Ten Things I Would Do If I Owned a Newspaper Company

Let me put this as delicately as possible: Opinions about the newspaper business are like anal orifices these days; everyone has one, and most are full of fecal matter.

Despite the overabundance of punditry regarding what newspaper companies should do, I couldn't resist entering Metaprinter's "If I owned a newspaper company . . ." contest. So here goes my list, which is by no means comprehensive:

1. Stop thinking of the company as a newspaper company and the individual subsidiaries as newspapers. That tends to lock people into the model of one newspaper per subsidiary with a single Web site that mostly rehashes what was in the printed newspaper. Each subsidiary should think of itself as the dominant provider of information and advertising in its market. That might lead to multiple publications, Web sites, and other products.
   
   
2. Put some staff-created content behind an "ad wall." There's been a lot of talk lately about newspapers not giving everything away on the Web and putting some content behind a pay wall, but that's like trying to put the genie back into the bottle. I would make non-subscribers watch a brief ad before they can see some of the most valuable content (such as the top local stories), just as some Web sites have an ad preceding free news videos. Readers would tolerate such brief ads better than having to make micro-payments for articles that might turn out to be duds.
   
   
3. Pamper subscribers. Invite them to a Meet the Editors event or a town-hall meeting. Does the print edition close too early to publish some ball scores? Then let subscribers sign up for an early-morning email (with a bit of advertising) that has all of the major scores. Would they like to keep up with news of their hometown or favorite sports team 1,000 miles away? Then let them sign up for an email with headlines and links from their hometown newspaper -- er, local information and advertising provider. (These email products would work best if coordinated by a cooperative of news organizations, perhaps the Associated Press.)
   
   
4. End all talk of creating customized, home-delivered newspapers. People who advocate that have never seen newspaper carriers in action. You can customize it all you want, but the carrier careening down the street at 4:30 in the morning can't see whose name is on each paper -- and doesn't care. She's just trying to pitch the papers onto the right lawns, avoid getting caught driving on the wrong side of the street, and get home in time to get little Jimmy onto the school bus. PDFs are better suited than printed newspapers to the distribution of digital content.
   
   
5. Challenge assumptions that most readers really want their newspapers in an e-reader format. People who think that must not have seen the revenue that inserts bring in -- or have children at home. Just wait until your little princess drops your Kindle while reading the funnies or decides to decorate it with Hannah Montana stickers. (Reminds me of the kid who loaded an "Uncrustable" sandwich into the CD drive of the family PC. Oh well, it could have been worse: At least he didn't put Windows Vista onto the machine.)
   
   
6. Find ways to package existing content for new audiences. For example, most newspapers have a wealth of wonderful information about nearby tourist attractions. Why not create a Web site for tourists to the area? Or a free newspaper describing what to visit? (I still remember a helpful little paper I used on vacation 20 years ago that simply showed the menus of restaurants in town.) Is this a saturated market? Perhaps, but no one else has the credibility of the local newspaper. Focus on other out-of-town audiences that might appreciate some of the content, such as people thinking about moving to the area or fans of local pro or college teams.
   
   
7. Try to get away from having a pressroom and post-press operation dedicated to a single newspaper. Except perhaps for the biggest newspapers, that often means a huge investment in capital and skilled labor that is used only a few hours daily. I would look at outsourcing production to a nearby newspaper that used to be viewed as a competitor (but probably isn't) or, conversely, at taking on such outsourced printing.
   
   
8. Make it easier to submit news tips to each subsidiary. Some newspapers do not provide an email address for such items and instead have a painful online-registration process for submitting tips.
   
   
9. Eliminate the Not Written Here Syndrome. With most newspapers, if it’s not written by a staff member or a wire service, it ain’t getting into the paper or onto the Web site. I have given up trying to tell newspapers when I have published an item that should be of interest in their markets, such as the likely closing of a U.S. Postal Service processing and distribution center in town or major happenings at a nearby printing plant or paper mill. From what I can tell, newspapers have done nothing with such tips -- not until the "news" was announced by a local corporation or Congressman. A local newspaper’s Web site(s), and to some extent the printed newspaper as well, should become portals that aggregate information about the area from a variety of sources. Provide links to the local college newspaper, the mayor’s Web site, and community bloggers, highlighting truly newsworthy items (with proper vetting, of course). Link to news about major local companies, whether press releases, items in trade journals, or articles in out-of-town newspapers. Invite local coaches, fan clubs, civic groups, hobby/activity groups, political groups, etc. to create blogs on the Web sites.
   
   
10. Avoid sacrificing the Web sites' user friendliness on the altar of Search Engine Optimization. SEO and web analytics can be powerful tools for figuring out how to get more hits from search engines. But sometimes doing what Google likes means creating something that actual people don't like. "Newspaper" Web sites need lots of repeat business to prosper.
    

Can You Trust an Anonymous Blog with an Aggravating Name?

An anonymous commenter took Audience Development to task today for quoting yesterday's article in Dead Tree Edition about Source Interlink.

"Why would you quote an anonymous blog especially one named Dead Tree Edition," wrote "Publisher" on the magazine's Web site. "That was clever the first time or two I heard it but it is old devisive (sic) and aggravating."

