The Huffington Post, a popular liberal blog, has raised $15 million from Oak Investment Partners, an investment firm that has interested in several media entities.
The Times of London is reporting that the money will be used for more local news and investigative journalism as founder Adrianna Huffington hopes to spread the site's influence.
Huffington Post was launched in 2005 on $2 million of seed capital and Adrianna Huffington, the site's founder, has been able to raise a combined $10 million in 2006 an 2007 from investors. The latest donation should bring it up to a reported $100 million in raised capital. Most of the money has been used to increase the site's staff.
There is concern, though, about whether the site can sustain its traffic now that the election of Barack Obama is over, an election that made the site one of the most highly-trafficked online.
Visit the Huffington Post here.
Read more about its recent fundraising efforts here and here.
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Newspapers' economic decline trickles to college publications
Interactive advertising grows 11 percent in Q3
NY Times' White House team announced
Friday, November 21, 2008
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Sulzberger's son to leave Oregonian, join NYT
Arthur Gregg Sulzberger, the son of the New York Times publisher Arther Ochs Sulzberger Jr., will leave his reporting job at The Oregonian to join the Times.
It is believed that Sulzberger's move to the Times marks an effort to keep the landmark paper under family control. It has been reported recently in New York Magazine and Vanity Fair articles that there are concerns about who would succeed Sulzberger Jr.
Sulzberger, 25, spent two years at The Oregonian after working as an investigative reporter at the Providence Journal following his graduation from Brown University.
There was no official announcement of Sulzberger's move to the Times. The news came from a source in the Multnomah County government in Oregon, which Sulzberger covered while at the Oregonian. It is unknown what role Sulzberger will take at the Times.
But according to a 2006 Boston Phoenix article about Sulzberger while he was at the ProJo, Alex Jones, the director of the Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics, and Public Policy at Harvard's Kennedy School of government, the younger Sulzberger was always in line for the job.
“I think that the prospects of a member of the family being the chairman and publisher after Arthur Jr. are very great,” Jones said. “I think that is the tradition of the family. I think the family believes that it is in a position of stewardship that needs to be in family hands. At the same time, that is premised on the idea that there is someone worthy."
Read more about the Sulzberger move here.
Read about the Sulzberger family here, here and here.
--
Arizona State dedicates new $71 million journalism building
LA Times makes near $700,000 from Obama merchandise sales
Cambridge officials search for Harvard Square news stand replacement
It is believed that Sulzberger's move to the Times marks an effort to keep the landmark paper under family control. It has been reported recently in New York Magazine and Vanity Fair articles that there are concerns about who would succeed Sulzberger Jr.
Sulzberger, 25, spent two years at The Oregonian after working as an investigative reporter at the Providence Journal following his graduation from Brown University.
There was no official announcement of Sulzberger's move to the Times. The news came from a source in the Multnomah County government in Oregon, which Sulzberger covered while at the Oregonian. It is unknown what role Sulzberger will take at the Times.
But according to a 2006 Boston Phoenix article about Sulzberger while he was at the ProJo, Alex Jones, the director of the Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics, and Public Policy at Harvard's Kennedy School of government, the younger Sulzberger was always in line for the job.
“I think that the prospects of a member of the family being the chairman and publisher after Arthur Jr. are very great,” Jones said. “I think that is the tradition of the family. I think the family believes that it is in a position of stewardship that needs to be in family hands. At the same time, that is premised on the idea that there is someone worthy."
Read more about the Sulzberger move here.
Read about the Sulzberger family here, here and here.
--
Arizona State dedicates new $71 million journalism building
LA Times makes near $700,000 from Obama merchandise sales
Cambridge officials search for Harvard Square news stand replacement
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
API 'crisis' summit asks media to re-invent itself
For major media organizations to escape their current economic crisis, senior leadership at said organizations must examine "strategic initiatives for re-invention" rather than trying to fix their current business model, turnaround specialists urged 50 media executives at the American Press Institutes's newspaper "crisis summit" on Nov. 13.
The executives met at a one-day, closed-door event in Reston, Va., to discuss the future of the journalism industry, an industry stricken with plummeting circulation and advertising revenue and ever-growing competition from various Web sites and others.
