The Newsonomics of 10 Ways We’ll Judge 2014

First published at Nieman Journalism Lab At the World Publishing Expo held in Berlin this week, two CEOs of major international news companies — Andrew Miller of The Guardian and Mathias Döpfner of Axel Springer — were asked a question: On a scale of one to 10, how far along were there ...

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The Newsonomics of Near-Term Numerology

Quite literally, significant newspaper nameplates (and, more significantly, the real estate those nameplates rest uneasily on) are going for the prices of mansions in many communities. So why buy? Sometimes, it’s simple: You get a great deal. That’s what Warren Buffett got in his purchase of ...

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Berkshire Hathaway Media Group: Financial Engineering Makes the Deal

It's the early movements of the ball that make this deal more a feat of financial engineering than a newspaper deal: Lend Media General $400 million, and extend a $45 line of credit, at 10.5% interest. That allows Media General to escape shorter-term financial pressures, and gives BH a good ...

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The Newsonomics of 2012’s Magic Formula

We can point to three major phenomena that profoundly changed the news landscape this year. Each offers up its own half-formed metrics for that magic formula in process, and each has dramatically changed the possibilities of news, each largely positive: 1) The transcendant transformative age ...

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The Newsonomics of Less is More, More or Less

One headline: “Salt Lake City paper axes 43% of its staff”. Another: “Deseret News a model of growth and innovation for the entire industry”. One’s a fact; the other is aspirational.

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L.A. Times: The Inconvenient Poster Child

Is the L.A. Times the new ground zero of newspaper staff cuts and frightsizing? Los Angelenos, of which I am one by nativity but not choice, may think so, imagining L.A. as the center of everybody’s universe. It’s not, of course, but the saga of the Times has been one of the more ...

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