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). ...

Read More

Newsonomics: Is Tronc About To Go On The Market?

It almost sounds like a riddle: What’s a Tronc without the L.A. Times? As the Tronc sale of the Times and the San Diego Union-Tribune finalizes, now most likely in mid-April, the next question arises: What becomes of Tronc? Its eight remaining titles own an impressive history and still play ...

Read More

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 ...

Read More

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 ...

Read More

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: ...

Read More

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 ...

Read More

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 ...

Read More

Newsonomics: Tronc “Crashes”, DFM Owner Sued, News Guard Funded, Advance Tiptoes Into Paywalls — and The Big Lesson From Hypergrowing The Athletic

Is it really only the beginning of March? The news business’ gyrations seem to be moving at warp speed this year, and particularly this week, as two newspaper companies long in the news make new big moves. As Tronc reckons with the crash of its stock price and oh-so-private Alden Global Capital ...

Read More

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 ...

Read More

Newsonomics: Inside Tronc’s Sale of the L.A. Times (And All The New Questions To Come

Patrick Soon-Shiong has finally won his hometown prize. After a number of years of trying to buy his local paper, Los Angeles’ richest billionaire has seized an unpredictable opportunity. In a move that’s shocking but not really surprising, 65-year-old Soon-Shiong will pay a chunk of ...

Read More