James Shein, Ph.d., turnaround specialist and professor at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and Steve Miller, also a turnaround specialist and executive chairman of auto-parts maker Delphi Corp, addressed the executives. Shein urged them to understand the phase of crisis: first there is being blinded to the situation; then inaction; then a faulty action or mistake; then crisis; and then dissolution about what happened. Failure to take action at one point, Shein said, moves the crisis further along.
Miller said simply cost-cutting wouldn't work.
"Cutting staffs will reduce costs, but it won't happen fast enough, and will erode the product," Miller said, according to the report posted by API. "You have to reinvent your business model."
Several of the executives made points -- that the problem isn't audience but revenue; that the problem is historically cyclical and companies must cut costs until a recovery; that newsrooms should hire specialists like scientists and lawyers to "highlight expertise."
But one older executive made the most optimistic note of the convention.
"The Internet is the best thing that's ever happened to us," he said. "We have immediacy, and we have unlimited space. The problem is that we have been very slow to react to this technology. But it's an opportunity.
Read API's report of the conference here.
--
AP, Post-Dispatch, KC Star collaborate for e-mail analysis
Sun-Times puts Nov. 5 fronts on eBay
Former NBC News correspondent starts media consulting firm
The executives met at a one-day, closed-door event in Reston, Va., to discuss the future of the journalism industry, an industry stricken with plummeting circulation and advertising revenue and ever-growing competition from various Web sites and others.
James Shein, Ph.d., turnaround specialist and professor at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and Steve Miller, also a turnaround specialist and executive chairman of auto-parts maker Delphi Corp, addressed the executives. Shein urged them to understand the phase of crisis: first there is being blinded to the situation; then inaction; then a faulty action or mistake; then crisis; and then dissolution about what happened. Failure to take action at one point, Shein said, moves the crisis further along.
Miller said simply cost-cutting wouldn't work.
"Cutting staffs will reduce costs, but it won't happen fast enough, and will erode the product," Miller said, according to the report posted by API. "You have to reinvent your business model."
Several of the executives made points -- that the problem isn't audience but revenue; that the problem is historically cyclical and companies must cut costs until a recovery; that newsrooms should hire specialists like scientists and lawyers to "highlight expertise."
But one older executive made the most optimistic note of the convention.
"The Internet is the best thing that's ever happened to us," he said. "We have immediacy, and we have unlimited space. The problem is that we have been very slow to react to this technology. But it's an opportunity.
Read API's report of the conference here.
--
AP, Post-Dispatch, KC Star collaborate for e-mail analysis
Sun-Times puts Nov. 5 fronts on eBay
Former NBC News correspondent starts media consulting firm
Friday, November 14, 2008
Tribune editor: Consolidated D.C. Bureau works
The Tribune Co.'s consolidated Washington D.C. bureau is a "great example of the way we must approach business today," said Gerould W. Kern, the editor of the Chicago Tribune
Kern's opinion opposes what many in the news industry disagree with strongly -- the liquidating of major newspaper's D.C. bureau's like the Los Angeles Times and the Tribune
The bureau, which will house about 30 reporters to cover Washington for all Tribune newspapers, is the first of its kind and came after Tribune Co.'s chairman Sam Zell called the former structure "economically unjustifiable."
Kern said it was vital to "make the most of our talent and resources to create maximum value in order to thrive in these challenging times."
Tribune Co. reported earlier this week a third-quarter net loss of $121.6 million. The company is currently in roughly $13 billion in debt, much of which occurred after Zell took the company private following his purchase of the company in 2007.
Read more about the Tribune Co.'s D.C. bureau here.
--
Business Week proposes satirical newspaper bailout plan
St. Pete Times restructures newsroom
Express-News offers more buyouts
Kern's opinion opposes what many in the news industry disagree with strongly -- the liquidating of major newspaper's D.C. bureau's like the Los Angeles Times and the Tribune
The bureau, which will house about 30 reporters to cover Washington for all Tribune newspapers, is the first of its kind and came after Tribune Co.'s chairman Sam Zell called the former structure "economically unjustifiable."
