REFLECTIONS OF A NEWSOSAUR

MUSINGS (AND OCCASIONAL URGENT WARNINGS) OF A VETERAN MEDIA EXECUTIVE, WHO FEARS OUR NEWS-GATHERING COMPANIES ARE STUMBLING TO EXTINCTION

By Alan D. Mutter, June 10, 2013

Although nearly $26 million was donated to 50 non-profit journalism start-ups in recent years, most are flubbing the mission-critical task of finding ways to financially sustain their efforts for the long term.

The casual approach at most news start-ups to the serious business of identifying next-generation models for journalism has got to stop. More on that in a moment.  First, the background:

The scale of spending on news start-ups was captured in an unprecedentedly thorough study released today by the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism.

In surveying 178 non-profit news ventures formed since 1978, Pew learned that 57 of them started with “a major seed grant,” according to Mark Jurkowitz, the associate director of the project, who kindly responded to my request for funding details not contained in the published report.

While only 50 of news ventures receiving major seed grants reported the amount of their  backing to Pew, those groups collectively raised “just shy of $26 million,” said Jurkowitz in an email exchange. That makes for an average or more than $500,000 per organization.

So far, so good. But here is the problem:

Although the intentions of both donors and recipients undoubtedly were noble, Pew found that many non-profit news organizations, including bootstrap operations not benefitting from significant seed funding, “face substantial challenges to their long-term financial well-being” because they “do not have the resources or expertise necessary for the business tasks needed to broaden the funding base.”

While most of the 178 organizations surveyed by Pew said they brought in more money than they spent in 2011 (the most recent year studied), Pew noted that the bulk of funding for most organizations came from a single foundation or donor. “That funding source may not provide long-term sustainability,” said Pew, noting that only 28% of the organizations at the time of the report said their key donor had agreed to renew the initial grant “to any degree.”

Of the organizations whose seed funding was renewed partially or not at all, only 28% “were able to make up the entire deficit from other sources,” said Pew.

Despite the risk of depending on a single source for long-term viability, Pew found that nearly a third of the news start-ups spent less than 10% of their staff time on business development, while more than half said such activities occupied between 10% and 24% of their time.  By contrast, 85% of the ventures said editorial tasks consumed at least half of their time.

In other words, most start-ups are concentrating on their journalistic missions without giving due regard to the equally vital task of building financially healthy organizations to sustain their efforts over the long term.

This has been a consistent theme among most of the news start-ups that have emerged since the wheels started coming off the traditionally profitable newspaper and newsmagazine businesses in the middle of the last decade.

Inattention or ineptitude with respect to business matters killed off such high-profile efforts as the Chicago News Cooperative, which flamed out in 2012, and the Bay Citizen, which was euthanized last month in San Francisco.

Read more here.

______________

Alan D. Mutter is perhaps the only CEO in Silicon Valley who knows how to set type one letter at a time. Mutter began his career as a newspaper columnist and editor at the Chicago Daily News and later rose to City Editor of the Chicago Sun-Times. In 1984, he became No. 2 editor of the San Francisco Chronicle. He left the newspaper business in 1988 to join InterMedia Partners, a start-up that became one of the largest cable-TV companies in the U.S. Mutter was the COO of InterMedia when he moved to Silicon Valley in 1996 to join the first of the three start-up companies he led as CEO. The companies he headed were a pioneering Internet service provider and two enterprise-software companies. Mutter now is a consultant specializing in corporate initiatives and new media ventures involving journalism and technology. He ordinarily does not write about clients or subjects that will affect their interests. In the rare event he does, this will be fully disclosed. Mutter also is on the adjunct faculty of the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California at Berkeley.

REFLECTIONS OF A NEWSOSAUR

MUSINGS (AND OCCASIONAL URGENT WARNINGS) OF A VETERAN MEDIA EXECUTIVE, WHO FEARS OUR NEWS-GATHERING COMPANIES ARE STUMBLING TO EXTINCTION

By Alan D. Mutter, June 5, 2013

More often than you would think, an editor or publisher will contact me to ask, “What should my digital strategy be?”

