My solution to the problem

Partnerships are the future of the printed newspaper.  Agreements between newspapers and cable providers will save the industry.  Subscription rates can be rolled right into the monthly cable bill.  This would be a mandatory option.  It just follows in cable philosophy.  One gets few choices regarding cable subscriptions.  I cannot opt to to not receive, say, MSNBC (why would anyone want that anyway?), and pay less every month.  It makes sense that people will pay for the mandatory newspaper, because they already pay a steep monthly bill in the first place.  An extra few dollars per month will not make much of a difference.

More information on this after I implement it and change the world.  Now all I need is a few million dollars…

“Newsroom” Obsolete

I had a telephone interview with a television news station this morning.  The man on the other end of the phone told me that the newsroom is no longer called the newsroom, but rather it is the information center.  This came as a bit of a surprise to me, because journalism lingo seems to have a long shelf life.  But, logically, it does make more sense.  Reporters aren’t just reporters anymore.  They are editors, photographers, writers and producers.  Blogs have places in all news media.  “Crossing over” from one medium to the next is commonplace nowadays.  So this change is met with a warm reception from me.  Newsroom was a bland word.  Its connotation brought feelings of tedious discussions of politics and government.  But information center sounds jazzier.  Not just news, but all types of knowledge can be had from this one location.  The ever-evolving news business just got a little cooler.

Yahoo! possibly coming to Western New York

Yahoo! is looking a Western New York as a possible location for a data center.  Three counties are in the running.  If this comes through, a major step will have been made in the area’s ability to bring in huge businesses.  After one has moved into the area, more are sure to come.  Cheap real estate, a good workforce, and favorable temperatures (for computers) are all attractive selling points for companies looking to expand.  I feel so strongly about Western New York’s success and this news was very uplifting.  Good things, I feel, are on the way to metropolitan Buffalo.  Good things indeed.

Cooler Heads Prevail

Roxana Saberi was freed from Iranian prison Monday

Roxana Saberi, the journalist jailed in Iran, was freed Monday.  This news is terrific no matter what side you’re on.  Perhaps this will be the catalyst the flatlining news industry so desparately needs.  I know my confidence in the system is somewhat restored.  Previously, as if the outlook in journalism wasn’t already staggering, this woman gets convicted of doing nothing more than her job.  It’s good every now and then to see a good story in the news.  After all, the heartwarming news stories are the ones that keep people coming back.

NYT in Trouble

It’s no secret, I guess.  Newspapers are sinking.  Fast.  But the New York Times?  This for sure caught me by surprise.  While I knew it was struggling, I had no idea the situation was this bad.  The Times released its quarterly earnings report, and the outlook is gloomy, to say the least.  It is an astounding $1.3 billion in debt.  The report also said the paper has only $34 million in the bank.  I was aware that newspapers are on their way out.  But I didn’t think for one second the New York Times would be hit this hard.  Though I’ve never been too fond of the Times, this was not what I had in mind to fix the problems I saw in it.

It’s pretty sad that the country’s perhaps best-known paper is in trouble.  If it can’t survive, then what newspaper can?

Twitter is the bane of society

Twitter is a thorn in the side of America.  Not just any thorn, but a huge thorn, one that could puncture a piece of steel.  It is pretentious for people to think their daily movements and actions are so deserving of publicity that they must be written down and posted on a live blog website.  Forgive me, but I have much better things to do than wonder what Shaquille O’Neal is doing at 3:57 in the afternoon.  I am also too busy to check the status of my friends and family throughout the day.  As if the Internet culture isn’t self-centered enough, here comes this website that allows people to update their status every minute.  It actually makes me a bit ashamed to hear about people posting their movements all day long.  If I want to know what you did yesterday afternoon, I will surely ask you.  But please don’t assume I automatically want to know, because I definitely don’t.  

 

Now I’ve gone and upset myself, so I’d better stop ranting before I say something that will drop my grade…

Change format so we can make more money

Google CEO Eric Schmidt told newspaper executives to create a new format for online journalism.  Schmidt’s call is troubling, though, because he said to try to figure out what the consumer wants.  What he means is to tailor the news to the consumer.  This is a new movement in the direction of the news, where the consumer reads what he or she wants to, rather than what he or she needs to.  

 

Newspaper executives were disturbed by this, too.  Google profits from aggregating the online content of newspapers, but the newspapers are not compensated by Google for the use of their news.  Google, while driving pretty much the entire online world, has raised the eyebrows of most everybody in the news business.  Google seems so benign, but I’m not fooled.  Before we know it, Google’s going to have newspapers and television stations.

Buffalo Gets 24-hour Local News Station

Your News Now, YNN, debuted a few weeks ago in Buffalo.  The new 24-hour news channel will cover all news pertaining to Buffalo and Western New York.  According to the website buffalorising.com, the Time Warner-run channel will provide half-hour newscast throughout the day, with local weather every ten minutes.  This sort of thing has been a long time coming for Western New York.  Local television news still reigns king in the area, and a 24-hour local news station is a great idea.  When breaking news happened in Western New York before the channel was created, you had to wait for the evening news to find out what happened.  Now that there is a 24-hour news channel in the area, breaking news can be obtained pretty much on demand.  Maybe the area is atypical of trends in the news media, since the Buffalo News still thrives, and the local television news stations are continually successful.  It’s only a matter of time, though, before Buffalo succumbs to the reality of the decline of news.  But for now, I’ll be watching this channel quite a bit…

Score One for Free Press

Photographers and news media are allowed , once again, to photograph the military’s returning dead.  For the first time since the first Gulf War, it is not illegal for the news media to cover the war’s dead.  It is not automatic, however, but rather is at the discretion of the families of the deceased.  This signals a change in philosophy for the new executive administration.  President Obama is, at least for now, holding to his pledge for more open communication in the press.  While this sounds good for the news media, it is quite disconcerting for military families.  The solemn return of a soldier killed in action should be a private matter, absent of pressure to allow photographers and reporters.  While I am all for the First Amendment, I have yet to make up my mind on this matter.  On the one hand, my journalistic principles are strong.  On the other hand, several friends and family members serve in the wars overseas.

 

Check out a NY Times blog and related comments about the topic.

AP Cuts Rates

The news is broke.  The AP announced that it would cut rates again for member newspapers, and it would also try to control online content.  Newspapers seem to be failing every day, but through everything, the Associated Press seemed to be strong.  Not anymore.  It’s not surprising that it would resort to such drastic measures to continue to thrive, but it only adds more fuel to the declining newspapers fire.  More surprising, though, is its threat to sue web aggregators for the unauthorized use of its content.  According to mediapost.com, the main target of this threat is Google, whose news service is helping to put traditional newspapers out of business.  Web aggregators are the future of news, and the AP is not going to be blindsided by it.  They threatened to “pursue legal and legislative actions” in order to deter websites from using its content without permission.  As far as I’m concerned, it’s just another step towards the death of newspapers.