NEWSPAPER INDUSTRY LACKS ZING – WANNA FIGHT ABOUT IT?

Publishers need to challenge every newcomer to their turf

SEATTLE – By the time I arrived at the Interactive Newspaper Conference here in early February, I had been to five industry meetings in less than six weeks.

I was presentation-pooped, seminar-satiated and conference-contented. I really didn't want to hear another word (even though many of them had been my own).

That was, at least, until I heard Robert Cauthorn of the Arizona Daily Star. Cauthorn, who was described to me by someone who knows him as "something of a bomb-thrower," tossed a few hand grenades into the audience, many of which I detail inside.

Though this new media guru's comments on the world of new media were enlightening, what got the little hairs on the back of my neck saluting were his thoughts on the newspaper business.

"I guarantee you, if somebody comes into my market and messes around with it, they'll get my wrath," Cauthorn said.

"We've been given franchises and all we can do is manage them," he said, "and what we need to do is to transform them."

If a newspaper isn't "hooked into its community," Cauthorn said, it should go out of business.

"Newspapers care about our communities. Newspapers fight for their communities," he said.

I guess what I found so exhilarating about Cauthorn's speech was that he was saying things that many of us in the newspaper business have been thinking: There have been a number of fundamental changes in the business in the last 30 years and though many of those changes are for the good, something has been lost in the transition.

Fighting spirit.

Inside, Correspondent L. Carol Christopher gives us a rundown of what's happening in Gwinnett County, Ga. The Daily Post has tried some innovative ways to grow circulation (like accepting half-price subscriptions from local cable TV operations), which has raised the ire of not only its competitor, Atlanta's Journal and Constitution, but also the animus of the state newspaper association.

Though you may not agree with the methods that the Daily Post has used, you've got to give its executives this: They're fighting.

I don't see any fighting spirit in the business today, and probably the latest earning reports from the publicly traded companies won't help any. As Senior Editor Pete Wetmore outlines inside, the final numbers for 1997 have come in and they're even better than we had initially thought – last year was the best in anyone's memory.

But we've got to be re-thinking the entire business and now is the perfect time. We have some extra capital and we have the benefit of a happy Wall Street.

We need to invest in transforming our businesses to function profitably in a world where print will mean less and less. We need to figure out how to make money on the Web. We need to regain the trust of our readers and advertisers.

We need to go out there and fight.

¶

It is with regret and pride that we announce changes here.

Correspondent Jon Fine came on our radar when he was a fact-checker at the old NewsInc. – when it was a slick, monthly magazine. Subsequently he became editor of this newsletter; when we took it over in August, he agreed to stay.

His contributions since then have been enormous.

Unfortunately for us, Jon has found a new home with Steven Brill's new consumer magazine about the media, Content. We wish Jon well in his new adventure; we envy the editors at Content.

We believe we have come up with a suitable replacement: Julius Duscha. The former director of the Washington Journalism Center and former reporter and editorial writer at the Washington Post, Duscha is a prolific free-lance writer who has written two books, and articles for virtually every high-profile magazine.

Among the many highlights of his career, Duscha says, was being on President Nixon's "enemies list."

Just the kind of fighting spirit we want in this business.

– David M. Cole

Inside ...

• Georgians are locked in battle over cable-linked subscriptions
• Dow Jones & Co. is the sore thumb in a crowd of positive financials
• Arizona new media director calls for battles on the home front
• Clinton visit brings out extra effort at two Midwest papers
• Director of shared content defines role
• Winter Olympics illustrate how far web sites have come
• Persons

From NEWSINC., Feb. 16, 1998, Copyright © 1998, The Cole Group. All Rights Reserved.