The inquiry is alarming on a number of levels.  First, because it has taken nearly two decades after the commercial arrival of the Internet for many newspaper executives to seriously tackle the seminal existential question facing their businesses. Second, because this question already has been addressed actively for years by businessmen ranging from the brass at Walmart to the butt-crack plumber under your kitchen sink. Third, because the question presumes there is a simplistic, one-size-fits-all answer that, once revealed, will serve for all time.

Here’s my Yoda-like response:

The answer is there is no single answer. There are many answers. It will take many questions to find the right answers for you. And the answers for today will be challenged over time by the new questions necessary to discover the answers for tomorrow.

The reason there is no enduring digital strategy is that the marketplace is kinetic. The solutions that work successfully today almost certainly will be overtaken in the not-too-distant future by new technological and competitive disruptions that we cannot imagine today.  When the iPhone was introduced six years ago and the iPad arrived three years later, each created whole new ways of getting and giving information.  The next big iThing – whether from Apple, Google or a gaggle of ramen-gobbling geeks in a garage – is bound to change things all over again.  Read more here.

___________

Writer’s Digest University has an array of workshops and webinars. This one costs $199 and runs from May 21 through May 23. That’s this week! It is designed for those of us who are writing or considering writing a book. This is the Writer’s Digest description of the online course/webinar:

If your goal is to write and sell a novel, you need to know what agents and editors look for and what factors influence readers to purchase books. 

In this boot camp, literary agent Jim McCarthy will discuss the top 10 elements of a successful novel—that sells. Then, you’ll submit your first five pages and query letter to be reviewed by an agent from Dystel & Goderich Literary Management so you can get direct feedback on what can make your novel and query letter meet those criteria.

If you’re wondering what exactly makes a novel saleable, what makes agents and editors say no to a submission, and how the criteria is different today from 10, 20, or 50 years ago, these questions (and more!) will be answered in this live online instructional boot camp taught by McCarthy, who has decades of experience in the publishing business. He will offer insight into the kinds of stories agents and publishers are seeking, and commentary on the principles every writer must be aware of to succeed in a dynamic and exciting time of change in the publishing world.

Use McCarthy’s advice and tips to ensure your novel has what it takes to catch the eye of readers on the bookshelf and online!

Here’s how it works:

On Tuesday, May 21, at 1:00 PM EDT (Eastern Daylight Time), you’ll attend a special 60-minute live webinar taught by Jim McCarthy. In this live webinar, you’ll learn the principles every writer must be aware of to succeed in a dynamic and exciting time of change in the publishing world. You’ll also gain an insider perspective on what an agent looks for in a query letter and opening novel pages.

Following the live webinar, you’ll spend Tuesday night and Wednesday morning assessing and fine-tuning your novel and query letter

From 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. EDT on Wednesday, May 22, you’ll have access to an exclusive message board through which you’ll be able to ask Jim and his fellow Dystel & Goderich agents (Miriam Goderich, Jessica Papin, and Stacey Glick) questions about your specific project. Use this opportunity to get helpful insight and learn how to enhance your work to make it successful.. You can also use this opportunity to network and converse with your fellow boot camp attendees. Feel free to share your work and gain support from your peers during the message board session. (Only registered students can access these boards.)

By 3:00 p.m. EDT on Thursday, May 23, you’ll submit the first five pages of your novel and your one-page query letter to your assigned agent for review. Your assigned agent will carefully read your materials and will return their feedback to you by midnight on Thursday, May 30.

In addition to the live webinar, the message board, and the personalized feedback from a literary agent, attendees will also receive:

• A one-year subscription to the Writer’s Market database, which provides you with contact info and protocols for hundreds of literary agencies, publishers, and publications.
• This boot camp focuses on fiction. Attendees should have completed the first chapter their novel and have a draft of their query letter written prior to this boot camp.

About the presenters:

Jim McCarthy is a literary agent and vice president at Dystel & Goderich Literary Management where he has worked his entire professional life since he started as an intern back in 1999. Jim focuses on adult and young adult fiction across categories from cozy mysteries and paranormal romance to literary fiction and some deeply quirky comedies. He is a frequent guest at writers’ conferences nationwide. His clients include New York Timesbestsellers Richelle Mead, Juliet Blackwell, Alyssa Day, and Victoria Laurie, who was the second client he ever signed on back in 2003.  Read more at Writers Digest University.

