The Capital Times
In one way this a dark day in media.
* Newspaper circulation, generally speaking, continues to decline.
* The News & Observer is offering voluntary buyouts to about 25% of its employees.
* The Wall Street Journal continues its shift from national business paper to national paper.
* Another newspaper, The Capital Times in Madison, Wisc., closes its 6-day-a-week print edition. (Saturday, actually.)
I suppose industry evolution sometimes looks that way.
Yet, it's also a day of hope, as The Capital Times goes online. Not to those in Madison who were laid off, of course, but to the rest of us ink-stained wretches interested in the future of journalism. It will be a tough evolution -- and it will have to make adjustments faster than we normally think of evolution. Competition is stiff, niches are nearly filled, the marketplace is unforgiving and readers are saturated with information. (That is best described by Jay Rosen.) But it could well become a laboratory for journalistic innovation. Newspapers still developing a Web presence -- and who isn't -- will be watching.
It is a grand and noble strategy to continue to bring its voice and values to the Madison community. I hope it works.
Comments (4)
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Just out of curiosity, how many of those employees are editorial staff? The story doesn't say which areas are going to be shouldering the burden of the buyouts.
Posted on April 28, 2008 5:51 PM
Don't know, Bryan. There is nothing on either the N&O's editor blog or its public editor's blog.
Because the N&O and the Charlotte O are now owned by McClatchy and the news operations have what bean counters call redundancies, my guess is that the newsroom will have its fair share.
Posted on April 28, 2008 6:18 PM
Looks like the newsroom will lose up to five people. Here's an updated story from the N&O:
http://www.newsobserver.com/business/story/1053695.html
Posted on April 29, 2008 11:51 AM
While there have been some decreases in newspaper circulation not all of it can be called failure or a complete shift away from this traditional medium. In many cases the decreases are genuinely business oriented—things like voluntary circulation cutting to outlying areas because of escalating fuel costs. Diego Vasquez wrote an article Q&A with Rick Edmonds media business analyst for the Poynter Institute.
There seems to be a lot more to the picture than it seems. The one thing that’s certain is that the only real way to tell what’s going on is through the use of audited circulation statements. Furthermore, though there may be a shift to online media that only reinforces the need for the development of realistic audit processes for that medium. We’ve been working with a group called Buy Safe Media and they’ve got some good info on the value of audited media.
Posted on May 6, 2008 2:31 PM