Star Tribune to Lose 145 Positions

There is already plenty of news sources regarding this. The CityPages gives it a mention along with Ridder’s memo.

It makes you wonder what exactly Avista had in mind when they purchased the Strib. They’re not a publishing company, but an investment firm.

The Many Blogs of the Star Tribune

I’m a little late to the party as the majority of these blogs have been up since the beginning of January, some of them before that. I just noticed the many blogs of the Star Tribune (hopefully you’ll be able to skip the whole registration thing. If not, sorry).

What’s especially nice is they don’t seem to filter much out. The majority of these blogs are already quite busy. You get some editorial thoughts or questions, and users chime into with their opinions. Some of these agree with the author, and some don’t… and can be quite harsh. As a user, I like being able to read different people’s opinions, then come up with my own viewpoint. To me, that’s news.

The Strib’s community blog and entertainment source should also be noted at buzz.mn and vita.mn, respectively.

Thank you Strib.

One post came from the OmBlog on the importance of developing journalism ethics online. The interesting part is a link within it regarding ethical decision-making in digital media.

As just one of a ton of niche bloggers, I’m certainly not a journalist, nor will I ever claim to be. But, should we be trying to follow these rules in general, especially if part of the blog’s existence is to help promote a business or organization? I’ve certainly made tongue-in-cheek remarks on this blog regarding different issues that something like a newspaper blog would not.

I’m probably going to continue to write about “stuff” whether it’s considered journalistically ethical or not, but I’m curious if there are any opinions…

City Pages Article on the Star Tribune Sale

A couple weeks ago, I gave mention to the McClatchy Company selling the Star Tribune for 40-some cents on the dollar, or well more than $500 million below the $1.2 billion they paid for it in 1998. The post contains the Strib article, a press release and a nice write-up by Greg Sterling regarding the sale and the current status of the newspaper industry.

Here’s a City Pages article regarding the sale, giving a viewpoint that you probably haven’t seen before, and you don’t have to give personal information away to read it for “free”. It’s a compelling article, with a few side articles including views from the actual people who make the Strib tick (stuff you won’t find in the WSJ).

Maybe McClatchy made enough revenue in the Strib’s 8-year ownership and sold while they could, maybe they bought something they just couldn’t afford. I’m not in the industry and don’t have a big opinion “why”. I’m just waiting for a major daily to bring out the perfect match between trusted print readership, and the deep online content and user-friendly ads to go along with it.

Star Tribune Sold to Private New York Investment Firm

I was surprised this morning to open up the online Strib to see that the Star Tribune was sold to Avista, a private New York investment firm. Chances are you’ll have to register just to read the article, so here is a press release put out by PR Newswire instead.

I’m certainly not in the industry, although it’s definitely surprising to see that the McClatchy Co. (who owns the Star Tribune) sold it for $530 million, under half of what they bought it for in 1998. It’s reported that the Strib’s circulation and advertising has stayed solidly profitable compared to other large dailies. They have also reported, like many other large dailies, that their classified ads have been affected by Internet competition.

I’ve always been a fan of the Star Tribune, but have never advertised or purchased anything from their online or print classifieds or run-of-press ads. To the new regime… make it enticing and easy for me to buy and sell, and I will (online).

01/02/2007 Update: Greg Sterling from Screenwerk provides comments about newspapers and the Star Tribune.

Article on Newspapers and the Risk of Going Digital

For many in the Internet industry, we have our opinions on print newspapers and why they struggle versus their online counterparts and competition. It’s easy for us to say why. But most of us (including myself) are not in the industry. We don’t understand the ideals, complexities, and even internal friction between the print and Web newspaper departments.

I’ve given my 2 cents from time to time. I love the idea of user-generated content in online newspapers, and I hate spammy contextual advertising within compelling news articles.

The Tribune in Greeley, Colorado just put out an blog article regarding risk-adverse newspapers and the hesitancy to go digital. It’s the best article regarding this I have read in a long time.

It’s not a subjective article on what newspapers need to do. It’s not a subjective article on why online and search leaves newspapers behind. It’s an article from an Internet division publisher on the trials, tribulations, risks, opportunities, and costs on bringing news to multiple portals.

If we aren’t ready to compete fully in this digital game, then to punt might be the way to go. I doubt, however, that we’ll get very far by stabbing Google in the leg.

I like this quote because so many online news publishers have protested, and even sued Google for crawling news content. We pound our chest about just including a “no index, no follow” tag (meta name=”robots” content=”noindex, nofollow”), but there are cakes + forks involved.

There are about five other quotes I wanted to post, but it’s probably better just to give the whole article another link. It’s worth the read, twice.