Kern said it was vital to "make the most of our talent and resources to create maximum value in order to thrive in these challenging times."
Tribune Co. reported earlier this week a third-quarter net loss of $121.6 million. The company is currently in roughly $13 billion in debt, much of which occurred after Zell took the company private following his purchase of the company in 2007.
Read more about the Tribune Co.'s D.C. bureau here.
--
Business Week proposes satirical newspaper bailout plan
St. Pete Times restructures newsroom
Express-News offers more buyouts
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Boston.com set to launch hyper-local sites
Boston.com, which is the Boston Globe's online component, plans to launch a set of "hyper-local" sites for various parts of Boston with the first site launching Friday.
This is a move to sell advertising on a local basis, which is a new strategy for media organizations since large-scale advertisers are trying to target specific audiences. Some major metro newspaper Web sites like the Washington Post have created similar local sites.
Boston.com's sites are expected to act as an "aggregate of news information from online sources around the city," which include local newspapers. There will be a main site with an editor that will update it two times a day; a wiki for locals to post information about groups and locations; a calendar for local events in each town; and a forum.
But some are unhappy with the move because it may draw advertisers away from the local newspapers and eventually drive them out of business.
"This is just the latest move from the 800-pound gorilla in the market, which is currently weighing in at 200 pounds," Gatehouse Media New England President and Publisher Kirk Davis told The Boston Daily. Davis's company runs several of the local papers like the Cambridge Chronicle and the Allston-Brighton TAB.
Davis's main complaint was the the proposed business model by Boston.com and the Globe would make money off journalism it didn't produce.
Read more about Boston.com's move for local sites here and here.
Take a look at one of the new local sites here.
--
Media, tech moguls hold secret meeting in NYC
Wa. Post profile's Obama's press secretary
NYTimes.com vice pres leaves for NPR
This is a move to sell advertising on a local basis, which is a new strategy for media organizations since large-scale advertisers are trying to target specific audiences. Some major metro newspaper Web sites like the Washington Post have created similar local sites.
Boston.com's sites are expected to act as an "aggregate of news information from online sources around the city," which include local newspapers. There will be a main site with an editor that will update it two times a day; a wiki for locals to post information about groups and locations; a calendar for local events in each town; and a forum.
But some are unhappy with the move because it may draw advertisers away from the local newspapers and eventually drive them out of business.
"This is just the latest move from the 800-pound gorilla in the market, which is currently weighing in at 200 pounds," Gatehouse Media New England President and Publisher Kirk Davis told The Boston Daily. Davis's company runs several of the local papers like the Cambridge Chronicle and the Allston-Brighton TAB.
Davis's main complaint was the the proposed business model by Boston.com and the Globe would make money off journalism it didn't produce.
Read more about Boston.com's move for local sites here and here.
Take a look at one of the new local sites here.
--
Media, tech moguls hold secret meeting in NYC
Wa. Post profile's Obama's press secretary
NYTimes.com vice pres leaves for NPR
Monday, November 10, 2008
Rather: Newspapers will survive Internet
In a National Press Club Centennial Forum at New York University, Dan Rather, the former anchor of CBS Evening News, defended the future of newspapers against the rising tide of new media.
His defense came in response to a question regarding the Internet's replacement of newspapers, which has become a common idea, especially since some newspapers have stopped running their presses, a move that is due in part to the high cost of newsprint and historically low advertising revenue.
Rather's reasoning was that newspapers had been faced with new media before in radio and television, and still it survived when people seemed assured of its death. Today, he said that the "pronouncements of (newspaper's) near death are premature."
"When I say the center of new media has shifted to new media, to online, that doesn't mean that anywhere in the new future we're going to be without newspapers, magazines, radio newscasts and TV newscasts provided they don't completely succumb to the temptation to become 'viewscasts,'" Rather said, adding that "viewscasts" are when "you get four or five people in the room to shout their views at one another...and that's what passes as news."
Panelists on the forum, which was held Oct. 16, 2008, included Rather; Tom Curley, president and CEO of The Associated Press; Jill Abramson, managing editor of The New York Times; and Jay Rosen, NYU journalism professor and press critic.
Watch the video of the forum here (click the Flash video on the left side of the page).