If you are interested,  please send me a few clips that illustrate your writing and multimedia skills, along with a list of your journalism/education experience and skill set. I will forward them to this contact. My email address is susanolder@displacedjournalists.com.

You are a seasoned news professional equally at home in 10,000 characters and 140. You love the narrative feature, the deep documents dive, the timely political scoop and the on-the-fly blog post. You make investigative stories more lyrical, lyrical ones more political. You relish working in a fast-paced setting, breaking news—and explaining the news.

If that’s you, come join a growing team of dedicated, innovative journalists who broke the 47 percent story and so much more. Our staff in Washington, DC, is expanding, and we’re looking for a story editor to handle everything from breaking stories and interactives for our 24/7 news site to print features for our bimonthly magazine.

Must have:

• Five years of editing experience in a multiplatform news environment conceiving, assigning, editing, and rewriting stories
• Headline and packaging magic
• The abillity to work well and fast in digital publishing and social media
• Mastery of the alchemy that turns “important” into “interesting”
• Familiarity with the challenges and opportunities of an ever-quickening news cycle
• Sense of humor and team spirit

Nice to have:

• Data visualization/non-narrative storytelling chops
• Background in environmental policy/technology/business
• Experience managing reporters
• Interest in (and ability to occasionally swing) own reporting/writing projects

This full-time staff position is based in our Washington, DC, office. Remote not an option. Competitive salary and benefits package.

Mother Jones’ parent foundation, the Foundation for National Progress, is committed to building and maintaining a diverse and welcoming workplace. Absolutely no calls. To apply, please send a resume and cover letter to jobs at Mother Jones.

The Commonwealth Club of California is the nation’s oldest and largest public affairs forum. A nonprofit, nonpartisan educational organization, they bring over 400 annual events on topics ranging across politics, culture, society and the economy to 16,000 members. Their mission is to be the leading national forum open to all for the impartial discussion of public issues important to the membership, community and nation. To learn more about The Commonwealth Club of California, please visit their website: www.commonwealthclub.org

Butler Koshland Fellowships is a unique program designed to pass on public service leadership skills and legacy. Our model is simple and personal—we ask extraordinary leaders to mentor an emerging leader. Each mentor and fellow pair work closely together on a project for one year, during which time we fund the fellow’s salary. The fellow is also integrated into and supported by a community of Butler Koshland fellows and mentors—past, current, and future—doing important work for the common good.  To learn more about Butler Koshland Fellowships, please visit our website: www.bkfellowships.org

Beginning in mid-April, 2013, the fellow would work under the direction and guidance of Dr. Duffy as a Butler Koshland Fellow. In this role, the fellow would support the executive-level goals of The Commonwealth Club of California. The fellow will experience the array of duties and responsibilities required to successfully lead a nonprofit organization in today’s world. This is an exceptional opportunity for someone to participate at the management level of a major nonprofit organization during an especially exciting period of expansion and possibility.

Representative projects and learning opportunities may include:

Development: Currently The Commonwealth Club has a successful $14.5M capital campaign underway, the purpose of which is to fund the purchase and renovation of a historic building at 110 Embarcadero to serve as its new headquarters. Working closely with Dr. Duffy to fundraise from individuals, foundations, and corporations, the fellow will have the opportunity to support the campaign, learning first-hand from a team of expert fundraisers.

Content creation: In order to more fully realize its mission to be a public forum for the benefit of all, The Commonwealth Club is looking for new ways to share its live programming content with a broader audience. In support of this effort, the fellow will be responsible for acting as an in-house journalist—reporting with neutrality on key events at the Club, selecting the most important ideas from hundreds programs and panels presented during their tenure with an eye towards the content’s newsworthiness and potential for informing public policy. The fellow will also work with the PR and Media Department to place and disseminate these multimedia reports via internal and external channels, in both traditional and new media formats.

