Times Company posts profit

The Times Company has posted a profit for the first quarter of 2010 with a net income of $12.8 million. This is a vast improvement from the loss of $74.5 million in the first quarter of 2009. This was accomplished by the cost cutting and restructuring in 2009 as well as the advertising markets slight improvement. Through this the company cut 18 percent of operating costs, most of which were from labor and newsprint expenses.

Most would see this as good news, but I wonder if this model is sustainable and if media companies will continue to make money. You can only cut so much in labor and still have enough people to operate your business and I’m afraid companies aren’t realizing the damage they’re doing by purging employees. Perhaps they do realize the consequences, but feel they are backed into a corner because executives are merely trying to keep the companies doors open. We all need to be praying that the advertising market continues to rebound so some employees can possibly be spared.

While posting a profit is definitely something to celebrate, I worry companies will get down skin and bones and will be too frail to operate.

I have given in to the trend and am trying out Twitter. I don't tweet very often and I'm still getting used to it, but I don't totally hate it. Currently, I tweet more about personal things than what's in the news, but that may change as I begin my internship this summer. Mashable has a feature called "Top 10 Twitter Trends This Week." They list out what people are tweeting about the most and whether they have been in the top 10 previously. For the week of March 20-26, the week Health Care was passed, Health Care rated 3rd and was the only top 10 member to have anything to do with a news event, everything else was about an entertainer or entertainment. And just to satisfy the curiosity, the president and his health care bill were beat out by 16 year old pop singer, Justin Bieber. I don't even know how to respond to that.

Follow the most popular Twitter topics at: http://mashable.com/2010/03/27/twitter-trends-this-week-chart/

Through journalist friends of mine in Tuscaloosa I've discovered an interesting system of how The Tuscaloosa News gets a sizable amount of their content. Interns. They pull from The University of Alabama and the journalism school instead of hiring full time reporters. The T-News has set up an internship program where they take on a dozen interns each semester. For every 90 hours the student works they receive 1 hour of academic credit and $250. So at 12 interns a semester and three hours each the T-News will get 3,240 work hours for $9,000 without benefits.

Because there are only 12 spots for interns the T-News can still be somewhat selective to assure they will be getting honest, hard working, talented reporters. This type of partnership could be applied to many college towns with small to mid size papers. It can be mutually beneficial to both the students by gaining professional experience and to the papers by getting content at a lesser rate than a full time salary.

An article on Romenesko got me thinking about executive pay in journalism and how it has effected the industry. The article discusses how Craig Dubow, the CEO of Gannett, is being offered $19.3 million to leave the company. Essentially, his salary has become too expensive for the company pay so they're trying to get him to take a pay out now instead of having to pay him closer to $30 million when he retires. What's even more interesting is someone commented that while Dubow's pay has increased in these harsh times his employees have taken pay cuts. No wonder they want to get rid of him. I have heard informally that a similar situation had occurred at the New York Times. The company as a whole is taking a loss while their publishers continue to make more money. Is this a trend in journalism not only on the business side, but for bureaus on the reporting side as well?

The famous journalists that have been working for the same publications for awhile are making far more than the average journalist. Some would argue that they should be after their years of service and expertise. I'm not saying I disagree with that argument, but at some point I think publications start paying more for their name and less for their productivity. For instance, at Hearst's Washington bureau there are 8 employees one of which is Helen Thomas. She is 90 and has covered presidents since John F. Kennedy. She is a former White House correspondent and now a political columnist and I feel confident she is making more than most other journalists. However, when she is no longer working I would be willing to bet the bureau could hire 3 or 4 young journalists for her one salary and they would produce far more content and have a more diverse skill set.

I think is the best hope that young journalists have in our uncertain industry. We can and will work tirelessly, offering our skills in written reporting and visual media, for far less money than is expected by a veteran reporter.

To read the article from Romenesko click here: http://www.footnoted.org/buried-treasure/an-oddly-placed-reward-at-gannett/

According to the New York Times, the way news networks will survive is by coupling with a cable network following a model like MSNBC and NBC. ABC is currently trying to shrink their size by 400 employees which is comparable to MSNBC and NBC's staff. If buy outs don't work, ABC said those who should be most concerned about their jobs are those with only one function or skill. I was very happy to hear the NY Times reporting this because it reinforced everything our professors have been telling us. Employers want to be able to pay one young journalists to write, take photos, edit video, etc. instead of paying one person to do each of those tasks. I now feel like my extra class to earn a double concentration in Journalism and Visual communication will be worth my time and perhaps make me more marketable when I graduate in a year.

To read more about ABC and how they plan to survive go to: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/01/business/media/01network.html?pagewanted=2

BREAKING NEWS: This just in, a newspaper actually made money!

