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Location: Jonquil City (aka Smyrna) Georgia- by Atlanta
16,259 posts, read 24,761,129 times
Reputation: 3587
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For decades the FCC has banned licensees of TV and radio stations from cross ownership of newspapers in the markets where they compete. Yes, there are some such as the Chicago Tribune and WGN TV and WGN AM radio because they grandfathered in existing properties.
I am starting to wonder if the FCC ought to look at doing away with this rule. The rule was put in for good reason but long before the internet, satellite radio, free weekly urban papers and 24/7 cable news channels.
The fact is that newspapers are really in danger of dying. Nobody under 30 reads them anymore. Both newspapers and broadcasters live pretty much on advertising and, if they could exist as a team, the synergy would be great for both and some, if not most. of the urban newspapers might be saved.
What do you think?
Synergy hasn't done much for the Chicago Tribune that filed for bankruptcy in Dec 2008.
In Canada the Toronto Star owns 20% of CTVglobemedia which in turn owns CTV, CHUM radio, and the Globe And Mail newspaper. Rogers Media, also in Canada, owns a major cable-tv service, wireless & landline phone services, radio & TV stations, consumer and business magazines & the Toronto Blue Jays.
Both companies are profitable but I see little synergy between their newspapers & other assets. Being part of larger empire helps but the newspapers still have to pull their own weight. I don't have a problem with cross-ownership but don't see it as a solution to dying readership.
Location: Jonquil City (aka Smyrna) Georgia- by Atlanta
16,259 posts, read 24,761,129 times
Reputation: 3587
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gary Siete
Synergy hasn't done much for the Chicago Tribune that filed for bankruptcy in Dec 2008.
In Canada the Toronto Star owns 20% of CTVglobemedia which in turn owns CTV, CHUM radio, and the Globe And Mail newspaper. Rogers Media, also in Canada, owns a major cable-tv service, wireless & landline phone services, radio & TV stations, consumer and business magazines & the Toronto Blue Jays.
Both companies are profitable but I see little synergy between their newspapers & other assets. Being part of larger empire helps but the newspapers still have to pull their own weight. I don't have a problem with cross-ownership but don't see it as a solution to dying readership.
There may be no solution. I just thought that they might try it. It might not even work because I do not know if you could combine print and TV journalist in a newsroom and not have lots of fighting between them. I don't know if the future will have daily papers.
Bingo, in addition to less people reading them more importantly advertisers have jumped ship and moved onto better pastures, newspapers lose money on the sale of a newspaper if they were relying solely on it's cost to the consumer. A lot of advertising on the internet is click based or through affiliation. In the first case you only play if someone actually clicks on your ad. In the second case you're providing a commission to the advertiser if that ad results in a sale. Add in geo targeting and content based ads and you have a very effective way to maximize your advertising dollars.
Location: Jonquil City (aka Smyrna) Georgia- by Atlanta
16,259 posts, read 24,761,129 times
Reputation: 3587
Quote:
Originally Posted by thecoalman
Bingo, in addition to less people reading them more importantly advertisers have jumped ship and moved onto better pastures, newspapers lose money on the sale of a newspaper if they were relying solely on it's cost to the consumer. A lot of advertising on the internet is click based or through affiliation. In the first case you only play if someone actually clicks on your ad. In the second case you're providing a commission to the advertiser if that ad results in a sale. Add in geo targeting and content based ads and you have a very effective way to maximize your advertising dollars.
That is true but the Sunday paper here is always filled with ads from the stores and real estate section listings. Why not only publish a paper on Sunday- or maybe a weekend edition that would be thrown on Saturday and then publish on line the rest of the week?
It seems to me that all they have to do is change their editorial stance to draw in people that actually read newspapers and want news and political analysis.
If a newspaper is the printed journalistic equivalent of Air America or MSNBC no wonder it's going to fail.
That is true but the Sunday paper here is always filled with ads from the stores and real estate section listings. Why not only publish a paper on Sunday
The economics don't work, you still need a staff, printing etc. Maintaining that for one edition isn't going to be very profitable and the quality suffers. I live in an area that still has two newspapers which is a rarity and unheard of for such a small area as mine. 20 years ago or so there was one Sunday edition from another newspaper that only published on Sunday so they had the market cornered. That paper went out of business and that was 20 years ago. The others have since put out their own Sunday editions.
There is another much smaller paper here that publishes just on Sunday but it's not really a newspaper anymore. Lot of ads and fluff pieces, local events. It's a nice resource for the community but about the only real news in it is the local sports or they might have a piece if something major happened locally and I believe that is usually just a reprint from parent newspaper.
Quote:
Originally Posted by KevK
or maybe a weekend edition that would be thrown on Saturday and then publish on line the rest of the week?
My experience at least with the local papers is that they have a very poor showing when it comes to the internet. For example the one paper here is going to have archival material and photos going back at least one hundred years if not more. It would be a tremendous resource that advertisers would be interested in advertising on if it was made available for free. The photographs for example could be offered at low resolution over the internet and for fee for large resolution. They just have not moved on. I beleive the one paper requires a subscription for stories more than a few months old.
There's a tremendous amount of ad revenue potential out there but you need content, newspapers have all they need especially historically yet they fail to adapt their business model.
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