Old Line Journalism Dying One Tweet at a Time
Today demonstrates well why old line print journalism involving large, corporately-owned media conglomerates is a dying breed.
In today's Des Moines Register, publisher Laura Hollingsworth describes the economic woes facing the newspaper:
Like all Iowans, we’ve already had a few months of tough decisions. We’ve dealt with a reduction in employees and a furlough program in hopes to avoid further layoffs in this volatile first quarter. We’re making tough, but necessary decisions. Some decisions have us setting aside what we want to do for what we need to do. Some simply accelerate what we were already planning, like increasing and expanding our digital content to meet the growing demand for it.
Starting on Monday, you will see some changes in the layout of The Des Moines Register. The headline is that we’ll be merging some sections and moving some features.
The bottom line is, of course, well, the bottom line. Newspapers like The Des Moines Register are losing subscribers (and advertisers) by the thousands. After all, who wants to pay for a subscription to a newspaper when you can read the same articles online 24/7?
Meanwhile, news organizations across the net are describing growing importance and power of microblogging services like Twitter.
The most recent illustration is the crash landing of US Airways flight 1549 in the Hudson River. The first tweets started hitting the Net only seconds following the crash. As MSNBC reports:
“There’s a plane in the Hudson. I’m on the ferry going to pick up the people.”
Those words, hastily typed on Janis Krums’ iPhone just after US Airways flight 1549 crashed into the Hudson River on Thursday, marked yet another milestone in the microblogging revolution. Krums, a Sarasota, Fla., entrepreneur, posted his observations and a compelling photo of a half-submerged aircraft to Twitter, where it was seen by hundreds of people before any other media organization knew about the accident.
Red Ink Replacing Printer's Ink
In an Associated Press article reporting on the bankruptcy of The Minneapolis Star Tribute, writer Jeff Baenen describes what is happening within the newspaper industry:
The Star Tribune ranked as the nation's 15th-largest paper last October, with weekday circulation of about 322,000 and Sunday circulation of almost 521,000. The paper has nearly 1,400 employees.
The Star Tribune filing is the latest sign of the struggles facing the newspaper industry, which is coping with a deadly combination of high debt and declining advertising revenue amid a deep economic downturn.
In December, Tribune Co., which owns the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, The (Baltimore) Sun, The Hartford Courant and other dailies, as well as 23 television stations and the Chicago Cubs baseball team, was forced to seek bankruptcy protection because of dwindling advertising revenues.
USA Today publisher Gannett Co. this week imposed one-week, unpaid furloughs for most U.S. employees. The Seattle Times has asked some employees to take a week off, and others have frozen wages. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer is up for sale, with closure or an online-only future if no buyer is found.
As newspapers fight for survival, microblogging and the alternative media are growing at astronomical rates. As Elliott reports on MSNBC.com, "Seven out of 10 Twitter users joined just last year, according to the latest HubSpot 'State of the Twittersphere' report. Somewhere between 5,000 and 10,000 Twitter accounts are opened every day. Most microbloggers have a small circle of friends — fewer than 30 — with whom they share their day-to-day thoughts."
An to think all of that growth is based on simple thoughts confined to a mere 140 characters. Incredible.
References:
"Register Announces Changes" by Laura Hollingsworth. The Des Moines Register, January 16, 2009.
"Changing Travel, One Tweet at a Time" by Christopher Elliott. MSNBC.com, January 16, 2009.
"Minneapolis' Star Tribune files Chapter 11" by Jeff Baenen. The Associated Press, January 15, 2009.