Content management: As the terrain under traditional news media outlets continues to shift and in some cases disappear, The Commonwealth Club is interested in exploring its potential to fill some of this space. To this end, the fellow will be tasked with supporting efforts to organize and broadcast the Club’s rich repository of content—both historical and contemporary—across its many internal channels (e.g. magazine, radio program, website) as well as to external outlets. One especially exciting possibility is the opportunity to work with the design and preparation of the architecturally-based multimedia elements for the new state-of-the-art headquarters building, which will include inset wall screens and other means of broadcasting archival and live content within the building.

Qualifications

Candidates should have at least 3 years of related work experience. Relevant experience could include: experience in communications and marketing such as academic or work experience in a communications, community outreach, media or public affairs position; experience with social media as a tool for communications, stakeholder development, feedback, and business goals; experience in public and nonprofit administration such as academic or work experience in public administration, program management, business development and analysis, or nonprofit management; academic or work experience in related fields related to the position such as journalism, information science, or public policy.

Because the duties of the fellow involve strong communication and analytical skills, this position requires someone with a diverse set of abilities and personality traits, including: intellectual agility, friendliness, ability to interface with diplomacy and congeniality while facing multiple deadlines, excellent writing abilities, good presentation and verbal communication skills, ability to maintain calm in public settings, acumen for research, sense of humor, and cultural sensitivity. Applicants also must be adept at organizing both their own work and the work of others, have practical experience in making things happen, and know when to be appropriately discreet with confidential information.

To Apply

The application deadline is March 20, 2013. (Update: This has been extended one day. You may apply through March 21, 2013.) To apply please submit a cover letter and resume addressing your qualifications and interest in this fellowship along with a writing sample of no more than 10 pages. Please be sure to detail any technical skills you may have. We encourage applicants to also include relevant, short samples of their previous work—written reports, links to web-based publications, podcasts, ad copy, pitch letters, press releases, videos, and any other materials demonstrating communication skills are welcome.

Please send all application materials via email to the attention of Butler Koshland Fellowships’ Executive Director, Kate Brumage, at apply@bkfellowships.org with the subject line “Duffy Fellowship.” Only those chosen to interview will be contacted.  Do not contact Dr. Duffy or The Commonwealth Club of California directly.

The fellow will work from the downtown San Francisco office of The Commonwealth Club of California. Fellow compensation will be $40,000 per year plus employer provided health and other benefits. The fellow will work a standard 40-hour work-week and should be available to attend evening programs as needed.

Butler Koshland Fellowships is open to all applicants.  Women and people of color are encouraged to apply.

REFLECTIONS OF A NEWSOSAUR

MUSINGS (AND OCCASIONAL URGENT WARNINGS) OF A VETERAN MEDIA EXECUTIVE, WHO FEARS OUR NEWS-GATHERING COMPANIES ARE STUMBLING TO EXTINCTION

By Alan D. Mutter, March 5, 2013

A series of changes in recent years in the way newspapers count their subscribers masks a deep, ongoing and troubling plunge that has cut print circulation by 41.6% at the nation’s biggest papers since 2005.

Print matters because it still produces approximately three-quarters of the revenues at the typical newspaper, according to Jim Conaghan, the vice president of research at the Newspaper Association of America, an industry-funded trade group.

Although most publishers say they are moving aggressively to diversify their revenues away from print by creating digital products and services, the typical newspaper depends on print advertising and circulation fees to not only fund the innovations they hope will secure the future of their franchises but also to stay afloat in the meantime.

The foremost question facing publishers is whether the traditional print business will remain robust long enough to support a successful pivot to the digital delivery of news, information, advertising and other commercial services. But an analysis of the most recent circulation data shows that print circulation is shrinking at an alarming rate. Here are the details:

While the Alliance for Audited Media reported Tuesday that combined print and digital circulation at newspapers in the last six months fell by 0.7% on weekdays, print-only circulation actually declined by 9.9% in the same period at the 25 largest papers in the country. The AAM is an industry-funded group formerly known as the Audit Bureau of Circulations.

The long-term circulation trend is sobering. The AAM archives show that weekday print circulation at the top 25 papers has plunged 41.6% since March, 2005, the year the industry achieved all-time high advertising sales of $49.4 billion. In a stunning reversal of fortune that has roiled the industry ever since, ad sales in 2006 commenced a seven-year slide that brought aggregate industry revenues to $22.3 billion by the end of 2012.