--
Time Inc. looks for employees to take buyout
Media General to lay off 21 at Tampa Tribune, WFLA-Ch.8
NY Times Co. takes hefty charge on New England properties
His defense came in response to a question regarding the Internet's replacement of newspapers, which has become a common idea, especially since some newspapers have stopped running their presses, a move that is due in part to the high cost of newsprint and historically low advertising revenue.
Rather's reasoning was that newspapers had been faced with new media before in radio and television, and still it survived when people seemed assured of its death. Today, he said that the "pronouncements of (newspaper's) near death are premature."
"When I say the center of new media has shifted to new media, to online, that doesn't mean that anywhere in the new future we're going to be without newspapers, magazines, radio newscasts and TV newscasts provided they don't completely succumb to the temptation to become 'viewscasts,'" Rather said, adding that "viewscasts" are when "you get four or five people in the room to shout their views at one another...and that's what passes as news."
Panelists on the forum, which was held Oct. 16, 2008, included Rather; Tom Curley, president and CEO of The Associated Press; Jill Abramson, managing editor of The New York Times; and Jay Rosen, NYU journalism professor and press critic.
Watch the video of the forum here (click the Flash video on the left side of the page).
--
Time Inc. looks for employees to take buyout
Media General to lay off 21 at Tampa Tribune, WFLA-Ch.8
NY Times Co. takes hefty charge on New England properties
Friday, November 7, 2008
API to host 'crisis summit' for newspapers
The American Press Institute will host a summit Nov. 13 for 50 newspaper executives to discuss the future of the industry.
But what is discussed at the summit will not be known until the API releases its report as the event is closed to the press.
The one-day conference -- one of the recent large scale efforts to help what is a struggling industry -- will be held in the API's Reston, Va., headquarters and it will be "a facilitated discussion of concrete steps the industry can take to reverse its declines in revenue, profit and shareholder value," according to a release.
"The critical role of journalism can only be preserved if the newspaper industry can come through its current crisis," said API CEO James B. Shein, who will lead the discussion.
Shein said they hope to alert newspaper executives of the "urgency of their situation, and lay out steps they will need to take to begin the renewal process."
Read more about the summit here and here.
--
Top Story: FBI kept tabs on former NY Times reporter Halberstam
DMN and Star-Telegram to consider combining newsrooms
E.W. Scripps to cut 400 jobs
Texas publisher withheld Obama election story
But what is discussed at the summit will not be known until the API releases its report as the event is closed to the press.
The one-day conference -- one of the recent large scale efforts to help what is a struggling industry -- will be held in the API's Reston, Va., headquarters and it will be "a facilitated discussion of concrete steps the industry can take to reverse its declines in revenue, profit and shareholder value," according to a release.
"The critical role of journalism can only be preserved if the newspaper industry can come through its current crisis," said API CEO James B. Shein, who will lead the discussion.
Shein said they hope to alert newspaper executives of the "urgency of their situation, and lay out steps they will need to take to begin the renewal process."
Read more about the summit here and here.
--
Top Story: FBI kept tabs on former NY Times reporter Halberstam
DMN and Star-Telegram to consider combining newsrooms
E.W. Scripps to cut 400 jobs
Texas publisher withheld Obama election story
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
NYC looks to help media industry with initiative
In an effort to help a economically decaying media industry, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said his administration will launch a media initiative to both try to understand the changing industry and help it recover.
The initiative is one of the first large-scale efforts made by an organization outside of the media to try to understand how the media can recover from plummeting revenue numbers. But it is not the first time New York City has done such a study. The city has also launched efforts to better understand its financial and film industries
That Bloomberg's administration wants to help his city's media industry shouldn't be a surprise, though. Considered the media world capital, the city houses several of the country's largest newspapers, magazines and most highly-trafficked Web sites; and it accounts for roughly 160,000 jobs and $15 billion in annual wages.
“This is aiming at media broadly defined, but we’re interested primarily in the transition from traditional media outlets into the electronic age,” said Steven Strauss, the vice president of the city's Economic Development Corporation, which will be leading the effort. "The initiative comes as old-media firms in the city and region are bleeding."
