April 26, 2024
In five languages (English, Mandarin, Korean, Spanish, Portuguese and Russian) and two U.S. printing, “Newsonomics: Twelve Trends That Will Shape the News You Get” is the first Ken Doctor book. Sign up here for notice of the new Newsonomics Readers.
“People think nothing is happening, but that’s the farthest thing from the truth. Everybody is talking to everybody.” That’s the best quick summation I can offer of the first few months of what I called 2019 Consolidation Games back in January. That line, offered last week by one newspaper ...
Read MoreIt was a single weekend phone call three years ago that set Patrick Soon-Shiong on an unexpected path. It was Michael Ferro, whom he barely knew, calling in spring 2016, telling him he’d make the medtech billionaire a “partner” in Tribune Publishing — if he agreed to invest $70.5 million (at a ...
Read MoreLast year, on his third attempt — over 46 years — to get a good job in Los Angeles, Norm Pearlstine landed the plum of West Coast plums. Once Patrick Soon-Shiong paid a billionaire’s ransom to free the Los Angeles Times (and San Diego Union-Tribune) from the clutches of Tronc, Pearlstine ...
Read MoreRead all of Ken Doctor’s series on the new L.A. Times: Look past the view of the 105. Beyond it is the unfolding of the 21st century, delayed but now in full force at the Los Angeles Times. That’s my big takeaway from a visit to Patrick Soon-Shiong’s new temple to ...
Read MoreWhat would New York Times CEO Mark Thompson do if he ran Gannett? How much does he attribute the Times’ accumulation of millions of digital subscribers to the journalism produced by its burgeoning newsroom? Does the Times have a role to play in helping local news recover? RELATED ...
Read MoreBe sure to read the Mark Thompson Q&A that accompanies this story. RELATED ARTICLE The New York Times’ Mark Thompson on how he’d run a local newspaper: “Where can we stand and fight?” February 22, 2019 Mark Thompson’s nautical and military metaphors have generated some ribbing ...
Read MoreThe bankers are now hired. Is the early 2019 newspaper chain M&A face-off now getting serious? It’s reminiscent of an earlier brand of warfare. Newspaper chains — all cutting desperately, each facing a shortening deadline to make a “digital transition” — line up their dealmaking armies, ...
Read MoreAlden’s going to snatch Gannett! No, Gannett’s going to turn the tables and buy Alden’s Digital First Media! But wait, Gannett will reject Alden — is that a real offer? — and turn its attention to merging with Tribune! No, Tribune — having dispatched its CEO Justin Dearborn to clear the way for ...
Read MoreNeil Chase knows the painful realities of managing and motivating a daily newsroom in 2018. “You can’t ask dedicated, veteran career journalists to completely change the way they work without explaining why,” the Mercury News executive editor said at a panel discussion I moderated at Stanford ...
Read MoreEditors have long had to battle deadlines on election nights across America — pushing press runs to the last possible moment in order to get the most complete results into the next morning’s paper. Print is many things, but it isn’t a great real-time medium. Now, though, Gannett is throwing the ...
Read More