Newspapers in Northeast Pursue a Content-Sharing 'Consortium' (E&P)

Newspapers in Northeast Pursue a Content-Sharing 'Consortium'

By Shawn Moynihan (E&P)

Published: October 27, 2008 11:50 AM ET
NEW YORK Top executives and editors from several major dailies in the Northeast, dissatisfied with The Associated Press, met recently to discuss the formation of a content-sharing agreement that in several cases would serve in place of their AP agreements, E&P has learned from top executives at three of the papers.

A "Northeast Consortium" of newspapers, which will include New York's Daily News and -- at least at the present time -- is said to include Newsday, The Buffalo News, the Times-Union of Albany, N.Y., and the Star Ledger of Newark, N.J., among others, is weeks away from announcing a content-sharing arrangement that will include both stories and photos.

The Daily News refused comment to E&P.

One executive who spoke on condition of anonymity and who attended the "summit" of New York-area papers, held in Manhattan within the past two weeks, cited cost savings, more timely exchange of content, and what that executive called "a new spirit of cooperation" as the primary motivations for such an undertaking. This source referred to the "Draconian terms" of the AP, which last Thursday responded to newspapers' concerns by announcing further rate cuts and restructuring.

During the New York "summit" meeting, there was a desire to make the proposed content-sharing arrangement happen "very quickly," the source added."It's fair to say that newspapers across America are upset with the treatment they get from the AP," the executive said. "Newspapers are now taking the view that they want to take events into their own hands. The truth of it is, there is a real desire to get better content, shared among people in non-competitive markets.

"The concept is similar to a content-sharing arrangement currently in place among seven top newspapers in Ohio, including The Plain Dealer of Cleveland and the Akron Beacon Journal, in which the papers trade stories and photographs. That agreement was forged out of editors' frustrations with AP's rates and news practices.

The full details of the arrangement are still being finalized. Another executive commented that each of the participating newspapers "needs to define what the value would be for us."Once the Northeast Consortium's content-sharing deal is finalized, one of the executives added, "Quite frankly, AP is eventually not going to be the only game in town. ... What's happening is, newspapers are going to reinvent the Associated Press."

Last Thursday, AP stated that by the middle of 2009, it will complete a review of its pricing and governance structure, re-examining all current policies and rules -- such as the two-year notice now required for leaving the news cooperative -- and will consider other potential changes, including the creation of different classes of membership and services.

The AP's Board of Directors voted last Thursday at its quarterly meeting in New York to provide all member newspapers complete access to all AP text content, at no extra cost. In addition, it voted to approve a moratorium on the rate increases that a minority of newspapers were expected to see in 2009 under the current AP pricing structure.Paul Colford, AP's director of media relations, released this statement to E&P this morning: "We are aware of content-sharing initiatives, including the sharing of stories among AP member newspapers using our innovative AP Exchange browser."

We also understand that a lot of newspapers are reexamining their strategies in this challenging economic climate. The AP has been working closely with its member newspapers to ensure that we continue to offer them an efficient and essential news service."

Last Thursday the AP Board of Directors took another step in that direction, agreeing to provide all member newspapers complete access to all AP text content, at no extra cost. This decision came as the board also reduced U.S. member newspapers’ assessments by an additional $9 million, on top of the previous reduction of $21 million."

A number of dailies (though a small minority) throughout the U.S. have announced their intentions to not renew their AP agreements, often citing insensitivity by the news conglomerate to their specific news needs. (McClatchy's CEO Gary Pruitt said last week, however, that his company would be sticking with AP.) Among them is The Hartford (Conn.) Courant, which also may become part of the Northeast content-sharing group.

One executive close to the Northeast consortium added that several Midwest newspapers learned of their plans and the Manhattan summit, and have expressed interest in joining.

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More on AP, newsroom cuts and outsourcing

Is the current economic crisis a game-changer for the media landscape? (I thought I'd just try and throw in that much over used media term to see how it reads: ghastly. I think I might start playing 'game-changer' bingo.)

With some newspapers struggling to meet their commercial paper obligations, certainly in 2009, and certainly when 2009 ad forecasts are revealed, some may go under. To prevent this, all issues are on the table, including the heavy usage of wire services such as AP.

