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Investor's Business Daily is a national business newspaper that has been published since 1984 by investor and entrepreneur William O'Neil.  The paper has more than 150,000 subscribers and won a Pulitzer Prize last year for editorial cartoons.

However, according to The Big Money in an article titled, America's Strangest Newspaper, it is "the biggest newspaper no one has ever heard of."

O'Neil founded the paper because he wanted to publish a paper that presented his personal investment philosophy on stock picking. 

Which US-based newspaper website has become so popular that it received over 140,000 user comments on one day this week? One would naturally assume, The New York Times or USA Today, but no, the distinction goes to Topix.net. Topix is a publication that does not have a newsroom, has never printed a paper version, and claims more web visitors than the Washington Post.

Topix, like YahooNews or GoogleNews, serves as an online news aggregator, collecting news from over 50,000 sources. But unlike its larger web colleagues, Topix is also a news community, bringing forums and discussion groups to every US town and city. Topix is the very definition of hyper-local; users simply enter their zip code and the news relevant to them is only a click away. The site also works with national and local news publishers in the US to help them engage their communities while simultaneously improving their revenue streams through classified publishing platforms.

This amalgamation of news aggregator, online newspaper and community website has taken American by storm, and Topix is now a hit. In July 2008, comScore Media Metrix ranked Topix.net the third largest newspaper site in the United States, right behind the New York Times and USA Today. With success like this, it seems that Topix and other news aggregators are here to stay. But what do sites like Topix mean for traditional publishers?

The Editors Weblog spoke to Chris Tolles, CEO of Topix, to find out his view on the relationship between newspapers and news aggregators and what newspapers can learn from aggregator methodology.

Different value propositions

Whereas some newspaper companies have been critical of news aggregators, which the newspapers accuse of "stealing" content, Tolles is positive about the relationship between newspapers and sites such as his. He views them as "different value propositions", which in this case means that newspapers provide the news while Topix provides the platform on which readers discuss the news. Because of this added value, Topix, according to Tolles, "work with, not against local journalistic efforts." He continues, "Topix harnesses the power of the population in places that newspapers can't realistically cover", keenly pointing out that by browsing Topix-hosted forums, journalists at many papers find new stories and new sources they would not have discovered otherwise.

Tolles describes Topix as "a place to engage and participate around local news and events." It's main innovation, impossible before the emergence of the Internet, is that it furnishes newspapers with a space where their readers can congregate around general subject matter and individual articles. In this sense, Tolles views Topix as a "great partner to newspapers"; not only does it provide the discussion platform, but it opens up a newspaper's content to a new audience which may have not previously considered reading the online or print edition.  

Targeted content = targeted advertising

One of the areas in which Topix has blazed a trail and surprised many in the media industry is in monetising local content, the $50,000 question in today's newspaper market. Topix's targeted, local content has proved very attractive to advertisers, both local and national.  Tolles reveals, "We are able to sell advertising against local audiences for national advertisers as well as being able to use our own targeting algorithms for Google's Ad Sense. We get a large uplift on the CPM rates, about ten times what newspapers not using Topix are able to get." To grow its targeted advertising success even more, Topix is increasing its direct sales staff.  

Another interesting feature of the Topix business model is that all the technology is done in-house. "We have built everything used on Topix at Topix," says Tolles. Therefore, everything that is built and designed for the site is done solely with Topix in mind; there is no content management or publishing system that has to be bolted on and squeezed to fit the site's working practises or production needs. Tolles reports that "The localization and categorization technology is patent pending and ours, as is the forum platform, search technology and everything down to the open source web components like our web server and OS."

Topix is an interesting player in the news provider market and there are clearly lessons to be learnt from its scalable model and innovation. Furthermore, the success that Topix enjoys is a stark lesson to the whole industry. But still, everything hasn't been perfect. Looking back, Tolles says he "would have hired sales people earlier, and I would have focused on local (over general categories) from the get go. I would also have worked with others in the industry to give advertisers a clearer value proposition around connecting to local earlier."

