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Conferences, Presentations & Speaking Engagements

  • Available for public speaking around media transformation and opportunity. Please inquire for schedule and rates.

Content Bridges Services

Press Mentions

  • Ad Age/Nat Ives: It's Back: 25 MORE Media People You Should Follow on Twitter
    25 media types worth following on Twitter.
  • Ad Age: Why So Many Media Companies Stumble Globally
    The few news brands that have succeeded, to greater or lesser degrees, arguably include CNN, Bloomberg, People, Thomson Reuters, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Financial Times and The Economist. Other contenders are the Associated Press, the BBC, ABC, NBC, maybe CBS, National Public Radio, News Corp. and the top U.K. dailies, said Ken Doctor, the newspaper veteran who's now an analyst at Outsell. "If a news-media organization sees itself as covering the wider world, sees it as its foundation, that in and of itself differentiates it from all the local media -- newspapers, TV, radio -- out there," he said. "If, in addition, it has substantial reporting and editing resources, then it can play. The tough part is the part we're in: Who wins the race to ubiquity and can make it pay off?"
  • NYT: If The Globe Were Sold, What Price?
    “The best guesstimate of the real price: a buck. The best of an announced price: between $50 and $100 million,” he wrote in an e-mail message. The devil will be in the details of the obligations that a buyer would assume, he said, adding that “a buck essentially represents a gentleman’s agreement: I take a liability, headache and a distraction off your hands.” He said that the Times Company could hang on to some pension liabilities or other obligations in exchange for a higher purchase price, a number that would give the appearance that it was getting something for the more than $1 billion it paid 16 years ago. He added that no bank would be interested in financing a deal given how other deals have blown up, so “the owner’s own money is immediately at risk.”
  • Economist: It isn’t just newspapers: much of the established news industry is being blown away. Yet news is thriving
    Ken Doctor of Outsell, a research firm, reckons that the Kindle appeals to baby-boomers who would otherwise read a paper magazine or newspaper. The young prefer their iPhones and their aggregators. Indeed, the top four magazines on Kindle, according to Amazon’s website, are the New Yorker, Newsweek, Time and Reader’s Digest. Not much of a youth market there.
  • Forbes: San Diego News Shoot-Out
    "The Union-Tribune is cratering. That opens a hole in the market and the opportunity for some unconventional business models."
  • BizTimes.com: Journal Sentinel faces daunting choices
    “There’s no strategy – this is panic. What we’re likely to see this year (around the country) and what we’ll see in Milwaukee too is (publishers asking) how much they need to cut back and how much they can do to still hold their place in the market. For publishers, it’s about ‘How do we stay alive and stay profitable until we can get to some sort of breathing period?’ (Economic) recovery will not bring back their old business, but it will give them some breathing room.”
  • AP: Threat to shut Boston Globe shows no paper is saf
    The threat to close the paper "sends a very clear message to all employees and unions of surviving newspapers — that this is not business as usual. This is uncharted territory....Newspapers all "have a sword over their heads," said Doctor. If the industry wants to survive, he said, "everyone has to give some blood."
  • Guardian: Seattle mourns the last day of its venerable Post Intelligencer
    "There's a lot less reporting happening, on a national scale. For the 1,500 or so daily newspapers, it's just a matter of getting smaller and smaller."
  • Seattle Times: Seattle's oldest newspaper goes to press for the final time
    "They're bringing the full force of their national relationships and content to bear on Seattle. They [Hearst] could sustain this experiment indefinitely. If it makes a million or loses a million, that's nothing to a company like Hearst."
  • AP: Hearst hopes Web-only Seattle P-I will turn profit
    "It [online-only PI] definitely can make money. They have a head start in terms of the brand and (Web) traffic. They have to run like hell to create a new identity."

What's On My Netvibes

  • Steve Goldstein
    Fellow KR alumnus Steve Goldstein understands the research/info needs of end-use enterprise customers, and he's built a company that is helping satisfy them.
  • Peter Krasilovsky
    Centered on e-commerce of all kinds from Yellow Pages through classifieds and new ad models.
  • Mark Potts
    Mark Potts is an experienced journalist, observer of Internet journalism and an alumnus of the Backfence experiment.
  • John Blossom
    Thoughtful views on a wide-ranging mix of media change.
  • Jay Rosen
    Jay Rosen is a provocateur in the best sense, an NYU journalism professor deeply committed to keeping the press accountable and vibrant in the digital age.
  • David Meerman Scott
    David Scott understands web marketing of digital content. Check out his site and his new book, "Cashing In With Content"

My Work as an Outsell Analyst

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« Tribune Tower Totters: Nine Questions | Main | Tale of 3 Newspaper Sales Highlights Market Strategies »

March 30, 2007

Billionaire Bingo: Nine More Tribune Questions

Thanks to all for the points, questions and comments, on yesterday's post. Here's the next nine questions at this point:

1. So what will the role of former L.A. Times Publisher Jeff Johnson (shown here, left to right, in happier days with editors Dean Baquet and John Carroll) in a post-sale world be, if Ron Burkle gets the prize? Will Johnson, a once-loyal Tribune exec, who was sacked for impudence in publicly resisting budget cuts by CEO Dennis FitzSimons, play an operational role, and have FitzSimons, even for a day or so, reporting to him?

Jeffjohnsondeanbaquetjohncarroll_2

2. Recalling that Knight Ridder top execs walked away with three years pay,  what are the colors of those parachutes for Tribune management?

3. With Brian Tierney and Eric Grilly promising whole new approaches to modern newspapering online and off in Philadelphia and Chris Harte doing the same in Minneapolis, will a Tribune sale give juice to the next generation of independent outsiders bent on seeing these franchises differently and breaking molds?

4. So this week, is it more fun being part of The Chicagoist (which today sports a WSJ Online ad banner across the top of its home page) or the Chicago Tribune?

5. On the lure of an ESOP, is it a good idea for Tribune company staff to keep repeating, "It's not Peoria, it's not 1983," in reference to the much-cited Peoria (Ill.) Journal Star ESOP that left a bunch of reporting and copy-editing slugs early-retired and well-heeled?

6. Of the 23 Tribune-owned TV stations, 14 are CW stations, and CW is off to rocky start after the merger of UPN and WB that created it. So what's your favorite CW program -- Friday Night Smack Down, Smallville or America's Top Model?

7. Recalling that David Geffen bid $2 billion for the L.A. Times alone, if Zell wins the auction, what's the likelihood of him selling the L.A. Times to Geffen -- or Burkle and Broad --  recouping a goodly sum out of the gate?

8. If more quick money is to be had, a la what Gary Pruitt did in immediately selling parts of Knight Ridder, wouldn't there be a quick call to Rupert about buying New York Newsday (which he'd "cluster" with the New York Post) and to Scripps, which would be happy to take Tribune's 31% share of the Food Network and become the sole owner of one of the cable properties that has kept Scripps farther away from the newspaper storm?

9. If Zell does win and peels off assets, might that not leave him King of Chicago?

What's your next question?

March 30, 2007 in 9 Questions, Advertising , Classifieds, Daily Newspaper Companies, News and Democracy, Tribune |

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