My un-predictions for 2010

I am not a fan of yearend prognostications, because they usually are no more than statements of the obvious or retrospectively fortuitous guesses. Even though I usually sidestep the idle midwinter idyll of predicting the upcoming year, I am going to make an exception for 2010, because several friends and correspondents have pressed me for answers to three significant

What piqued readers most in 2009

An anonymous tirade celebrating the downfall of newspapers provoked the most commentary from Newsosaur readers during 2009. Here are links to the posts that generated the biggest responses in the last 12 months: :: The last rant: Failing papers ‘bring me joy’ :: Can grassroots journalism do the job? :: Why media must charge for web content :: Journicide: A looming, lost

Presses stopped forever at 140+ papers in 2009

The presses stopped forever at no less than 142 daily and weekly newspapers in 2009, a nearly threefold increase over the number of titles succumbing in the prior year. The reasons, of course, were the double whammy of the worst economy since the 1930s and a dramatic secular shift in the habits of readers and advertisers. Bad as things were – and they were plenty bad if

What the heck are publishers thinking?

A positively effervescent survey of more than 500 newspaper publishers yesterday predicted that advertising sales would drop only 0.2% in 2010 after plunging 28.4% in the first nine months of this year. The man who conducted the survey doesn’t believe the publisher forecast. I don’t believe it. And neither should you. Which leads me to wonder: What the heck are publishers thinking? In a survey

Putting bite back in newspapers

Journalistic purists winced yesterday when the New York Times reported that coverage in the Wall Street Journal has taken a partisan turn since Rupert Murdoch bought the paper two years ago. Although the top editor of the Journal dutifully denied the accusation, no one should be shocked at the idea that the Aussie-born proprietor of the Fox News Network might be putting a

Newsosaur, the accidental blog, enters 6th year

Sipping a fine single-malt scotch after dinner exactly five years ago, I fired up my laptop to see if I could begin to understand what the blogging craze was all about. After registering for an account on Google’s free Blogger service, the first question you are asked is the name of your blog. That stopped me cold. Inasmuch as I had no intention of actually writing a

Next for outsource? News production jobs

The jobs of news editors, photo editors, copy editors and page designers may face wholesale elimination at some newspapers in the new year as publishers seek to cut costs by outsourcing editorial production to cheaper vendors. While several publishers struggling to sustain profitability over the last few years have shipped ad production to low-priced contractors, they

E&P magazine shutting down after 125 years

Editor and Publisher, the trade journal that has covered the newspaper industry for 125 years, is being closed by the end of the year, staffers were told today. The magazine and website, along with Kirkus Book Reviews, were not included in the sale of a clutch of business publications announced today by their parent, Nielsen Business Media. Most of the Nielsen business

A newspaper to inspire you all over again

I stood in line with half a dozen people yesterday waiting patiently to buy a newspaper, wondering if I ever would witness anything like that again. It was inspiring to see people eagerly scoop up a paper so fat with news that you had to take care that some of its 12 sections didn’t come tumbling out. And the paper indeed was fat with news, real news. Real stuff I didn’t

The daunting reality facing newspapers

If chief executives get the big bucks for their ability to put the best face on bad situations, then newspaper bosses really earned their pay this week at the annual UBS media conference in New York. With straight faces, the chiefs of McClatchy Co., the New York Times Co. and other major publishers told investors that things were looking up for the newspaper business

Thin ranks of top women editors get thinner

The upcoming exit of two of the longest-serving female editors-in-chief in the country will leave only two women leading newsrooms among the 25 largest newspapers. The already thin ranks of top women editors will be depleted at year’s end by the departure of Sandra Rowe at the Portland Oregonian (the 22nd largest paper by circulation) and Karin Winner at the San Diego

The pioneers who paved way for non-profit news

The excitement over the growing number of emerging non-profit news operations overlooks the achievements – and lessons to be learned from – the non-profit news ventures that have paved the way for them. In this guest perspective, Steve Katz, the interim chief executive of Mother Jones, talks about some of the things he and his colleagues have learned at their 34-year-old multimedia venture.

FourthWall Media, Your Rock and Roll Specialists.