As illustrated below, weekday print circulation in the last seven years has fallen by more than half at the Los Angeles Times, New York Daily News, New York Post, Arizona Republic, Houston Chronicle, Boston Globe, Dallas Morning News, Newark Star-Ledger, Orange Country Register, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and San Diego Union-Tribune.  Only one of the 25 papers on the list reported selling more print copies in 2013 than in 2005: The Tampa Bay Times.

Thus, the 25 titles that collectively sold 14.9 million papers on the average weekday in 2005 sold only 8.7 million papers on the average weekday in 2013.

In fairness, some of the circulation decline results from decisions by publishers to stop selling promotional subscriptions at heavy discounts and to discontinue the costly practice of shipping papers to locales outside their primary markets. It also is fair to note that circulation may have been more stable in the last seven years in small– and medium-sized markets than among the metros on the list of the top 25 properties.

At the same time circulation has been contracting, it has become increasingly difficult to track the trends, because the previously simple and uniform metrics employed by publishers have been replaced in recent years by a series of complex rules that now make it possible for publishers to include far more products than paid print papers in their circulation tallies.  In addition to paid print newspapers, publishers today can count digital subscriptions and even free products that deliver preprint advertising to the homes of consumers who don’t happen to buy the newspaper.

The positive side of the new rules is that they allow publishers to fully portray the breadth of their audiences, as they endeavor to make their content available in free print products, on the web, on mobile platforms and in the social media. But the flip side of the latitude afforded publishers is that the new methodology can lead to incongruous, if not to say unbelievable, outcomes.

In one example, the new rules make it possible for the Chicago Sun-Times to appear to be larger than the Chicago Tribune, which unquestionably dominates the market in which they both compete.  Here’s how that can happen, based on the AAM data published here:

By counting digital subscriptions and give-away products in conformance with the rules that publishers have adopted for themselves at the AAM, the Sun-Times claimed total weekday circulation of 470,548 in the six-month period ended on March 31 vs. the Tribune’s 414,930. But…

When it comes to selling the print newspapers that generate the bulk of advertising and circulation revenues, the Tribune swamped the Sun-Times with weekday circulation of 368,145 vs. 184,801.  On Sunday, the day of the week that typically generates 50% or more of a newspaper’s revenues and profits, the Tribune’s average circulation was 706,840 papers a week vs. 186,182 for the Sun-Times. Which paper looks bigger now?

A close look at the data shows the Sun-Times pulled ahead of the Tribune by legitimately counting the 208,087 newspapers in publishes in suburbs around Chicago. But the Tribune, which publishes hundreds of thousands of sister titles of its own, does not include their circulation in its publisher statement. The disparity in reporting practices forces an advertiser to parse through the conflicting data to understand the dynamics of the market. Is confusion the outcome the industry desires?

Among the other anomalies on the list of the 25 largest papers published by AAM, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, which has a print circulation of 125,726, is listed as being larger than the San Diego Union-Tribune (print circ: 192,782), Boston Globe (print circ: 172,048) and Atlanta Journal-Constitution (print circ: 149,523).  Once again, the question arises:  What is the relative value of the products that put the Honolulu paper ahead of the papers in the much larger markets?

Because there is no unanimity in the way publishers report circulation, some newspapers  can count the same individual twice if her print subscription is bundled with digital access.  How can an advertiser tell if someone is double-counted?

In the future, as noted here by Rick Edmonds at the Poynter Institute, publishers will have even more latitude in counting noses by cherry-picking the days of the week they report circulation. Will increasingly idiosyncratic circulation data help – or turn off – advertisers?

With print circulation flagging and digital products evolving, it is understandable why publishers want – and need – flexibility in the way they report the size and nature of their audiences to advertisers.

But the anything-goes approach to circulation metrics – which raises more questions than they answer – seems to be a counterproductive path to achieving the objective.

If credibility is a critical factor in building confidence among advertisers, why is the industry producing such confounding data?

___________

By G. Peters, February 2013

Good news boys and girls, LinkedIn just informed me that I am in the top 1 percent of most-viewed profiles for 2012.