As for succeeding in the crowded media space, Tolles suggests the Topix strategy for others, concluding, "I would urge any news organization starting today to figure out what they provide their audience, and then focus on that relentlessly. We did that with participation, but there are other ways to succeed..."

Het Parool, one of the Netherlands paid-for daily newspapers has managed to fight dropping circulation figures by staying "local."  Het Parool has maintained a stable circulation figure for the last five years.

Frits Campagne, publisher of the paper described how the paper remains loyal to its traditions in order to maintain strong readership figures and retain a strong position in the Amsterdam market.

Last week, The Tampa Tribune launched its new design and cutback to one news section.  However, according to Editor & Publisher, due to the amount of complaints they will be going back to a two-section news section on Monday, October 13.

In a note to readers entitled, 'Readers Speak; Tribune Listens; Change Is Coming', on Friday the paper's editor, Janet Coats wrote, "With Monday's paper, we'll complete the switch. The first section will remain a news section. It will contain local, national and international news and the editorials. The obituaries will move to this section. The second section will contain sports and business news. Comics, puzzles, horoscopes and Dear Abby remain in the Classifieds."

Coats went on to state, "You've made one thing very clear this week: The Tribune is part of your household. Your devotion to this newspaper is powerful. We respect that, and we're humbled by it."

Sources: Editor & Publisher

According to Lionel Barber, editor of the Financial Times, there is a shift in the balance-of-power of journalism; the power is shifting in favor of new media. Barber believes the "mainstream press lost touch with its audience at the very moment when technology, via the Internet, was dramatically lowering the barriers to entry."

According to Barber, "the imperial status of the mainstream media - the television networks, big metropolitan dailies and lofty commentators - has been shaken.  The lay-offs of hundreds of US newspaper journalists this summer are a symptom of a wider malaise."

He continued, "we are witnessing a shift in the balance of power towards new media, with wholesale repercussions for the practice of journalism."

The City Star of San Francisco recently launched a new design according to Newspaper Innovation.  The Star was launched in 2006 as a competitor of the Daily Post.

According to free-daily.com the new design looks a lot like that of the Daily Post.  The new nameplate is now four-inches wide, the same as the Daily Post.  The Star also has short teasers along the left hand column, same as the Daily Post.  In addition The Star has introduced a column of national news briefs, just like its competitor.

However, according to free-daily.com, The Star has not been able to attract as many readers nor pick up as much advertising as the Daily Post.

Sources: Newspaper Innovation, free-daily.com

Dominic Carter, trading director at News International has been responsible for boosting profits of The Sun, News of the World, Times and Sunday Times.  Most recently he has decided to invest more in print.  In September, The Sun spent £1.25 million on a sales campaign promoting the newspaper's new national 30p cover-price

Carter stated that it all "depends on the attitude that the newspaper publisher towards their online and offline brands: Our view is that as a business we invest heavily in our offline brands and it will make our online brands more successful as well."

The Chicago Tribune announced this week that it will no longer have its stand-alone book review section.  The Tribune's book review section was one of the few remaining in the United States.

It will now combine books and media into a section in the Saturday paper.  The "books and media" section will include comics, movie theater ads and the weather page.  The book section was moved out of the Sunday paper and into the Saturday edition last year.  

Other recently eliminated sections include The New York Times' stand-alone Metro section.  Metro stories are now included in the paper's first section, just after international and national news.  The Los Angeles Times eliminated its stand-alone book review section in 2007.

Source: Media Post, Editor & Publisher

France's newspaper industry is in crises and President Nicholas Sarkozy is launching talks to look into alleviating the situation. There will be a two month industry consultation period led by a one of Sarkozy's former Elysee advisers.

However, unions are reportedly concerned Sarkozy could loosen ownership laws, allowing his television baron friends to buy into the national press. Sarkozy, is known as the "télé-président" due to his media fixation and his close relationship with key figures within the media.

The French press is one of the least profitable in Europe, the daily circulation of all French national papers is just 8 million, which is half that of the UK and one third of Germany. French newspapers' combined turnover fell from €1.145bn (£905 million) in 2000 to €848 million last year.

