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A Newspaper Investigates Its Future (Deck Chair Re-arrangement Alert/Dinosaur Media DeathWatchâ„¢)
The New York Times ^ | October 12, 2006 | Katherine Q. Seelye

Posted on 10/12/2006 4:48:40 AM PDT by abb

Newspapers are all looking for ways to gain readers, and many have hired consultants to help them. In an unusual twist, The Los Angeles Times is looking to chart its future by using its own reporters and editors, who rank among the best investigators in the business.

The Times is dedicating three investigative reporters and half a dozen editors to find ideas, at home and abroad, for re-engaging the reader, both in print and online. The newspaper’s editor, Dean Baquet, and its new publisher, David Hiller, plan to convene a meeting today to start the effort, which is being called the Manhattan Project. A report is expected in about two months.

“The newsroom is energized about innovation,” Mr. Hiller said. “And having the code name of the Manhattan Project captures the sense of significance and urgency that I think is altogether called for.”

The name refers, of course, to the American effort to develop an atomic bomb during World War II, an-exaggerated-for-effect overstatement of the problems facing ink-on-paper newspapers: declining circulation, stagnant ad revenues and rising costs. While visits to newspaper Web sites are increasing, they account for a small part of revenue and do not draw enough advertising to support newsroom operations.

The Los Angeles project sprang from recent turmoil at the paper, when Mr. Baquet and the previous publisher, Jeffrey M. Johnson, said in the pages of the newspaper that they would not go along with cuts ordered by the corporate parent, the Tribune Company. Tribune has cut more than 20 percent of the 1,200 newsroom employees since it bought the paper.

The company dismissed Mr. Johnson last week. Mr. Baquet said he agreed to stay because he was convinced he would have the chance to make a new case for shoring up both his staff and budget.

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: cantfinda55indark; dbm; dbmtrb; dbmtrblat; latimes; newspaper; tribune
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None so blind as those who will not see...
1 posted on 10/12/2006 4:48:40 AM PDT by abb
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To: PajamaTruthMafia; knews_hound; Grampa Dave; martin_fierro; Liz; norwaypinesavage; Mo1; onyx; ...

Ping


2 posted on 10/12/2006 4:49:33 AM PDT by abb (The Dinosaur Media: A One-Way Medium in a Two-Way World)
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To: abb

"Newspapers are all looking for ways to gain readers, and many have hired consultants to help them. In an unusual twist, The Los Angeles Times is looking to chart its future by using its own reporters and editors, who rank among the best investigators in the business. "

It's tough to gain readers when you only editoriaolize DNC talking points for 25% of the population.

Here's some free advice to the Times. TELL THE TRUTH!!!


3 posted on 10/12/2006 4:52:08 AM PDT by EQAndyBuzz
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To: abb

And where is raouls first rule of journalism?


4 posted on 10/12/2006 4:55:42 AM PDT by joe fonebone (Israel, taking out the world's trash since 1948.)
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To: abb
To save the Los Angeles Times, I offer my free advice:

1. Assign competitive teams to cover each area of the city. Cover those areas as if each were small towns (which, in a way, they are.) Find positive stories and human interest stories and print them, not just crime reports. Include pictures. People will start to buy a paper if they recognize their neighbors in it, or if their kids get a mention for their participation in Community Service or sports or something.

2. Make a true, concerted effort to make your reporting impartial. Political viewpoints should go to the editorial and op ed pages.

3. Find a non-partisan cause to support...cleaing up litter, Boys and Girls Clubs, tree-planting, etc. and get the community involved. Devote your efforts to this cause instead of constant snarky comments about Republicans.

4. Require all reporters to spend 2 weeks each year riding with a cop, working construction, following a small businessman around, etc. They need a dose of the real world. Better yet...require all reporters to take their vacations in small Midwestern towns. In the winter.

5 posted on 10/12/2006 4:58:35 AM PDT by Miss Marple (Lord, please look over Mozart Lover's and Jemian's sons and keep them strong.)
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To: joe fonebone
Raoul's First Law of Journalism
BIAS = LAYOFFS

6 posted on 10/12/2006 4:59:13 AM PDT by abb (The Dinosaur Media: A One-Way Medium in a Two-Way World)
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To: abb

It doesn't matter what the Times or any other print newspaper does -- the future of news is on the internet. You'll hardly find anyone under the age of 40 who subscribes to a newspaper.


7 posted on 10/12/2006 5:04:14 AM PDT by randita
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To: Miss Marple
The simplest would be just telling the truth, not the truth seen through their biased eyes. This is why they will have such a hard time turning their fall around. They could follow FNC's lead in providing both sides as fairly as possible, but that goes against everything they believe in and stand for. 

