Results matching “at the tribune company”

The International Herald Tribune is launching a news reader application in the first half of 2009 according to the New York Times Vice President of R&D, Michael Zimbalist.

The software will be based on the AIR 1.5 which was released on Monday. According to an article on CNET news, "it's pretty clear that the company will release a reader for The New York Times as well." The announcement was made at the Adobe Max Conference in the USA.

There is currently a desktop reader in the marketplace for the NYT. The recently announced IHT platform will take advantage of the newly released AIR application's new technology, such as its fast text-rendering engine that re-flows text as you resize the screen. The new app also uses the video capabilities of Flash 10, which Air 1.5 uses. The demo showed videos in ads, but it could also be used for editorial content.

Source: CNET

As newspapers across the United States redesign and relaunch; readership has not increased, neither has ad revenue.  So is a new design the most effective way to tackle the changes to the industry?  A recent article in Portfolio, takes a look at the Tribune Co. redesigned papers and ultimately concludes that their redesigns have not landed the success they should have.

According to Ken Doctor, a news industry analyst for Outsell and Content Bridges, "it's a distraction.  The major challenge to a company like Tribune is not to try to incrementally either stop circulation declines or add a point or two, but to really remake itself into a multimedia modern company." 

Cissy Baker will now "preside over a combined Tribune bureau," including such papers as The Chicago Tribune, The Orlando Sentinel, The Baltimore Sun, and The Los Angeles Times.

As the new vice president of the Washington News Bureau for Tribune Company, Baker will now oversee "all newsgathering operations in the nation's capital for the company's publishing, broadcasting and interactive divisions." 

Barely a day goes by at the moment without a raft of stories on the financial crisis, the US election and... the Associated Press. The Associated Press's communications team have never been so in demand, and the venerated news agency is moving dangerously close to becoming the story rather than being the one that writes about it.

The Editors Weblog spoke to Tom Brettingen, Chief Revenue Officer and Senior Vice President, Sales and Marketing at the AP, to discuss bad publicity, editorial content, price structure, and editorial cuts at the agency.

EW: Have you been surprised at the reaction to the price structure changes?

TB: "Generally, and for most of the industry, what we were offering was much more content for less money and a broader license to use it. We expected people to be happy, and most people were happy, the people you are seeing in the news were people, as the economic situation got worse, who were expecting larger decreases in their rates."

EW: Why were these changes necessary?

TB: "In the beginning, the goal was not drastic rate cuts, it was more about content. We wanted to help newspapers find the content that was specifically right for them in their markets and keep rates flat in doing that. We did all the work to devise the specifics and as these discussions went on the situation in the market became a lot worse and the global economy got worse. So, now the pricing and packaging that we started off with has run into this buzz of newspaper challenges and general economic challenges and that's why you find today all the stuff in the news about us"

EW: Is the AP having the same financial difficulties as the rest of the industry?

TB: "If our customers, who are generally ad supported, are hurt by the challenges that all newspapers are facing, compounded by the global economy, then of course it affects us as well"

EW: Looking back, would you have done anything differently with regard implementing the price structure changes? Do you think communication was an issue?

TB: "Some of the clients found the new packaging unnecessarily complicated. We created one level that contained all of the Breaking News, and then separate to this we had additional levels, Premium vertical segments, such as Sports, Business, Lifestyle, Entertainment and Analysis. Our thinking was "Breaking News" would satisfy a lot of customers, but some of our clients with more specialized newspapers might want to buy additional sports and business. Breaking News did have a huge amount of sports and business, but some of it was separated into Premium categories, so only those newspapers that wanted it needed to buy it."

"If we had foreseen how much more difficult the economic situation was going to get, we probably would have jumped ahead farther and skipped some of the intermediate steps. Things were not great 2 years ago, but they weren't nearly as bad as they are now.

"I am sure that (sic: communication) was part of it.... We were making this brand new separation from Breaking News, which on its face seems straightforward enough. However, say you are looking at Sports; you get the baseball results and match report, but what about analysis and sidebars? We had that planned, but we didn't have it live in the new web platform, so newspapers hearing from us couldn't go immediately to the website and see what we were talking about."

"If we'd had more time to announce it so that we could have finished the programming so that the distinctions between Breaking News and Premium would be clearer.... yeah, we could have timed that better. We were racing to get the program built and explained so people could make their choices in time for 2009. Newspapers didn't have the ability to see the differences to Breaking and Premium, and that would be something we could have done better.

"There was a huge amount of communication, it just wasn't necessarily what everyone wanted to hear"

EW: What was AP's reaction to the business-wide and economic crisis?

TB: "Last week, as the economic situation worsened and newspapers wanted a further reduction in their pricings from us, we did two things, for the small percentages of newspapers that saw a price increase in 2009, that was called off, and then we decided to abandon the two tier model. We made it part of one package, so premium is available to everyone."

EW: What is in the future for the AP?