I've blogged extensively on wires, and personally have my own thoughts as to what their future is and how in-house resources could and should be better allocated.

Here's more on the AP story. (Previous posts from E&P, then typically MSM behind the story, in a NYT piece that managed to catch up, but not even mention E.W. Scripps!), then more from E&P today.

Are we reaching a tipping point on the viability of many American newspapers, the viability of AP being the symptomatic tip of exactly that point but not the point itself (if I may be allowed to mix my metaphors)?

The more worrying picture for all these newspapers who attempt to devalue paid content from AP is that they devalue their own paid content in so doing. Why should consumer readers pay for content if newspapers won't. Equally, if the AP won't hold the line, or starts a panicky pricing slash in a short-term recession, they may live to regret it, if they live that is.

I'll come back to price cutting in a recession in a minute, but broadly speaking, in media, once you cut prices, it's a long slog to get those revenue figures back-up.

Time for steady hands and steadier nerves.

Will Scripps Follow Tribune In Dropping AP?

By Joe Strupp

Published: October 20, 2008 12:50 PM ET
NEW YORK Just days after Tribune Co. revealed it had given its two-year notice to possibly drop the Associated Press following a recent new rate structure, another major newspaper chain indicated it is considering the same move and is negotiating with AP over rates.

E.W. Scripps, which owns 17 daily papers including the Rocky Mountain News in Denver and The Commercial Appeal in Memphis, Tenn., declined to say if it already had or had not given notice to AP.

But in an e-mail to E&P, Tim King, Scripps vice president for corporate communications and investor relations, stated: "At this point, all I'd be comfortable saying is that we are a member in good standing of the AP, but we have been engaged in discussions concerning pricing so the future is uncertain."

Rocky Mountain News Editor and Publisher John Temple declined to comment on the situation when asked if notice had been given or if the chain would drop its AP membership. But he said he did believe his paper could operate without AP content.“I think we are very close to being able to do so,” Temple told E&P. “I think there are different papers that could put out a paper without AP in different ways. I believe you can do it and satisfy the needs of your readers.”

AP Spokesman Paul Colford declined to comment on Scripps' situation. The news cooperative just recently received the required two-year notice from Tribune, which owns nine daily papers, that could result in that chain dropping AP in 2010.

Several editors at a handful of Scripps papers declined to talk about the AP on the record, although several said changes could be in the offing. Don Kausler, editor of the Anderson (S.C.) Independent-Mail, said he did not know exactly when or if notice had been given, but said papers are ready to do without AP if needed.“It’s much like what Tribune is doing, leaving options open,” Kausler said. “When AP requires two-year’s notice, we see no harm in exercising that option. That doesn’t mean that in two years we won’t be running AP stories, but by giving notice, that can happen.”

Kausler said for a small paper like his, which often runs no more than one page a day of national and international news, AP can be expensive.

“Sports is probably the area where papers are more dependent on it,” he adds. “But in the next two years, you will see more alternatives.”

Shane Fitzgerald, editor and vice president of Scripps' Corpus Christi (Tex.) Caller-Times, agrees: "We will just wait and see what happens. We have other wire services, too. We use AP and others."The recent decisions to drop AP service follow the planned AP rate structure change, which was announced in 2007 and takes effect in 2009. The rate change initially prompted complaints from numerous newspapers, including two groups of editors who wrote angry letters to AP to complain in late 2007 and early 2008.Under current AP policy, each newspaper buys a package of general news created by AP based on that paper's location and circulation. The package usually includes breaking news, sports, business, and other national, international, and regional news relevant to the client's market, including its state AP wire. ((Under the new structure, AP member newspapers will receive all breaking news worldwide (including items from other state wires), as well as breaking sports, business, and entertainment stories. In addition, a package of premium content — made up of five types of non-breaking stories including sports, entertainment, business, lifestyle and analysis — will be available at an additional cost. ((When the new structure was announced in 2007, AP promised a combined savings of $5.6 million across newspaper member budgets, which increased to $14 million —and, finally, $21 million just days before the April annual AP meeting. AP also recently instituted a hiring freeze.

