A HOLIDAY STOCKING BURSTING WITH WORD OF ADS AND EXAMINER

As 2000 winds down, a potpourri of thoughts ends a pivotal year

Herb Caen, the late Pulitzer Prize-winning San Francisco newspaper columnist, used to churn out about a thousand words a day, six days a week. Though on Sundays they were full essays, the daily columns usually consisted of two dozen or more items of a funny or newsworthy nature.

About once a month, Caen headlined one of his item columns, "Pocketful of notes." Today I find myself with ... a pocketful of notes.

Reflecting the cooling economy, newspaper advertising spending in the third quarter of 2000 was only up by 4.3 percent this year over last. Nonetheless, figures released by the Newspaper Association of America (NAA) of Vienna, Va., show that national advertising spending jumped by double digits in the same period.

Total newspaper advertising spending for the first nine months of 2000 was estimated at $34.7 billion, up from $32.9 billion in the same time period last year.

National advertising led the way, up 14.5 percent against the second quarter, a 15.8 percent gain over the first nine months of 1999 and a total so far this year of $5.7 billion. Other categories were less sterling, but good: retail was up 0.7 percent and classified was up 4.8 percent over the second quarter, while year-over-year, retail was up 2.2 percent and classified grew by 5.6 percent.

In releasing the figures, the NAA said its projection, that total newspaper ad spending for 2000 would grow between five percent and six percent, seemed to be "right on target."

Sharp-eyed reader Owen Youngman of the Chicago Tribune sent me scrambling to my dictionary the other day.

In last issue's cover essay regarding the Veronis Suhler Communications Industry Report I wrote, "the euphonious New York City merchant bank" to describe Veronis Suhler. Youngman cryptically wrote that he "loved that sound."

I guess I did too: my Webster's New World defines "euphonious" as "having a pleasant sound." The word I was shooting for was probably "eponymous," which means the "derivation ... of the name of a people, nation, etc. from the name of a real or mythical person."

Since I was trying to avoid typing Veronis Suhler a second time, I guess I did use the wrong word. As another national columnist has been known to write, "a thousand lashes with a wet noodle."

Though we will take a longer, harder look at the new San Francisco Examiner in a forthcoming issue, we can offer a few early observations about the paper, which was launched Nov. 22.

It apparently was rough sailing the first week of the Fang family's operation of the venerable daily, from a production standpoint anyway. The first day's paper didn't reach newsstands until around 1 p.m.; considering the new owners had switched the paper to the morning cycle, that was a bit of a problem.

As the week went by, problems such as pixelated halftones and stories cutting off in mid-sentence plagued the paper. Insiders acknowledged that they were "battling technology."

Nonetheless, it is obviously going to be a paper of substance but it is equally obviously it's going to take some time for the paper to get its feet and its bearings.

Holiday cheer desk: Though it was last month we were supposed to express our thanks, December is a good time to reflect on the fortunes of the previous year. You, our readers, have been supportive as ever and we really appreciate the fact that you're out there. We hope you appreciate that we're here.

Twice a year we cut ourselves a little slack and publish only one issue of the print edition of NewsInc. during the month, in August and December. Well, here we are doing the one December number; we'll see you back on Jan. 1.

Thanks for a great 2000 and here's to an even better 2001 – which may or may not be a space odyssey.

-- David M. Cole

e-mail: dmc@newsinc.net

Inside ...

• Seattle slews into a strike; P-I, Times and Guild all publish
• Web sites find branding is a task without end, with an occasional zig
• ABC pricing, reporting changes win OK and plaudits
• FAS-FAX punctures Sunday circulation security
• Publishers adjust as free Internet provider 1stUp.com fades
• Ballot woes show value in testing a design
• Persons

From NEWSINC., Dec. 4, 2000, Copyright © 2000, The Cole Group. All Rights Reserved.