TB: "We are undertaking a major review of what we need to do beyond changes in 2009. That will be a wide-ranging review. There are some benefits to membership of the AP, you vote for the board, you have an ownership stake; however, maybe some newspapers would prefer to not support the co-op to that level. Maybe some newspapers would prefer to be a more straightforward customer and buy a small content package for less money. That will be something that we will be examining."

EW: Do you expect to increase prices after 2009 for US newspapers?

TB: "Unless something miraculous happens and turns things around, if newspapers get to where they need to go with much more success on the web, that is theoretically possible. But no, I don't see any rate increases in the foreseeable future."

EW: Why has the AP changed its tone in some AP copy? Some of AP's content is now quite opinionated, are you moving away from neutral ground?

TB: "It's an area that can be debated, but we are certainly not moving from a neutral position. We remain committedly neutral, but that doesn't necessarily mean you can't have a voice, it's a more distinctive voice. It's a different voice to that which we may have had on some of our content in the past, but there is no leaving the neutral middle ground in terms of political leanings. We are providing value to the reader, we don't go to the consumer of course: we're a wholesaler. However, if we don't interest the reader, our customers aren't going to find that much value in our content. It's not a decision to be outrageous, or voicing off... it was an incremental change to be a little more distinctive in the market place."

EW: Does the AP have any new projects or innovations in the pipeline?

TB: "If we're not going to have all the revenue that we've had in the past from US newspapers and, more than likely, a few US broadcasters, we need to replace that revenue. We have several initiatives to help us do that, and they will be in content areas. Any more detail would be premature at this stage."

EW: Do you expect staff cuts at AP? If so, can you confirm that these will not happen in editorial?

TB: "Its clearly a company where the expense is largely people, if you're going to reduce expenses, you've got to look there. We need to be sure that the cuts are done very carefully because damaging the product and damaging the quality of the product starts a spiral that we clearly have no intention of starting.

"There is no decision on not cutting editorial, but depending on the levels of cuts that is required, its unlikely that you could do that entirely without looking at where the majority of our expenses lie, which is news staffing"

EW: What do you see in the future for newspapers? What do you think they need to do to their business models?

TB: "If I had the secret potion I would get very wealthy in a hurry. There are lots of good ideas floating round out there and they almost all revolve around targeting users with information, content and services, not expecting a single product - be it print or web - to be fully satisfying to everybody you want to reach in your market. A lot of customization and niche kinds of products are the things on most peoples minds."

See also:

Exploring the content sharing model: Is this the future of the US newspaper industry?
Opinion: Is the AP threatening its own future?
US: AP suspends rate hike
US: More newspapers to drop AP
US: Tribune Co. to drop AP

The Associated Press announced plans to suspend its rate hike and review pricing.  The move comes after members have expressed their opposition to the new rate structure.  Newspapers have recently been announcing plans to terminate contracts with the AP.  The most recent announcement came from the Tribune Company.

According to a statement released by the AP, the board of directors has approved a "moratorium" on the rate hike Thursday, October 23.  The AP also plans to complete a review of its pricing and governance structure by the middle of 2009 and carry out a review of membership structure.

Until further decisions are made, the AP will "provide all member newspapers complete access to all AP text content, at no extra cost."

According to AP president and chief executive Tom Curley, "Because of the downturn in the global economy, we are at a point where we must now examine more than just what content costs, but also how AP deals with  all of its members and customers."

Source: AFP

On Tuesday, October 21 Tribune COO, Randy Michaels sent a memo discussing the reinvention of the Tribune's newspapers for readers and advertisers to employees as a means to provide some positive reinforcement.

Michaels talked about recent changes to the Tribune's eight papers.  In the last six months, all of them have been redesigned and operations in the news room have been restructured.

He also discussed new print partnerships: the Tribune's Florida's Sun Sentinel will begin printing, packaging and transporting the Palm Beach Post; The Baltimore Sun is printing and distributing the Washington Times in areas around Baltimore; and the Chicago Tribune is distributing the Chicago Sun-Times.

According to Editor & Publisher, the Tribune Company has given the Associated Press a two-year notice that it plans to drop the news service.  This is the first major newspaper chain to drop AP since it announced a new rate-structure plan.

Tribune Co. owns nine daily papers including the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, The Sun Sentinel of Fort Lauderdale, The Orlando Sentinel, Red Eye of Chicago, the Hartford Courant, The Baltimore Sun, The Morning Call of Allentown, and The Daily Press of Newport News.

The Associated Press's recent modifications to its membership rates and the nature of the services that it provides caused a number of US papers to back out of their subscriptions. Publications across the country may be on the hunt for an alternative news source, in particular local papers for whom the AP's content may not be adequate anymore. Papers like The Post Register from Idaho Falls, The Star Tribune from Minneapolis, Washington's Yakima Herald-Republic and The Wenatchee World have already submitted two-year cancellation notices of their contracts. 

Tribune Co. is dodging the crossfire in the wake of United Airlines chaos, and is pointing the finger of blame at Google's search technology.