In recent months, other papers have given the required two-year's notice to drop AP. Those include: The Star Tribune of Minneapolis, The Bakersfield Californian, The Post Register of Idaho Falls, and The Yakima Herald-Republic and Wenatchee World, both of Washington.

The Spokesman-Review of Spokane, Wash., is trying to cut ties without a two-year notice, planning to discontinue AP content at the end of 2008. At least one newspaper, The Star-Ledger of Newark, N.J., tested the approach by publishing an entire newspaper for one day last month without AP content. So far, that paper has not given notice to cut the service.

Joe Strupp (jstrupp@editorandpublisher.com) is a senior editor at E&P.

Meanwhile, over at AP, in the middle of consumer rebellion, the Chairman of the Board of AP thinks it's a good idea to announce that he personally thinks it's a good idea to outsource editorial offerings. Sex on the beach in the UAE, here we go. The AP CEO must be thrilled at his Chairman's fantastic sense of timing.

Personally, until I know a lot more about what's on offer in Bangalore et al., I'm with Bernard Lunzer, president of The Newspaper Guild-CWA. "It may in the short run save costs. In the long run, what does it do to the quality of the product?"

Production and other back office outsourcing to Bangalore is one thing, editorial content, quite another.

APMediaNews CEO: Outsourcing could help save money

Monday October 20, 7:24 pm ET By Matt Sedensky, Associated Press Writer
MediaNews CEO says consolidation, outsourcing could help newspapers survive
AVENTURA, Fla. (AP) -- Consolidating and outsourcing news operations -- even overseas -- could help newspapers survive as their revenues continue to shrink, the head of a major U.S. newspaper company said Monday.
MediaNews Group Inc. CEO Dean Singleton, who also serves as chairman of the board of The Associated Press, told the Southern Newspaper Publishers Association that his company was exploring outsourcing in nearly every aspect of their operations.
"In today's world, whether your desk is down the hall or around the world, from a computer standpoint, it doesn't matter," Singleton said after his speech.
MediaNews publishes The Denver Post, The Detroit News and 52 other daily newspapers and is well known for cost-cutting efforts, including combining many operations of its papers near San Francisco.
Singleton said sending copyediting and design jobs overseas may even be called for.
"One thing we're exploring is having one news desk for all of our newspapers in MediaNews ... maybe even offshore," he said during the speech.
Other publishers also have consolidated newsroom functions this year. Two Florida papers owned by The New York Times Co. said in August they were merging news and copy desk functions, design, layout and pagination. The McClatchy Co. papers in Raleigh and Charlotte, N.C., are sharing sports and political reporting staff.
But few have sent newsroom functions overseas, limiting off-shoring mostly to ad production and other non-editorial functions, said Ken Doctor, a media analyst with Outsell Inc.
Notable exceptions are Thomson Reuters, which has been using journalists in Bangalore, India, to handle some basic news such as corporate earnings reports, and a Web site called pasadenanow.com, which has five regular contributors overseas who write about Pasadena, Calif., using webcasts of council meetings and information provided by citizen volunteers.
"We used to have on-the-ground reporters, but the expense was prohibitive," said James Macpherson, editor and publisher of the site. "Regretfully, we had to lay them all off."
Macpherson said he saw no reason a larger publication couldn't adopt similar techniques to save costs.
"You might miss the nuance of a sneer on a councilman's face but you know how he voted and what he said," he said. "That's factual and can be reported on from anywhere."
In a statement, Thomson Reuters spokesman Joe Christinat said that "by reporting some of the more commoditized news from Bangalore, our reporters are freed up to add greater value to the file with more insight, analysis, interviews, exclusives and market-moving, in-depth stories."
Despite this year's dismal drumbeat of layoffs and revenue drops, Singleton said newspapers still have incredible reach in the country, calling them cornerstones of democracy. But he said they must change in order to survive.
"Fond memories of dead newspapers will do nothing for our communities," he said.
Singleton praised electronic versions of newspapers because they eliminate printing and delivery expenses. He also said newspapers could heal their bottom lines by building up their ad sales forces and producing more niche publications like wedding magazines to attract more advertising.
Singleton said no decision has been made to outsource editorial functions overseas at any MediaNews publications, though it was recommended by consultants. He said publishers were trying to consolidate editing and design domestically, whether in one place or several, and see if they could match the savings they would see by going overseas.
Editors and reporters have intensely questioned newsroom outsourcing. Long-distance editors might miss locally relevant nuances or fail to fill in context based on a knowledge of the region, said Bernard Lunzer, president of The Newspaper Guild-CWA.
"It may in the short run save costs. In the long run, what does it do to the quality of the product?" he said.
But Singleton said Monday that local editors would always maintain final control and that no page would go to press without their approval.
Singleton talked about outsourcing delivery of newspapers, relying more intensely on syndicates for non-local news, and moving circulation call centers offshore.
He mentioned outsourcing printing to competitors and centralizing ad production and said that may be as cheap as going overseas. But he said most of the preproduction work for MediaNews' papers in California is being done in India, a move he said cut costs by 65 percent.
"If you need to offshore it, offshore it," he said.
AP Business Writer Anick Jesdanun contributed to this report from New York.