So I was listening to Tommy James and the Shondells on my way into the office yesterday morning, and there’s this moment about a minute into Crimson and Clover when you think the song’s going to break open, but it doesn’t. Tommy brings it back down with one of his “Yaaaas.”  That made me think of the moment half way through Peggy Sue, when Buddy Holly cuts loose for just an instance, and you can hear what Rock-n-Roll is going to be.  Well, that made me think of the guitar solo in the Kink’s You Really Got Me, when it looks like the whole band is going to burst out of their skinny mod suits before Ray Davies reins the song in.  Why didn’t they cut loose? Why didn’t they rip it up? Why didn’t they become The Ramones?

Well, because they, or their label, wanted the exposure provided by Ed Sullivan or the Arthur Murray Dance Party, and that made me think of interactive television.

I get to the office and I see these two headlines:  Comcast buys NBCU, and Boxee gets Clicker App.  One of these deals is Ed Sullivan, and the other is The Ramones.  As Ed Sullivan carefully packaged Rock-n-Roll for a broad audience, Rock-n-Roll developed at its own frenetic pace, a la Boxee, Clicker, and thousands of other innovators who are creating new ways to make, share, and access content in a purely market-driven manner.  It’s what the kids want.  

In about three months, Shit My Dad Says moved from a parent’s basement to Twitter to a sitcom and movie deal.  By the time it gets on air it’ll likely be passé, and the audience will likely be smaller than the one it started with.  The way we consume media has changed that drastically, that fast, and the pace of change is not slowing down, and it’s not waiting for someone to say “Yes, it’s ok. Go ahead and watch TV on your phone.”  Tommy James and The Ramones are only about 5 years apart.  Seeing the two clips, you’d assume they were from different centuries, and not just because the Shondells are dressed like Revolutionary War-era ether salesmen.  Shit My Dad Says vs. The Jay Leno Show.  

So how do MSOs bridge this gap and thrive?  Their validating platform and business infrastructure is immensely valuable, but it feels like Lawrence Welk at a rave party.

MSOs should provide a solid technical and business infrastructure to developers, and then give them enough room to fail.  MSOs don’t pick winners and losers among network shows.  They put that burden on the programmers.  Apple chose some core apps for the iPhone, and then let the developer community bears the cost and risk of creating successful applications.  That means letting go a little.  It means embracing partners − and not with a choke hold.  It means earning billions of pennies rather than millions of dollars.  Content and application providers and their audiences are finding new ways to get together and swivel their hips.  MSOs need a little of this Rock-n-Roll spirit.  As the nice lady in the Arthur Murray Dance Party clip says, some “Rock and Roll Specialists.”

Hey. Ho. Let’s go.

Patrick Peters

EVP and GM, Programming

FourthWall Media

twitter.com/fourthwallmedia

Ad guys in newsroom may not be so bad

I got the same queasy feeling every red-blooded journalist had when I read that the Dallas Morning News seems to be putting advertising-department overseers deeper into the newsroom that any major paper has done before. But maybe – just maybe – this isn’t such a bad idea. Instead of the advertising people infecting news coverage, maybe – just maybe – the creative energy

A master’s secrets for funding non-profit news

Second of two parts. The first part is here. Unlike the founders of most non-profit news sites who concentrate on the journalism they yearn to provide, David S. Bennahum knows his chief task is to build a solid financial foundation for his non-profit Center for Independent Media. While his emphasis these days is largely on cultivating philanthropic support for the six news

The man who may supersize non-profit news

First of two parts. Part two is here. David S. Bennahum may be able to do for non-profit journalism what Ray Kroc did for hamburgers, making him well worth watching as the hunt continues for ways to fill the journalistic void left by the meltdown of the traditional media. A former Wired Magazine writer, turned Internet ad man, turned non-profit news maven, Bennahum is the

Playing whack-a-mole with copyright poachers

A new study confirming the widespread unauthorized use of newspaper stories on the web ironically demonstrates the futility of efforts to deter copyright poaching at this very, very, very late date. In a breathless report issued yesterday, the content cops at Attributor, which runs a service scouring the web for copyright poachers, shocked no one when it said more than

Journicide: A looming, lost generation of scribes

Vanishing employment opportunities and shrinking freelance compensation threaten to wipe out a substantial percentage of the next generation of professional journalists. This journicide, to coin a term, is not merely going to be difficult and disappointing for the affected young people, who mostly will move on to find rewarding careers in other endeavors. But the loss of