There is optimism, though, that any worldwide innovative changes to the media will originate in New York City because it is the city is also home to the worlds' largest advertising industry as well as the world's financial center.
Read about the initiative here.
--
New Yorker launches digital edition
Gannett CEO takes 17% pay cut
Washington Post, NY Times print extra election editions
Also, for a look at today's political cartoons proclaiming Barack Obama's presidential victory, go here.
The initiative is one of the first large-scale efforts made by an organization outside of the media to try to understand how the media can recover from plummeting revenue numbers. But it is not the first time New York City has done such a study. The city has also launched efforts to better understand its financial and film industries
That Bloomberg's administration wants to help his city's media industry shouldn't be a surprise, though. Considered the media world capital, the city houses several of the country's largest newspapers, magazines and most highly-trafficked Web sites; and it accounts for roughly 160,000 jobs and $15 billion in annual wages.
“This is aiming at media broadly defined, but we’re interested primarily in the transition from traditional media outlets into the electronic age,” said Steven Strauss, the vice president of the city's Economic Development Corporation, which will be leading the effort. "The initiative comes as old-media firms in the city and region are bleeding."
There is optimism, though, that any worldwide innovative changes to the media will originate in New York City because it is the city is also home to the worlds' largest advertising industry as well as the world's financial center.
Read about the initiative here.
--
New Yorker launches digital edition
Gannett CEO takes 17% pay cut
Washington Post, NY Times print extra election editions
Also, for a look at today's political cartoons proclaiming Barack Obama's presidential victory, go here.
Monday, November 3, 2008
TV journalism suffers more than newspapers
"If anybody's getting killed in the 21st-century media market, it's TV news, not newspapers," the publisher for the Tacoma News-Tribune wrote in a column published in Saturday's editions.
The column attacks the belief that newspapers are dying, which was a remark NBC news anchor Brian Williams made Oct. 28 during "NBC Nightly News." The particular remark came in regards to the news that the 100-year-old Christian Science Monitor had stopped publishing.
David Zeeck, the News-Tribune's publisher, went on to say that the Internet has bolstered newspapers and that falling circulation, a product of readers going online, is not an accurate depiction of a newspaper's success. Moreover, the ratings for network news has nearly shrunk twice as fast as circulation of newspapers.
"While I watched Brian on Tuesday, it was on TiVo, where I never have to see a TV ad," Zeeck wrote. "I’m not alone. Research suggests digital video recorders will be in 50 percent of homes by 2010, and will be “near ubiquitous” in a few years. That means nobody will have to see TV ads in the near future."
There is a floating belief that cable news stations, many of which have lost considerable news credibility since clogging their airwaves with countless pundits, could try to partner with some major metro newspapers to share advertising revenue, stories and, most importantly, give the stations more credibility as a legitimate news organization.
Read Zeeck's column here.
--
Seattle Times Co. to cut 130 to 150
St. Pete Times, Miami Herald form combined state bureau
Newspapers in dire need of new business model
The column attacks the belief that newspapers are dying, which was a remark NBC news anchor Brian Williams made Oct. 28 during "NBC Nightly News." The particular remark came in regards to the news that the 100-year-old Christian Science Monitor had stopped publishing.
David Zeeck, the News-Tribune's publisher, went on to say that the Internet has bolstered newspapers and that falling circulation, a product of readers going online, is not an accurate depiction of a newspaper's success. Moreover, the ratings for network news has nearly shrunk twice as fast as circulation of newspapers.
"While I watched Brian on Tuesday, it was on TiVo, where I never have to see a TV ad," Zeeck wrote. "I’m not alone. Research suggests digital video recorders will be in 50 percent of homes by 2010, and will be “near ubiquitous” in a few years. That means nobody will have to see TV ads in the near future."
There is a floating belief that cable news stations, many of which have lost considerable news credibility since clogging their airwaves with countless pundits, could try to partner with some major metro newspapers to share advertising revenue, stories and, most importantly, give the stations more credibility as a legitimate news organization.
Read Zeeck's column here.
--
Seattle Times Co. to cut 130 to 150
St. Pete Times, Miami Herald form combined state bureau
Newspapers in dire need of new business model
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