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'Boston Globe' Will Drop Two Sections, Add New Tab

It's a recession folks! 'g' & 'T' all-round on us (the NYT Co.) and for a clink, just scrape some ice off that there iceberg.


'Boston Globe' Will Drop Two Sections, Add New Tab
By Jennifer Saba
Published: October 17, 2008 4:55 PM ET
NEW YORK Just like its sister paper in New York, The Boston Globe is in the midst of reworking its section make-up, effective with the Oct. 24 edition. The Globe is dropping two sections while introducing a new tabloid called "g" that will run in the paper.
While other newspapers across the country, including The New York Times, are hot to fold metro into the A section, the Globe opted to keep it as a stand-alone.
The paper will continue to carry the A section and sports along with metro. Business will become part of metro. Features and arts and entertainment-related items that ran in Sidekick, will be incorporated in the new tab, "g."Of course, part of the reason for the move is to trim newsprint use and cut down on rising material costs. The Globe is saving 24 pages a week with the new section formats. Martin Baron, editor of the Globe, said while some newshole will be lost, the pages lost include house ads and event listings."Fundamentally, people are changing the way they use the newspaper," Baron said, adding the Globe intends to transform to the taste of people's reading habits.
The Globe has been working on this since March through a handful of town hall meetings with the employees, focus groups, outside consultants, and an e-panel made up of frequent Globe readers who agree to be sounding boards.Baron said they are gearing the changes to meet the needs of the Globe's loyal readers. "They are the ones that stay with you and they are the ones likely to stay with you," he said.What they found is that readers value local news first but that national and international news figure highly as well. "Our readers are not parochial at all," Baron said.
Prominent local news will make it in the A section, but Baron said that since it was such a high priority, the paper wanted to keep metro too. Pulling that section is seen as a de-emphasis on local news, Baron added.
The Globe has suffered newsroom cutbacks including the closing of foreign bureaus. But Baron said readers are willing to get their national and international stories from other sources. The Globe draws from several, including Reuters, AP, Bloomberg and the New York Times. As for local news, readers "expect to get that from the Globe," Baron said.
Jennifer Saba (jsaba@editorandpublisher.com) is E&P's associate editor.

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The future of AP

Who thinks they could do without AP?

Certainly the IHT has subscriptions to Bloomberg (which it uses occassionaly since the demise of Business Asia with Bloomberg and the new deal with Reuters, for which Reuters actually pays to be co-branded in the IHT in the Business with Reuters section).

Reuters is also used heavily for briefs and www.iht.com.

One has the feeling that the IHT could live without AP, in these days of big cost cuts resulting from horrible 2009 advertising budgets, it wouldn't surprise me if even the NYTMG cut them. If they could, if Tribune Company has, many others will follow.

Shocker: Tribune Co. Gives Notice To Drop AP

By Joe StruppPublished: October 16, 2008 12:40 PM ET
NEW YORK

Tribune Company has given a two-year notice to the Associated Press that its daily newspapers plan to drop the news service, becoming the first major newspaper chain to do so since the recent controversy over new rates began.

