates doubled. It was Econ 101 all over again; advertisers went to other outlets. All my rental ads are now on Craigslist. It offers more room for a better description and pictures. It’s a no-brainer.
The biggest problem with newspapers is the fact that no one reads them thanks to the ads and poor writing. He’s write. Craigslist will be fine if they can keep the SPAM out – which is equally annoying.