The Vogue September Issue: By The Numbers
In the world of fashion, September is the one month when thicker is better.
read moreCutting The Cable
Add cable and satellite TV to the list of old media that are getting hammered by the Internet. The nation’s six largest cable and satellite providers lost almost 600,000 subscribers in the second quarter of this year, the largest quarterly decline in history, according to Bloomberg News. Some of the loss can be explained by [...]
read moreJukebox Journalism
America’s newspaper companies just reported their second-quarter results, and the news was bad — again. Gannett, McClatchy, the New York Times, the Washington Post — all saw print advertising shrink by 6 percent to 10 percent from the same time last year. Iowa-based Lee is on the verge of bankruptcy. In some cases (e.g., the [...]
read moreNewspapers Should Get Out Of The Opinion Business
Newspapers should ditch opinions altogether and focus on what truly sets them apart in their markets – solid local reporting, news analysis and in-depth investigations. Focus on quality. Cover local news, business, arts and sports better than anyone.
read moreNewspapers Are Toast
One of the most interesting analysts of the news business is Alan Mutter, who blogs as the Newsosaur. I’ve used research turned up by Mutter in several of my regular marketing columns for MinnPost.com. His latest post is not completely surprising, given the events of the last few years, but it’s eye-opening nonetheless. ”The stubborn refusal [...]
read moreDucks And Coverage
Patch.com is growing fast. The hyperlocal news sites, owned by AOL, now number 23 in Minnesota – all of them in the Twin Cities and suburbs, except for an outpost in Northfield. That’s more than double the number that were operating just six months ago. Don’t know what Patch is? It’s basically a small-town newspaper [...]
read moreNew ESPN Tell-All: Sordid Tales From The Frat-Boy Deep
A new book will reveal the rise of a successful sports network, complete with explicit stories of sex, drugs and knock-down, drag-out fights. Will ESPN respond to this PR blow?
read moreMillions Of Visitors, No Revenue
It’s tough to make money in online news. That’s the conclusion of a massive report issued last week by the journalism school at Columbia University. That comes as no surprise to print and broadcast executives, who have seen their once-mighty monopolies erode in recent years faster than a Mississippi River levee at full flood. But [...]
read moreMedia With An Axe To Grind
You know the phrase “caveat emptor:” Let the buyer beware. There’s another bit of Latin that people should acquaint themselves with: “caveat lector,” or let the reader beware. Never has there been so much information available to the public. And never has so much of it come from people with an axe to grind, either politically or commercially.
read moreHow The Twin Cities Could Soon Become A One-Newspaper Town
For years, I’ve believed that the Twin Cities would inevitably end up with one newspaper. That’s been the trend nationwide for half a century. Why should we be the only place that bucks it? Events in California could determine whether we finally succumb to that trend.
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