An old Chicago Tribune story archived in the Web site of the sibling South Florida Sun Sentinel detailing a six-year old United Airlines story about how it entered into Chapter 11 was mistakenly circulated as a "new" story, triggering a frantic sell-off of United Airlines stock that sent the share price crashing by more than 70%. The autopsy of who is to blame has now been rumbling on for days.

According to the Tribune, Google's automated search agent, Googlebot, cannot, "differentiate between breaking news and frequently viewed stories on the websites of its newspapers."

The Tribune also claims that they warned Google "months ago" to stop "crawling" its site. However, a Google spokesperson in a statement said, "The claim that the Tribune Company asked Google to stop crawling its newspaper Web sites is untrue."

A user looking up stories about airline cancellation policies late on Saturday night accessed the article in question from the archives of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.

At such a time of night, that single hit made the six-year-old article move to the "most viewed" list by default. 52 seconds later, Googlebot crawled the story.

The Tribune went on to say, "Google provided a link to the old story on Google News and dated it September 6, 2008. Google's dating the story on Google News made it appear current to Google News users."

Source: Editor & Publisher

See also:

US: United Airlines chaos caused by human error and automation
US: United Airlines stock plummets after old bankruptcy story re-surfaces

A local newspaper in Ireland is taking up the freesheet model. From next Friday The Offaly Independent in Tullamore will no longer be available at newsagents and will instead 15,000 copies will be distributed free of charge throughout homes and supermarkets in Offaly.

This is the latest in a series of changes at the Celtic Media title, The Offaly Independent changed its publication day from Wednesdays to Fridays, and it previously began distributing free copies to the newer areas of the county in an effort to boost circulation figures.

The launch of the new full-colour 48-page Offaly Independent will include a revamp of the paper's website.

The move is due to a restructuring within the company and will result in the loss of two full-time jobs following internal deployments elsewhere.

Celtic Media also publishes the Westmeath Independent, the Westmeath Examiner, the Meath Chronicle in Navan and the Anglo Celt in Cavan. It employs a total of 200 people.

Source: Greenslade in the Guardian.co.uk and Sunday Tribune

The Minneapolis Star Tribune (the Strib) published an editorial June 29 advocating for offshore drilling - an about-face for an editorial board that has traditionally taken a staunch environmentalist stance.

Editors are allowed to change their minds, says the Minnesota Post's David Brauer, but there was more to the reversal than caprice: Avista, the company that owns the Strib, is "heavily invested" in offshore drilling.

Brauer says the Strib blundered by failing to disclose the potential conflict of interest.

 "Writing a pro-drilling editorial isn't beyond the pale; however, not acknowledging the very specific core conflict of interest is," he writes.

The editorial attempted to ease public concern about the environmental effects of offshore drilling, while touting its potential economic benefits.

According to Brauer, Avista has seven energy holdings, including an "undeniable" offshore drilling concentration, and should have mentioned the connection in a disclaimer.

"Let's face it, if Strib reporters were writing about another company or powerful pol [politician], they'd eagerly note this level of entanglement," Brauer writes.

"The Strib editorial page should hold itself to at least that standard, which doesn't demand an actual conflict but merely its perception."

Source: The Minnesota Post through Poynter

Newspapers are making several preparations in anticipation of the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics, trimming staff and putting increased focus on their online operations.

The Associated Press will provide newspapers with a service called Summer Games Plus, made possible by a deal with NBC that allows the AP to publish NBC-produced context.

According to New York Times Sports Editor Tom Jolly, the Times will utilize the AP's service "because we wanted the ability to fully cover things like lead-up events, lesser events we might not staff, and mostly agate events."
 
The Tribune Company's papers, which include the LA Times, the Chicago Tribune, and the Baltimore Sun, will share reporters to provide the widest range of coverage.

The Boston Globe is among the papers sharpening its web coverage. According to sports editor Joe Sullivan, the paper is bringing "a full-time multimedia person...in charge solely of producing products for the Web."

The Globe will also bring a Chinese reporter "to help with the language and cultural stuff."

Check out some past coverage of the Beijing Olympics:

Human Rights Watch Guide for Reporting
BBC Coverage
Journalists Manage Expectations

Source: Editor and  Publisher

The Los Angeles Times announced that it is the first Tribune Company paper to be available for Amazon's Kindle Reader. This is a further step in the reinvention process that newspapers worldwide are adhering to.

The Kindle Reader offers newspapers a chance to adapt to today's world laden with mobile technology, by offering an e-reader-compatible version of their paper. Some editors, however, do not trust in the full-fledged future of the e-paper the 2008 Newsroom Barometer showed.

Kindle e-papers are offered by top US papers like The New York Times and the Washington Post as well as international papers like France's Le Monde, Germany's Frankfurter Allgemeine and China's Shanghai Daily.

Source: Los Angeles Times Blog

See also:

A Paperless world?
Are we heading for all-elecronic papers?