I’m going to try and email the author to see if he has some additional input.

Update: Sweet. Now it looks like we get to register with the Greeley Tribune to read the article… which is one thing I can’t stand about some online newspapers. Too bad. It’s a great article that many won’t read because of it.

Buzz.mn - Star Tribune’s New Online Community Tool

The Minneapolis Star Tribune (subscription required) has a new online community tool called Buzz.mn. The community lets users share blog posts, events, and photos about the Twin Cities and their neighborhoods.

This is a step above what some online newspapers have been doing by trying to increase readership and retention. Greg Sterling from Screenwerk points out how some are trying to improve this, but not necessarily in the right way.

One thing that buzz.mn is doing is promoting user-generated media, letting their own users post their own content. It’s most likely moderated heavily, and only relevant community information will be allowed (this is a good thing).

Hopefully they will be able to monitize from it. They do have contextual ads, although they are spammy-looking ones like this:

Since it’s a local community, hopefully they will consider relevant local ads instead. More on that here.

It’s no secret that many newspapers struggle with other Web channels that can take away their advertising revenues. According to a Yahoo Finance press release, newspapers attract high-spending Internet users (that’s another post on its own). Just make it easy for users to buy, and they’ll advertise with you.

St Paul Pioneer Press and Others Ally with Yahoo HotJobs

The St. Paul Pioneer Press (twincities.com) writes a great article regarding their new ally with Yahoo and HotJobs. If you get a “subscription required” message, you can check out this general press release from ERE Media, Inc. Over 150 newspapers are joining the party.

What surprised me at first is that they currently have a relationship with CareerBuilder.com, which is a larger entity than HotJobs. This quote helps explain it though:

“Right now we’ve got great audience numbers (online), but we’re not necessarily able to turn that into revenue,” said Par Ridder, publisher of the Pioneer Press. The deal with Yahoo aims to help turn that around at TwinCities.com, the newspaper’s Web site.

Hopefully newspapers are starting to realize that search engines such as Yahoo and Google can be a strategic business alliance, and not just a competitor. Internet Yellow Pages (IYPs) have long figured this out. Why not newspapers? Another quote from the article I like:

“The world is changing very rapidly and we think we need a partner,” said Dean Singleton, chief executive of Denver-based MediaNews Group Inc., the new owner of the Pioneer Press. “Doing it alone will just take too long.”

I would love for this to be a start of creating a full informational and easier local advertising portal. This might be a reach, but some newspapers have figured this out a long time ago (ironically, the Sacramento Bee uses careerbuilder).

Everyday, I check out either the online Pioneer Press or Star Tribune for local news, weather, and sports. Why? Because they are by far the most trusted informational sources out there. I don’t think I’ve ever purchased anything via their respective Web sites though. Hopefully, that will someday change.

Quigo, the New York Daily, and Contextual Advertising

About a week late, but Quigo has reached a deal with the New York Daily News to provide their AdSonar private-label pay-per-click contextual advertising solutions. This adds to their platform of over 250 local and regional online newspapers and media sites, plus their recent partnership with Twin Cities-based Internet Broadcasting Systems, Inc.

The one thing I love about Quigo’s advertising is it lets local advertisers utilize pay-per-click campaigns in trusted online newspapers, where faithful users visit everyday to look for local news, weather, and sports. The cost is more than reasonable. You can choose which sections of your local online news ads appear in from business, sports, real estate sections, and more.

The one thing I do not love is a great local ad could be in the middle of  global spammy “lose weight” or “Lasik” ads as shown in a newspaper’s Lifestyle section here:

It’s safe to assume these ads bring in mass revenue. Whether a well-written and compelling local ad should be included is up in the air. It could either stand out as the “one” relevant ad, or simply blend in with the rest. You be the judge.

Google Ads In Your Local Newspaper

Google is going print, and they’re launching a program to test run-of-press advertisements in over 50 major newspapers. The idea is to fill oveflow house ads with ones from over 100 select Google advertisers. 

It’s too early to tell how it will pan out, but I do like the fact that newspapers themselves control the ads. If they don’t like any of them, they won’t get the ROP. Advertisers will use the AdWords platform and have the ability to upload their artwork directly.

Among the newspapers participating are select ones from Gannett, the Tribune Company, and the Washington Post and New York Times Companies.

News from just five hours ago is that the McClatchy Co. will be joining the party (subscription required), and I was excited to see this as they run the Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune. Unfortunately, the Strib is not one of the six participating McClatchy papers.

Business Week article

New York Times article

Greg Sterling writes about this on his Screenwerk Blog.