The Washington Post Company's newspaper division reported on Wednesday that they earned revenue in the fourth quarter of 2009. In the fourth quarter of 2008, The Post reported an operation loss of $14.4 million, but an operating income of $3.2 million in the fourth quarter of 2009. The Post attributes the financial gain to continued cost cutting. I wish they had elaborated on how they cut costs so other papers could follow in their footstep and possibly start to turn a corner for the better. Although The Post had a loss of $163.5 million in 2009, the fourth quarter shows a glimmer of hope and I will be interested to see where their numbers are after the first quarter of 2010.

To give some perspective, at The Washington Post Co. their television stations went down 16% from 2008in revenue and their magazines went down 30% in revenue from 2008.

Read the full article here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/24/AR2010022401924.html?hpid=moreheadlines

Social Media and Advertising

Poynter Online recently had an interesting article about advertising and social media. They discussed how some companies are now buying ads through a news agency to go out to all of their followers on Twitter. I can see some benefits of advertising in this way, but still think it is premature and won’t be successful in the long run.

My opinion could stem from not using Twitter myself, but I don’t think Twitter has developed enough to be a successful outlet for advertising. I do think it is marketable to small businesses that may not be able to afford a print ad, but the cost doesn’t seem high enough to really be making anything other than pocket change. I think in order to make any money from this type of advertisement there would need to be tweets every hour from different businesses, but this ultimately defeats the purpose of the Twitter feed. People are following the news agency to get immediate updates about local news and I believe followers will get annoyed quickly when the ad tweets start taking over the news tweets.

Small businesses are smart to use news agencies Twitter accounts to advertise though as opposed to their own Twitter because the news service will have a diverse group of followers that can bring new customers. For example, if a restaurant had their own Twitter account only those who already knew about the restaurant would follow them and learn about the special deals. Buying tweets from a news site gets your special deal out to a much more diverse audience that has the potential to bring in new customers.

To learn more about this concept read here: http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=101&aid=176228

Shannon Brownlee

Despite hearing Shannon Brownlee speak twice in two days, I was never bored and she kept me on the edge of my seat. She was challenging, refreshing, and encouraging all at the same time. Specifically in Economics of News, I thought she gave a ray of hope to a class that has been nothing but gloom and doom. We know the industries failing, we know the common proposed solutions, but to hear about how the industry has been through trials before and come out okay is a nice change. This is not just because the previous topics are often depressing, but because they can also be very repetitive.

In my Feature Writing class, the students challenged her with questions about the job market and the uncertainty of the industry. She was able to say confidently that students studying journalism now are in the best shape of anyway, especially those who have been out of school for a while. We are being educated in reporting, photography, multimedia, etc. And while we all have our specialties we will still be competent in many areas and marketable to an employer.

On Wednesday, Apple announced the launch of their newest product the iPad. About the size of a book, the iPad can keep track of your contacts and calendar. It claims to make surfing the web and checking your email easier than ever on a mobile device. Like the Kindle, it has the ability to download books, but perhaps the most interesting factor to me is the way the New York Times is featured on the screen in the ad.

As someone who always has my iPhone with me I am very interested to continue researching about all the iPad has to offer. I will also watch how news meshes with the electronic readers. Will New York Times sell subscriptions through an iTunes like store? Can the Times still be viewed on the web for free? And the question I am most interested in…Will the popularity of Apple’s new product effect the sales of New York Times since it is featured so prominently in their advertising?

The determination of a student

In the first couple of classes, we discussed national job losses in journalism over the last couple years. This impacted me because I had read about a few job losses here and a few there, but had never seen a total number. And what was worse, I knew that even as I sat in class the number was getting higher. I believe the number of job losses for 2010 was already over 700 and January was only halfway over.

In all of our classes we are told to have a diverse skill set, be prepared for a tough job market, and don’t expect to be wealthy in this critical time of uncertainty in our industry. What is surprising to me is that I have seen only a few aspiring journalists turned off by the grim outlook of our future careers. Instead, students look at it as a challenge and hope to rise to the occasion above all other students to fight for the few jobs out there. I think on some level we all want to be the one that helps find the solution to saving the news industry. As journalists, uncertainty and critical thinking are the bread and butter of reporting because it takes effort and persistence to tell a story. At this point, I have no idea what a solution will look like, but I know the stubborn and determined students of my generation won’t let news fall to the wayside because of a lack of effort.

They just don't mix

My reasoning behind the title of this blog is like oil and vinegar, I believe the needs of a publishing company don't mix with the needs of a newspaper's audience.  I have worked at the Campus Carrier for two years and think I have a decent understanding of the responsibilities involved in serving an audience.  However, I have almost no understanding of ad sales, what's it like to deal with a publisher, and other things on that side of the business.  Through taking Economics of News this semester I hope to be educated about the business side of news. I would like to come away from the class with a better understanding of how these two sides operate together and a clearer picture of what the future of the journalism industry looks like, but that may be asking too much.  We'll find out.