News Organization

Posted on 23. Oct, 2008 by Rebecca Harshbarger in Uncategorized

I could only catch part of this meeting, due to being in class all day, but everyone seems anxious.  Jim Willse, from the Star Ledger, announced that the paper would be cutting 40% of its staff by the end of the year, and everyone wanted to talk about advertising revenue.  So much of newspapers’ costs were from the industrial side, the actual production of the paper, but so much of the newspapers’ profits were also from the industrial side, in terms of print advertising revenue.  Questions asked- why are newspapers firing journalists to deal with losses from the industrial side, when it is content that is what is ultimately valuable, content that is the future, and printing presses are what is leading to lost.  One attendee suggested a hypothetical exercise, where we imagine that the hard copy of the paper is gone, and there is only the web.  The verdict? Impossible.  Companies are publicly owned, have significant debt, and need the hard paper to pay off their debt, and would go bankrupt if they nixed their paper, despite the industrial costs.  One theme- online advertising revenue will catch up in value, but media organization needs to get smart and pick up revenue that is slipping away, when it could be used to create great content.