It also costs more to print a national newspaper in France than in most of its European neighbours due to the Union Le Livre's importance in this sector, it insists on strict working hours and conditions for its members. It is also difficult to buy a newspaper in France because Labyrinthine state controls newspaper kiosks. The press already receive €1.5bn in direct and indirect state each year

Le Monde's editor, Eric Fottorino, has called for Sarkozy to make it easier for the public to buy a copy of a newspaper.

Sarkozy reportedly favours loosening French laws to allow media organisation to own a TV station, a major radio network and a major daily newspaper.

Source: Guardian.co.uk

Newspapers around the world are facing a challenging time, not only because of the current difficult economic climate and declining advertising revenues, but also because of the ever more rapid push to multi-platform publishing and the changes to the operation that this has involved. Is it time the whole operating model underwent a shake-up? Neil Benson, Editorial Director - Regionals, at Trinity Mirror believes that newspapers need to radically overhaul the entire structure and that, being from a "conservative industry", they have been "overly-cautious" for far too long.

Benson, and the three Editors of the Birmingham titles affected, have rewritten the rulebook on workflow and newsroom management at the Birmingham Post (Editor Marc Reeves - business orientated newspaper), Sunday Mercury (Editor David Brookes - tabloid) and Birmingham Mail (Editor Steve Dyson - a popular evening paper); and the new system is scheduled to go live in mid-October. Benson says that in previous recessions for the media industry, the standard way newspapers have responded is to cut the pagination of the paper and axe staff, but Trinity felt that this was simply "inadequate". Benson says, "The financial pressure is nothing new, but the additional factor is the internet and convergence and the effect that this is having on the industry, so we felt that rather than do the straightforward cost-cutting, we needed to do something much more imaginative." The Editors Weblog spoke to Benson to get all the details.

Rethinking workflow

Trinity Mirror has been using the same tried and tested newsroom workflow as most other newspapers, ie, (1) journalist writes the article, (2) submits it to the news desk, (3) designer fits the story into the page, (4) sub-editing desk scrutinizes, and (5) final revision and publication. This whole system has been completely turned on its head, with Benson stating, "We are truly a multi-media business now, so lets structure for that." The old five-step system has now been honed down to just three steps: create, place and complete. Benson says that not only did they have to look at the overall operating costs in the current difficult economic climate, but they also wanted to fully integrate multi-media working practises into the operation. With the advent of new publishing platforms, such as mobile and the Internet, newsrooms have had to adapt rapidly and have thus frequently "bolted-on" on new practises to the traditional model. Benson wanted to revamp the whole process so that multimedia is fully integrated into the operation.

The new workflow system is as follows:

1) Reporters - who will now be known as multimedia journalists*, - create the content.
2) Send to the "Multimedia" desk where a newly trained multi-skilled team will not only check the copy but also place it into heavily templated pages. This is the key step in the reinvention; here Trinity have merged the news editing and production function into one.
3) Page finishing, revising and tidying up.

Benson says he cannot remember such substantial changes being made to a newsroom in 35 years. Not only will this system help to cut costs and integrate multimedia publishing, but it will also cut down on the time between a reporter finding a story and it appearing in print or online. Furthermore, the three titles at Trinity Mirror Midlands will all be sharing a newsroom; so if a big story breaks the merged newsroom can push more resources towards the story and cover it more thoroughly than was ever possible before.

Integrated newsroom - open space and collaboration

One of the key areas where the changes can be seen is in the newsroom team itself; the individual Head of Content or Head of Sport for each title will be merged and will now work across all titles and channels. Furthermore, the whole team, including advertising and sales, will all be on one floor working together.

In the centre of the new newsroom (the whole team is moving to a new purpose-designed site in Birmingham in about a month's time) there will be a structure that Benson describes as being "like a broken doughnut" (ie, a round structure, open at two points for exit and entry) which is the multimedia desk: everything will be directed from this central hub. It will also contain the conference table where all of the news meeting will take place, making it open to the entire staff rather than in the Editors office behind a closed door as in the past. This structure also enables the multi-media desk staff to always be at their workstations even during the news meetings.

