7 Comments Add your own

• 1. db  |  May 18th, 2008 at 9:52 pm

  I appreciate his optimism, but it looks ugly.

  He touts their increasing circulation, but it begs the question: what is that costing them? I would wager that they are spending a fortune on promotions and/or giving away papers. That may temporarily appease their advertisers, but I doubt that it’s sustainable.

  He talks about their web site “setting records in page views and unique visitors,” but he doesn’t say that it’s breaking any revenue records.

  He says that craigslist took away most of the classifieds revenue, but apparently has no intention to fight back. Look at their online classifieds — they’re awful. No wonder why people use the competition.

  I truly believe that they could turn things around, but this column doesn’t give me hope for them. Instead, it looks like a bunch of wishful thinking and optimism without a solid plan for increasing revenue.

• 2. TR  |  May 18th, 2008 at 11:22 pm

  (A) I still resent the implication that alternative media sources are NOT places to find “journalism of verification.” Sometimes I suspect that’s where newspapers run scared … realizing they’re no longer the only ones who can find and report the news. I do think there is a place for the type of newspaper journalism that some of us in neighborhood-level alternative media do not have time/resources to do - investigative series, indepth reporting - but tout that if you do it; don’t try to insinuate quality coverage of day-to-day news can’t be found anywhere but in your pages.

  (B) The previous post’er’s point about the classifieds is dead-on. Recently our site sponsored the annual Community Garage Sale Day, and our mission was to promote it every way possible, around the region. In addition to taking advantage of myriad free listings and promotional opportunities, I wanted to buy a relatively sizable classified ad in the Times/P-I. There was absolutely no way to do that online. I was allowed a tiny (10 words, if I recall correctly) free classified in the garage-sale section to run only on a Saturday. There was no way to buy something bigger and run it separate days. I would have loved to have given them some $ if that option had been available. (Failing that, not only did we post daily free Craigslist notices, we also spent hundreds on ads in small neighborhood regional newspapers, in our neighborhood and other parts of the city, where it wasn’t so hard to figure out how to buy and place an ad. Although the prices in some cases were outrageous — $45 for three short lines, one run? — and I suspect volume might rise again if prices dropped.)

• 3. Anonymous  |  May 19th, 2008 at 2:26 am

  I predict bare birdcages and massive out of town importation for the same of those dead parrots in much less than five years.

  Carry on!

• 4. Tim  |  May 19th, 2008 at 1:51 pm

  @TR: I realize this is the Web era, and I agree they _should_ provide online ad sales, but did anyone think about physically going into their office and buying an ad?

• 5. Cale  |  May 19th, 2008 at 2:12 pm

  The News Tribune of Tacoma had a similar column, by David Zeeck the executive editor. Click my name to read it.

• 6. tdc  |  May 19th, 2008 at 2:50 pm

  read between the lines, folks… he said “WE’RE here to stay”.

  top mgmt. is always the last thing to go.

• 7. Jack Lail  |  May 20th, 2008 at 6:36 pm

  Blaming the woes of the newspaper industry on Craig Newmark is a bit convenient. It’s kind of like blaming the rise in home delivery costs on rising paper prices, but failing to note that paper prices are cyclical. I guess the Newmark line is more quotable than to admit newspapers failed to respond to the changing business environment of which Mr. Newmark’s company is but a part.

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