Check this out, I’m looking into the camera, and here it comes. “I’m going to Disneyworld.” And there it was, spoken just like a Super Bowl MVP caught on camera just after the game. I’m in the top 1 percent; I scored a trip to Mouse-Land.

Being one of LinkedIn’s top 1 percent is an honor I’ve worked a lifetime to achieve. Pulitzer Prize be damned. Nobel Peace prize? Nothing doing. Grammy shmammy, I’ve won myself a Linkie. I just know Barack or Oprah will be calling me soon.

I need to know what sort of standards the fashion police have put on the Linkie Awards Show before I spring for a low-cut gown with a high-rise slit in the side. It could be a deal-breaker.

I trust that thongs are still “problematic.” You can all thank your lucky stars on that one.

Oy vey, how did things get this far out of hand? How did I land in the top 1 percent?

Perhaps this is a good thing. On the plus side, being ranked in the top 1 percent means a lot of people looked at my profile in the past year. Maybe I should add some bling to make the thing really sing.

If I could monetize all those peeping Toms that took the time to check me out, I wouldn’t be sitting here at 2 a.m. blogging while I wait for my late-night freelance editing shift to end. I’d be home free sitting in tall cotton.

LinkedIn says in the past three days I’ve shown up 57 times in people’s searches. Better than that, 23 people have looked at my profile in the past 15 days. Last week, I appeared in search results 265 times.

If I’m reading this chart right, I’ve been in search results 2,446 times since November. These are hall of fame numbers, and I did it all without the benefit of performance-enhancing tweets .

Holy Moly Bat Man, I am rockin’ the Linkies with numbers like these. How can I not be employed?

Why just yesterday two people, who I have no idea who they are or why they’re looking, were caught by the LinkedIn gremlins peering at my profile. Now I know how super model Kate Upton feels with all those ogling eyes on her.

I’ve got 1,492 connections on my LinkedIn account, and that’s some pretty rare air even for the most seasoned social media type. Those 1,400-plus connections put me within one click of more than 9 million professionals — 39,564 of which are new to my network since Saturday. Yah, Saturday a couple of days ago.

My guess is that this brand of fame and fortune is a lot like Bay Watch star David Hasselhoff being huge in Germany.

How can I not be employed?

After a day of thinking about my Linkie, I’ve decided to honor the spirit in which it is given.

They always say any news is good news so long as they spell your name right. And if people are looking, that means I’m still in play. That or I’ve annoyed the heck out of enough people with my blog that they have clicked over to LinkedIn to make sure I’m for real and not just another Cyber stalker.

Either way, thanks for the clicking.

There is a part of me that wonders what the end game is for all this traffic? How does one end up on the high end of the viewing scale, but on the low end of the job offer scale?

Maybe simple answer is that I’ve had numerous interviews in the past year, and I’m sure many can be attributed to the people who looked at my LI profile. So I’m saying the glass is half full.

Now I firmly believe that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone and there are no space aliens. But I’m wondering if it’s just coincidence that LinkedIn gave me this honor the day after I signed up for its premium service?

Conspiracy or not, it’s my Linkie, and I’m putting that party dress on order and I’m heading to the Linkies.

Senior Project Manager — Climate Desk/Mother Jones

Location: New York, D.C. or San Francisco

Job Description

The Climate Desk is an innovative journalistic partnership between eight news organizations—The Atlantic, Center for Investigative Reporting, The Guardian, Grist, Mother Jones, Slate, Wired, and PBS’s public-affairs show Need To Know—dedicated to exploring the impact of a changing climate. With the partnership expanding in scope and reach, we seek a compulsive networker to coordinate and guide new approaches to climate journalism.

The project manager must be a senior journalist and project leader with serious digital chops who is excited about learning from and contributing to all the partner organizations. We’re looking for a dynamic innovator and skilled cat-herder who can spearhead a big reporting project (or two or five), provide support and guidance for a far-flung stable of producers and writers, and maintain close rapport with partner editors.

The project manager will be the key liaison with partner organizations, each with varying and changing editorial needs, seeking to determine stories and strategies that complement their mission. She or he will work with CD’s producers and writers to create coverage that informs, reveals, and surprises, and will obsessively pursue ways to amplify that coverage far beyond the green choir.