9 Questions: Zell’s Clown Car, The New “100,” Tablets & Print Circ & Daughter of Alesia

Will the cats of newspaper industry be successfully herded? After pouring millions into his Alesia project, Rupert Murdoch gave the retreat order to his would-be Roman warriors, killing the tablet-oriented paid news portal initiative. Though his News Corp is the biggest news company in the ...

Read More

News Flash! Circulation Up 1042%!

Seriously, I wonder how much the Gumbo-like turns of circulation accounting will matter to ad buyers. Increasingly, across all media buying, they are focused on audience. They want to know who (gender, age, household status, region, clickstream behavior, recent buying behavior and more) and ...

Read More

The Newsonomics of Reborn Newspaper Profit

News companies have far fewer resources than they’d like and they need. While once they were the big guys, looking at buying start-ups, for now, they’re largely on the sidelines, marveling at the mojo, the profits, and the acquisitions of the Googles and the Apples.

Read More

New York Times Local 2.0?

Scott Heekin-Canady, president of the New York Times Media Group, told the FT that the Times may take its local edition push into 10-15 cities relatively soon. "We're in active discussions for five markets now," he said. Why? Heekin-Canady "cited depressed local economics."

Read More

Circ Math 101: Less is Less

Look at some of the individual results, and you understand why the New York Times just announced that it is taking another 100 jobs out of its newsroom and why other newsroom (and, of course, wider) cuts may increase -- not decrease -- as Wall Street indicates that an overall economic recovery ...

Read More

The Shrinking Daily vs. The Daily Eric

The Daily Eric to Tell Readers What They Want to Know Within six months, Google will automatically serve news readers the news they want by combining its knowledge of their reading, buying and search behavior. Google will sell premium ads on these pages and keep the revenue, sharing none with ...

Read More

Slaughtering the Cash Cows a Bit Too Early

One big reason the numbers are declining is the product itself. In the last year, we've seen unprecedented cuts in the product -- and the customers are noticing. It looks like the amount of newsprint is down about 10-15%; some in stories, some in ads. Trusted bylines have disappeared overnight. ...

Read More

Circ Numbers: Talking Quantity…and “Quality”

How fast can you paddle? That’s the unabated message of today’s ABC FAS FAX circulation numbers being reported. They cover the six-month period, through March 31. Overall, the water keeps rising: 3.5% down daily, and 4.5% down Sunday. Those are in line with what we’ve now seen ...

Read More