Audience Development quoted Dead Tree Edition because it values service to its readers above its institutional ego. Its reporting about the filing yesterday, like the other reporting in the mainstream media, omitted the tidbit that publishers are among Source Interlink's major creditors. Bucking a long journalistic tradition of pooh-poohing others' scoops, AD rectified that omission today by citing Dead Tree Edition and by providing some additional details on Source's filing.

Did it worry that it was quoting an unidentified source whose credibility could not be checked? No, because it could verify what I wrote by digging into court documents.

The editors could also verify the trustworthiness of other Dead Tree Edition reporting -- for example, by calling the old "Corrugated Recycles" phone number and finding out it really has been taken over by a telephone-sex service. Or, for a more recent example, by reading Postcom.org's item today about the U.S. Postal Service moving forward with plans for a "Summer Sale", as Dead Tree Edition revealed two weeks ago.

And now for that aggravating name. "Dead Tree Edition" is what the digerati use to describe ink-on-paper publications. I adopted the phrase as this Web site's brand name to communicate that the focus would be on printed publications in an age of Web mania -- and to show that we print geeks have a sense of humor too.

I won't run from the dead-tree moniker. I have an odd fascination for that stuff that comes from dead trees known as paper, and I still love to read a well-crafted newspaper or magazine. (Yes, I'm aware of the irony of saying that in a Web-only blog.)

In my alter ego as D. Eadward Tree (Chief Arborist of Dead Tree Edition), I have attempted to be a friend to printed publications, providing tips and insights as well as being an advocate on postal and environmental issues.

"Trees are a crop -- like corn," "Publisher" writes. "Don't you eat dead corn?"

Yes, I do, and I agree with your point. Even the occasional reader of Dead Tree Edition can see that I don't buy the notions that using dead trees to make publications is necessarily bad or that putting the same content into a digital format is necessarily greener.

Dead trees are our friends.

Source Interlink Owes Publishers Millions

Source Interlink owes more than $200 million to magazine publishers and their affiliated national distributors, the company revealed today in filing for bankruptcy reorganization.

Except for the bank that is acting as trustee for Source's noteholders, the company's four largest unsecured creditors are the Big Four national newsstand distributors -- Time Warner Retail ($75.5 million), Comag ($53.2 million), Curtis Circulation ($42.7 million), and Kable Distribution Services ($22.9).

Other publishers on the list of the top 30 unsecured creditors are Bonnier ($2.4 million), Comag UK ($2.3 million), Harris Publications ($1.8 million), Acorn Media ($1.7 million), American Media ($1.7 million), Future Publishing ($1.6 million), Scientific American ($1.2 million), Playboy Enterprises ($1.0 million), and Meredith ($0.9 million). Also in the top 30 are Quebecor World, which itself is trying to emerge from Chapter 11 ($1.6 million), and Rider Circulation Services ($0.9 million).

Source announced today that it was filing a "prepackaged" Chapter 11 reorganization, meaning that it has worked out a deal with its lenders to restructure its debt and continue operating. Source says its lenders are canceling nearly $1 billion in debt and providing about $100 million in additional financing. Vendors will be paid on time "if they keep our credit limits and payment terms the same," a company statement said.

With the company's stock being canceled (and worthless), the lenders will presumably end up controlling the company. It's not clear whether those lenders include the Big Four or other publishers, some of whom Source sued earlier this year in a nasty legal spat that disrupted newsstand sales of magazines in much of the U.S. More may be revealed at a court hearing on Wednesday.

A Time Inc. attorney said in February that Time Warner Retail was concerned that it would never recover the $120 million in late payments owed by Source Interlink. Source Interlink's trade debt to Time Warner Retail and the other national distributors presumably resulted from its failure to pay for magazines it had sold.

Another Delay for Intelligent Mail?

With the Intelligent Mail Barcode (IMb) program veering off the tracks, prominent mailers called for the U.S. Postal Service to hit the brakes today on the much-delayed program.

“There is a general consensus that even if the USPS stays with their commitment of May 18 it will be almost impossible for the program to begin in a successful manner,” says a memo written by Jack Widener, a respected industry consultant, that Idealliance released today to its members. Widener, a former Newsweek executive, chairs the IMb users group for the major trade association.

Dead Tree Edition has previously noted that IMb, a major strategic initiative for the Postal Service, is "a train wreck waiting to happen" because of failures in coordination, communication, and planning.

Mailers and their vendors complain that the rules and procedures for IMb are still in a state of flux. Even today, the complex and critical “Service Type Identifier Matrix” in one USPS document contained the qualifier, “Final Revision will be completed as soon as possible.

“When will the changes stop so the program can by implemented by USPS,” Widener wrote. “There are 11 open issues that are not assigned and that must be resolved with only 21 days to go.”

Among the “show stoppers” listed by another report Idealliance sent to members today is one that would force Periodicals-class co-mail participants either to “leap to electronic payment without sufficient testing or pull out of co-mail/co-pall.” The report lists other restrictions for various classes of mail on co-palletization, co-mail, palletization, and firm bundling that would result from glitches in programs related to IMb.

Perhaps postal executives realize, Widener writes, what even their underlings admit -- that USPS will not be ready on May 18 date.

If so, he argues that they should “tell us now so that all can plan accordingly and alert their customers and suppliers in the mailing supply chain. And don’t blame it on their customers; if they do this it will be not due to lack of mailer preparation. We have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars and invested people’s time to implement as soon as information was received from the USPS. But we must be given adequate time to implement the numerous changes that are happening."