Newspaper editors, publishers worry about future at APME annual meeting; Porter: Take risks

Newspapers, Daily
Newspaper editors, publishers worry about future at APME annual meeting; Porter: Take risks
By AP via the Napa Register
Oct 28, 2005, 09:49

SAN JOSE -- To survive in the age of blogs, iPods and Craigslist, newspapers must capitalize on their credibility and local strengths while figuring out how best to make money from their new media ventures, a panel of industry experts said Thursday.

The task is hardly simple as newspapers struggle at the same time with declining print readership, dwindling revenue growth and smaller staffs, even as the need to innovate and competition from new media businesses grow.

"The world is changing, and clearly the demand for our product is not as high as it once was," Lynn Dickerson, publisher and president of the Modesto Bee, said at a panel at the Associated Press Managing Editors annual conference examining the challenges newspapers face.

"I still think we're the last collective effort for democracy," she said. "We've got to survive, and we've got to succeed."

That's made more difficult by the financial pressures associated with the shrinking readership and staffs of the traditional newspaper, said Ann Morris, managing editor of the News & Record in Greensboro, N.C.

"At the same time, I'm trying to reach younger readers. I'm trying to do online. I'm trying to do multimedia," she said. "I'm trying to do a lot more, and I've got a lot less in terms of staff resources. And I've got a smaller newshole. I'm trying to figure it out."

Peter Appert, senior research analyst at Goldman Sachs, agreed that the problem is obvious but the solution less so.

"From an economic standpoint, there are two solutions: Grow revenues faster or shrink costs," he said. "Shrinking costs is not attractive, so it's all about growing revenue."

Panelists agreed that online appears to be the most attractive revenue prospect. But while revenue from online businesses is growing, competition in that sector is fierce. Traditional newspaper sites must compete not only with each other but also with an estimated 20 million people who publish blogs, news sites and other forms of new media.

Unlike the upstarts, however, newspapers carry a longstanding reputation of accuracy, fairness, credibility and independence, the panelists noted. Their reporters are skilled at digging through city hall paperwork and other local reporting the average blogger can't match.

"Our franchise is local news. It costs a lot of money to do what we do. That's our core competency," Morris said, adding that it's the reason most people pick up the newspaper.

"The problem is some information is becoming commoditized," said Rich Skrenta, chief executive officer of the online news aggregation site Topix.net. "Do you need people repackaging press releases or rewriting the same information?"

Once local coverage shifts from paper to the computer screen, newspapers see considerably less revenue, Appert noted.

"The industry has not done a good job of monetizing the online traffic," he said. "Revenues don't match up with the Googles or the Yahoos."

Appert said success will take a rethinking of business plans, including possibly a reassessment of the relationship between the editorial and advertising departments of newpapers.

Despite the highly competitive landscape, the best online resources are owned by newspapers and television stations, said Walter Baer, senior policy adviser at the Rand Corp. But newer online companies are better at pulling in revenue and profiting from the information they provide, Baer said.

Google, for instance, is increasingly branching beyond its core business and has generated billions of dollars by targeting relevant ads to its viewers based on their searches, e-mails and other interactions with Google products.

"Newspapers have great content, and they have great audience potential, but they haven't cracked the code yet on getting their fair share of revenue from the online audience," Skrenta said. "They need to do that."

In later sessions, editors discussed ways to capture more online ad revenue and adjust to the demands of the audience.

The industry needs to develop a less risk-adverse culture and break down the traditional structure of the newsroom, said Tim Porter, a media consultant and former editor at the San Francisco Examiner.

"If we're going to crash and burn as a journalism industry, let's crash big," he said.

The APME conference runs through Saturday. AP is the world's oldest and largest newsgathering organization, providing content to more than 15,000 news outlets with a daily reach of 1 billion people around the world. Its multimedia services are distributed by satellite and the Internet to more than 120 nations.

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