Michael Ferro Immediately Redefines Tribune Publishing’s Chairman Role

Companion column: Santa Ana Showdown: Tribune’s Bid for Southern California   Michael Ferro’s new title at Tribune Publishing is “non-executive chair.” Since Ferro’s company, Merrick Media, bought a major stake in Tribune earlier this month, he is behaving more like an executive ...

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Newsonomics: Can You Get Readers To Pay A Dollar A Day For Digital News?

Is local news worth a dollar a day? That’s the fascinating question The Boston Globe is now posing to its local readers. It’s a query that should resonate among the press around North America and Europe as well. Ninety-nine cents has become the golden price of digital media. ...

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Newsonomics: The Thinking (and Dollars) Behind The New York Times’ New Digital Strategy

It was a quiet manifesto — an 11-page document that unofficially serves as The New York Times’ follow-up to the much dissected Innovation Report (Nieman Lab’s story about the Innovation Report is the most popular story in its history) of May 2014. (Look at the signatures at the bottom of this ...

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What the Next Recession Could Do to The Media Business

Maybe it’s a blip. Maybe we’ll see the global stock market plunge of the last week as a hysterical overreaction to China’s economic woes. Or maybe, it’s the unwelcome, but real, signal that the economic recovery that the U.S. – and lately Europe – have enjoyed may be compromised. Certainly, ...

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What Are They Thinking? NBC-U and The ‘Digital Dozen’ Seek Perpetual Youth

Consider them Ponce de Leon investments. Just as the Spanish explorer trawled Florida for the Fountain of Youth 500 years ago, NBC-Universal and its peers are now embarking on expensive voyages to seek a solution to aging and death, investing in and buying into the newest media. Their profound ...

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Newsonomics: 10 Numbers on The New York Times’ 1 million Digital-Subscriber Milestone

If, half a decade ago, you’d been able to put money down in Vegas on The New York Times’ chances of reaching 1 million digital subscribers by 2015, what kind of odds could you have gotten? Longer than longshot. In 2010, when the Times announced it would put up a paywall, hardly anyone thought ...

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What Are They Thinking? Why Atlantic Media Floods The Zone

Related post: Newsonomics: On Endgames and Endtimes   Facebook’s Instant Articles starts populating with news stories this week, as questions abound about the shape and impact of Apple News. Meanwhile Twitter is figuring out how to hire editors for its Lightning curation product and ...

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What Are They Thinking: Two Guilds Gear Up for Digital Media Dominance

Cue up the soundtrack from Newsies: “In 1899, the streets of New York City echoed with the voices of newsies, peddling the papers of Joseph Pulitzer, William Randolph Hearst, and other giants of the newspaper world. On every corner you saw them carrying the banner. Bringing you the news for a ...

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Newsonomics: Wall Street Journal Redesign a Step in Its Digital Catchup

Don’t just call it a redesign. The Wall Street Journal, like Bloomberg before it a couple of months ago, wants you think about more than appearance, which “redesign” implies for many. You might call the new Journal a multi-platform rejiggering. Importantly, it represents the first major, uh, ...

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What Are They Thinking? Bloomberg’s Justin Smith Sees a Window in Shakeup of Digital Reader Habits

Justin Smith pronounces himself happy with Bloomberg’s month-old redesign. The C.E.O. of Bloomberg Media has been watched closely since he assumed the job a year and a half ago, coming over from a much-acclaimed stint rebuilding Atlantic Media. Now he can finally point to something very ...

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