Newspapers Are “Irretrievably Broken”
The marketplace value of traditional journalism is zero. The business model of newspapers is irretrievably broken. And anyone who thinks differently is bringing a knife to a gunfight. So says the man who runs a media empire that includes the St. Paul Pioneer Press. John Paton is CEO of Digital First, a venture created to [...]
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 moreMore Pain Coming For Newspapers And Local TV
Editor’s note: This is John Reinan’s weekly marketing column for MinnPost.com. Some stability has returned to the traditional media. Local TV stations just fattened up on their usual feast of election-year commercials. And after four years of ruthless cost cutting, newspaper companies have slowed — not stopped, but slowed — their bleeding. But this brief [...]
read morePutting Up Paywalls on the Internet
This is John Reinan’s weekly marketing column for MinnPost.com. To see the original, go to http://bit.ly/9Di7sa. The free ride on the Internet isn’t over yet, but there are a lot of people looking for ways to bump up the fare. Last week, AT&T announced the end of its unlimited data plan for smartphones. The problem: [...]
read moreThe Newspaper Death Rattle
Newspapers are dead. Or so some harbingers predict. Most likely they’re right too, at least in the traditional forms we think of them in. Sure, there will be the “big ones” who might not ever fall by the wayside – The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, The National Enquirer – but that might be it. All [...]
read moreAs media landscape changes, so must marketing
Editor’s note: This is John Reinan’s weekly marketing column for MinnPost.com. To see the original, go to http://tinyurl.com/7b58fq. Sometimes I wish for the old days, when press agents would buy a few lunches, send a case of scotch to the newsroom at Christmas and ensure coverage of their clients in the only medium that really [...]
read moreWhat Next for Sarah Palin?
Love her or hate her, Sarah Palin is the most fascinating figure to emerge from this year’s election — aside from, of course, the president-elect. Two months ago, I doubt if 5 percent of Americans had heard of the governor of Alaska. But for the past eight weeks, she’s been possibly the most talked-about person in [...]
read morePickens and ProPublica: Public Spirit or Private Agenda?
An upcoming book written by Matthew Bishop and Michael Green coins the term for the latest wave of do-gooders: philanthrocapitalists. Bishop and Green recognized that donors such as Bill Gates and Bill Clinton are redefining philanthropy, formerly a one-step action of charitable giving, into a business-style model of accountability and results. Appropriately timed for the September book [...]
read moreI'm a Little Verklempt
I showed up at the National Conference on Media Reform to register and get my material. I had registered as a blogger, and when they gave me my name badge, it carried a little purple ribbon printed in gold letters with the magic word “PRESS.” I honestly had a physical reaction when I saw it. I [...]
read moreMedia Reform Starts Here
Well, not on Idea Peepshow. But a few short blocks away, at the Minneapolis Convention Center, thousands of deep thinkers, do-gooders, bloggers and assorted social irritants from across the USA will be on hand for the National Conference for Media Reform, sponsored by Freepress.net. Dan Rather and Bill Moyers are among those who will be there, [...]
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