Furthermore, over the summer, a new publishing system was introduced called "Content Watch" (produced by a MediaSpectrum) which is completely web-based making it possible to file copy and sub copy from anywhere.

Training journalists: the "nuts and bolts" of integration

The training programme undertaken to make this radical change in structure possible has been comprehensive. Benson describes the training as "nuts and bolts" and philosophical, ie, enabling the team to "think" multi-media when they are working.  Staffers are all being equipped with laptops for filing on the move and Smartphones (Nokia 95 Smartphones for shooting video, streaming video, and take digital pictures), so there have been practical training sessions for the new kit, being led by the Head of Multimedia and the editorial training manager.

The team have brought in Paul Bradshaw from Birmingham City University, who has an online journalism blog, for the philosophical side; the sessions involve talks on multimedia and issues surrounding it for senior staffer, who will then "percolate this knowledge down". The staff have also been attending a series of multimedia awareness sessions led by Andrew Dickinson from the University of Central Lancashire, who also has a journalism blog.

Benson is very clear on the importance of this training programme, "We are asking people to do something very new, and unless you invest in the training it is not going to work."

Managing the team through unfamiliar waters

Another key consideration for Trinity Mirror in this reinvigoration of its newsroom has been its staff. The process resulted in 65 voluntary redundancies at the newspapers and this understandably caused concern for staffers at the group's Birmingham titles. Furthermore, with the whole workflow system being turned on its head, staffers were required to apply for roles within the new structure. This, reports Benson, was a difficult decision and one "not taken lightly". However, the changes in structure are so radical that they felt it was necessary to take this step to underline the enormous change the Birmingham titles were undertaking, and for the staff to truly consider if they wanted to be involved in it. Benson reports, "We had our eyes open, we expected a big reaction."

Bearing this in mind, management moved ahead quickly and launched a consultation period where staffers had one-to-one sessions to discuss concerns and ask questions. Rapidly after, the job application process started.  

The UK's National Union of Journalists took a role in the process, telling management that they would fight any forced redundancies; thankfully, the voluntary process proved successful and a strike was averted. Benson reports that communication was open with the union throughout the process.

With hindsight?

Trinity Mirror Midlands is nearing the finishing line in this whole process, but with the benefit of hindsight, would they have done anything differently? Benson says that he does not feel that there is a "fundamental" in the process that they got wrong. He does believe that the communication process with staff is vital and needs to be as open and detailed as possible. For Trinity, communication has been, "pretty good, but more would have been better."

Furthermore, with the office move planned well in advance and with Trinity's desire to undertake the changes before the office move so teething problems could be ironed out, lack of time was an issue. Benson says, "Ideally, a bit more time, but then again I have been involved in projects in the past where you can give yourself too much time. Being journalists, we all like a deadline."

* The multimedia journalists role now involves shooting video, taking picture, and so forth, as well as being equipped to file from anywhere with the new web-based publishing platform.

There is an interesting article today on the Monday Note site that examines the integrated newsroom business model. The author, Frederic Filloux, was part of the team behind 20 Minutes and spent 12 years at Liberation, ultimately becoming the Editor-In-Chief. He now works as editor for the Norwegian group Schibsted.

He puts together some insightful figures about the cost of a large national newsroom:

* Cost of a journalist (including benefits and expenses) = €60,000
* Total cost of running a newsroom =  €10 million
* Per month costs = €830,000
* Average revenue per unique visitors per month appears = €0,10 to €0,25
* €830,000 costs requires 8.3 million Unique Visitors per month to break-even
* The French print edition of 20 Minutes made €45m in 2007. Each reader generates €18 per year for the newspaper.
* Online newsite readers generate approximately €1,2 per year (if a well-read site)

Looking at these figures, Filloux believes that "news is no longer able to sustain itself." He thinks it is now about seeking out "alternative subsidy streams" to support the news gathering and that "corporate money will inevitably percolate into news economics through service contracts, requests for expertise, corporate communication assignments." However, investment banks and the city do not like subsidised business models, so can newspaper businesses carry on being publicly traded on the stock market?

For the full debate and more detail, follow the link.

Source: Monday Notes