Newsonomics: Will Facebook’s Troubles Finally Cure Publishers Of Patformitis?

That Facebook’s fall from grace will be twinned in history with the rise of Trumpism seems poetic. It’s a digital Frankenstein fable, one even Mel Brooks might have a hard time satirizing: a perhaps uncontrollable phenomenon escaping from the laboratory (or, in the modern case, Room H33). ...

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Newsonomics: GateHouse Goes Bigger, Buying Austin’s Daily and Eyeing The Palm Beach Post

GateHouse Media, though suffering through all the same revenue woes as its peers, is about to get significantly bigger.   RELATED ARTICLE Newsonomics: Will Michael Ferro double down on newspapers or go digital? February 21, 2018     Earlier today, GateHouse officially became the ...

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Newsonomics: 11 Questions Into The Year, on Vulture Alden, the Merc’s Decline, the Post’s Profitability and The Daily Goes All Radio

No, the saga of the Los Angeles Times isn’t the only story in the newspaper world. It’s just that in its breathtaking oddness, it consumed the beginning of our year. Let’s begin with one question about the future of the Times, but then move on to other early-in-the-year questions that may tell ...

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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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Newsonomics: A Call To Arms (And Wallets) In The New Era Of Deregulation And Bigger Media

Quibble, if you will, about the level of degeneracy now afoot in the heart of the Old and New Confederacy, as the Roy Moore saga provides yet more sick drama in the country. That’s a sideshow. What’s quickly appearing on the main stage — if it’s still behind the curtain for now — is the... Read More

Newsonomics: A Q & A With NYT’s Mark Thompson 2020, A Half Billion In Digital Revenue And Thinning Competition

Five years is a long time, especially in the media business. It was five years ago this week that Mark Thompson took on the top job at The New York Times Company. It was an enterprise still wobbling from the effects of the Great Recession, its new paywall only a year old. The Huffington ...

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Newsonomics: Who Might Buy CNN? If AT&T Sells, Consider Murdoch, Bloomberg, Bezos and More

We know that Randall Stephenson says CNN’s not for sale, even though he doesn’t even own it yet. As the news emerged last week that the Department of Justice’s antitrust division has been jawboning with AT&T Inc.) on its agreed-to purchase of Time Warner Inc., with CNN an ...

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New York Times’ Breakthrough ‘The Daily’: How It Fits Its Digital Business Transformation

Within nine months of its launch, it looks like The New York Times has more than a success on its hands. “The Daily” is becoming a phenomenon, an out-of-the-blue hit that is forcing print-based business leaders to think anew about the revolutionary power of digital audio. Further, ...

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