Newsonomics: “Retiring” From Tronc, What Is Michael Ferro Up To?

    Updated later March 19, 7:52 p.m.: So what led Tronc chairman Michael Ferro to suddenly “retire” today? I throw around some ideas in the piece below, published early afternoon, but it looks as if we have a definitive answer. Fortune’s Kristen Bellstrom and Beth Kowitt broke the ...

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Newsonomics: How Grows The Millennial Market, Charlotte Agenda and Spirited Media?

Two local-news companies have focused on the large millennial populations in urban centers. Now, with several years under their collective belts, we can report some intriguing numbers. By far, their number one source of revenue: sponsorship.   RELATED ARTICLE On track to bring in $850,000 ...

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Newsonomics: Did Digital First Media Owner Alden Cook The Books?

  That’s the allegation now moving into Delaware’s Chancery Court. This week, Solus Alternative Asset Management LP accused Alden Global Capital — the increasingly maligned majority owner of Digital First Media — of “possible mismanagement and breaches of fiduciary duty.” The big charge: ...

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Newsonomics: As News Guard Gets Funded, Will An Ad Play Lead It To Success?

The latest Steve Brill/Gordon Crovitz startup (which I described in detail last fall) takes an easy-to-understand traffic light approach to combatting the scourge of fake news. Its promised green/yellow/red signals seem like they should be brain-dead simple for even the least brand-aware of ...

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Newsonomics: What’s The Sound Of A Tronc Crashing?

Thursday marked a day of reckoning for Tronc. The company — the last big public newspaper company to report year-end earnings — released those numbers for 2017. They weren’t good, as I had signaled in my earlier reporting on the chaos at and subsequent sale of the Los Angeles Times. But what ...

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Newsonomics: Lewis D’Vorkin Out At L.A. Times, More Tronc Changes In The Works

In the latest stunning development at the Los Angeles Times, Tronc is moving two of its top executives to new roles, I’ve learned. As conference calls consumed key Tronc executives this weekend, the still-in-process battle plan now includes the end of embattled Times editor-in-chief Lewis ...

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Newsonomics: NPR’s Ross Levinsohn Scoop Delivers A Double Blow To Tronc

On the same afternoon that NPR’s David Folkenflik was to release his scoop on Los Angeles Times publisher Ross Levinsohn’s alleged history of workplace harassment, Levinsohn himself delivered a manifesto of sorts on Tronc’s strategy. Speaking to the Needham Growth Conference ...

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Newsonomics: Inside L.A.’s Journalistic Collapse

How far is The Post from Los Angeles? Figure almost 50 years, as well as 3,000 miles. While big audiences and the remaining fully paid journalists can delight in the triumphant Spielbergian tale of The Washington Post’s decision to follow The New York Times in publishing the Pentagon Papers in ...

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Newsonomics: 20 Words That Defined The Bizarre News Year That Was

This is the year America wishes it could take a shower long enough to wash away the scum of daily mud-slinging. Remember 2016? Last year, it seemed as if Tronc was the most memorable word of the news year, a new media name seemingly invented as self-parody. In 2017, the memorable words tumble ...

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The Seven Percent Rule: Why A Ridiculously Small Percentage of Digital Audience Drives The Future of News

Written for Traffic, the magazine of paywall provider Piano Media, here I explore in detail how and why less than 10 percent of readers really will make or break a digital news business. Good thinking, and analysis, via Mather Economics, New York Times, Washington Post, Tronc, Star Tribune, ...

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