Their editorializing of the war in Iraq alone just proves they may not be able to turn things around.  How does a newspaper become fair and balanced when everything they stand for is antiwar and anti American?  If they really believe a lie is the truth, there's no way they can become fair or balanced.

8 posted on 10/12/2006 5:07:03 AM PDT by Morgan in Denver
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To: abb

So simple, so easy to understand, yet totally ignored........


9 posted on 10/12/2006 5:09:10 AM PDT by joe fonebone (Israel, taking out the world's trash since 1948.)
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To: abb
One would think they would be moving at warp speed to get their product online. The cost of paper, printing and delivery is horrendous. I have tried to read my local paper online and it's an exercise in frustration. I would happily pay for a subscription if I thought I could get online the same content I get in the printed product that is thrown by a carrier every morning. Having worked at this paper for several years I know first-hand just how resistant they are to change. The newsroom joke is that if Tampa is ever hit by nuclear attack the Tribune building will be safe because nothing new has hit that place in 50 years. Sad, but true. It is amazing how well they could do covering local news and happenings if they spent just one-tenth the money getting into the 21st Century and online offerings that they spend on newsprint, ink, printing and delivery.
10 posted on 10/12/2006 5:10:11 AM PDT by jwparkerjr
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To: abb

How ludicrous. The media reports directly from the DNC fax line. That's free.


11 posted on 10/12/2006 5:10:22 AM PDT by OldFriend (Should we wait for them to come and kill us again? President Karzai 9/26/06)
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To: abb
Their only hope for averting extinction is to publish more pics of scantily clad women ... a time tested model used successfully by the highly respected read UK Sun.
12 posted on 10/12/2006 5:11:08 AM PDT by tx_eggman (The people who work for me wear the dog collars. It's good to be king. - ccmay)
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To: EQAndyBuzz

How about Fair and balanced.


13 posted on 10/12/2006 5:19:01 AM PDT by sgtbono2002 (The fourth estate is a fifth column.)
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To: Morgan in Denver
That's why they need to concentrate on the local neighborhood news. It is a lot harder to politicize a kids' volunteer project, a neighborhood block party, or high school sports.

You have to get them to withdraw from national and international news for the most part.

It is my contention that ALL papers can only survive if they go to the covering the stuff that isn't usually on the internet...and that is LOCAL stuff. And coupons.

Of course, I am looking at this from the point of view of establishing a successful business. I fear a great many newspeople would find this type of coverage unimportant and boring, and therefore will continue on their present course.

My theory rests on the one thing that will get people to buy papers: seeing their name and/or picture in it (or even more important, their child's). This is the only thing I can see that would get a person interested in buying a paper. All other news is found faster on the internet and cable news.

14 posted on 10/12/2006 5:22:17 AM PDT by Miss Marple (Lord, please look over Mozart Lover's and Jemian's sons and keep them strong.)
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To: Miss Marple

The only reason I subscribe to my local paper is to read the obits...other than that I toss it.


15 posted on 10/12/2006 5:23:55 AM PDT by mystery-ak (My Son, My Soldier, My Hero........God Speed Jonathan......)
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To: Miss Marple

.... Assign competitive teams to cover each area of the city.....

You should apply for the consultant's job. Your insight should be worth $$$$


16 posted on 10/12/2006 5:25:16 AM PDT by bert (K.E. N.P. Foley is why we don't allow queers to be Scoutmasters.)
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To: abb

bump


17 posted on 10/12/2006 5:25:47 AM PDT by foreverfree
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To: Miss Marple
It is my contention that ALL papers can only survive if they go to the covering the stuff that isn't usually on the internet...and that is LOCAL stuff. And coupons.

That may be true for larger papers, such as the ones that have targeted newspapers for suburbs but it isn't necessarily true for small town newspapers. Our local paper ran a subscription special, 6 months for $10. There is no way they can be making money. If every family in the three surround towns subscribed at the rate they offered, they would still operate at a loss. They did close their offices for a short period of time, and have recently started publishing again. As much as I dislike the NY Times, I would hate to see the loss of our local paper.

18 posted on 10/12/2006 5:46:25 AM PDT by Freedom is eternally right
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To: abb
which is being called the Manhattan Project.

How about a tag-line "Proud Member of the Democratic Apparatchik, and Hollywood Left, since 1967"

19 posted on 10/12/2006 5:47:29 AM PDT by HisKingdomWillAbolishSinDeath (Psalm 9:17 The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God.)
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To: Freedom is eternally right
They are trying for subscribers in order to get the ad revenue. Papers and magazines get the bulk of their income from advertising revenue, and they can get higher dollars if they have more readers.

That's why it is a scandal when it is discovered that papers are inflating their subscrition base. It means that they were defrauding the advertisers.

20 posted on 10/12/2006 5:56:39 AM PDT by Miss Marple (Lord, please look over Mozart Lover's and Jemian's sons and keep them strong.)
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