Tribune, which owns nine daily papers including the Los Angeles Times and Chicago Tribune, joins a growing list of newspapers that have sought to end AP contracts, or given notice of that, following plans to introduce a new controversial rate structure in 2009. The notice was given earlier this week.

AP Spokesman Paul Colford confirmed the cancellation notice, but said he had no more specifics. He issued the following statement about it:"We understand that in this climate a lot of newspapers are re-examining their strategies. The Associated Press will continue to work with all members of the cooperative to ensure that we are providing the most efficient, valued and essential news service for them."

The notice, of course, does not mean Tribune is cutting AP immediately. The news cooperative requires the two-year notice as part of its current contracts. Negotiations may lead to the termination not moving forward.

Tribune Spokesman Gary Weitman did not immediately respond to requests for comment Thursday as he is traveling. The notice comes less than a year after Sam Zell, an AP board member, took control of Tribune.Tribune daily papers besids the flagship in Chicago affected include The Sun Sentinel of Fort Lauderdale, Fla.; The Orlando Sentinel; Red Eye of Chicago; the Hartford Courant; The Baltimore Sun; The Morning Call of Allentown, Pa.; and The Daily Press of Newport News, Va.

"I think many editors are concerned about the new financial rate model that AP has rolled out," Earl Maucker, editor of the Sun Sentinel, said about the notice. "It is a natural approach for us to take a hard look at that. Are there other alternatives out there that would provide the depth and breadth of coverage we need?"

In recent months, other non-Tribune papers have also given the required two-year's notice to drop AP. Those include: The Star Tribune of Minneapolis, The Bakersfield Californian, The Post Register of Idaho Falls, and The Yakima Herald-Republic and Wenatchee World, both of Washington.The Spokesman-Review of Spokane, Wash., is trying to cut ties without the required two-year notice, planning to discontinue AP content at the end of 2008. At least one newspaper, The Star-Ledger of Newark, N.J., tested the approach by publishing an entire newspaper for one day last month without AP content. So far, that paper has not given notice to cut the service.Maucker said publishing without AP would be difficult, but not impossible: "We would have to take a look at what other options might be available."

The recent decisions to drop AP service follow the planned AP rate structure change, which was announced in 2007 and takes effect in 2009. The rate change initially prompted complaints from numerous newspapers, including two groups of editors who wrote angry letters to AP to complain in late 2007 and early 2008.

Under current AP policy, each newspaper buys a package of general news created by AP based on that paper's location and circulation. The package usually includes breaking news, sports, business, and other national, international, and regional news relevant to the client's market, including its state AP wire.

Under the new structure, AP member newspapers will receive all breaking news worldwide (including items from other state wires), as well as breaking sports, business, and entertainment stories. In addition, a package of premium content — made up of five types of non-breaking stories including sports, entertainment, business, lifestyle and analysis — will be available at an additional cost.When the new structure was announced in 2007, AP promised a combined savings of $5.6 million across newspaper member budgets, which increased to $14 million —and, finally, $21 million just days before the April annual AP meeting.((AP officials said member newspapers would begin to find out in July what their exact fees would be for 2009, which prompted some of the recent decisions and could result in other newspapers cutting their service before the end of the year.

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There is no IHT ombudsman to cut so this isn't a problem

A timely report from E&P on ombudsmen, given the credibility narrative we follow.

I've put the comments of Clark Hoyt, public editor of The New York Times, in bold (cut to chase - last para) because I wonder

a) how many readers of the global edition of the NYT have ever heard of him;

b) how many letters, emails or calls he gets from IHT readers?

Clark?

Special Report: Ranks of Ombudsmen Continue to Thin

By Joe Strupp Published: September 25, 2008 10:31 PM ET
NEW YORK Newspaper ombudsmen have often been among the first targeted for cuts. But since the start of 2008, the axe appears to be falling more than ever on these public editors and reader representatives, who contend their work is as important as any staff writer or editor — perhaps more so as the industry faces some of its toughest challenges, prompting a need for someone who can handle reader concerns.

Gina Lubrano, former ombudsman at The San Diego Union-Tribune and executive secretary of the Organization of News Ombudsmen, declares, "This is unprecedented, this dropping of ombudsmen left and right." Lubrano, who says her group has 27 members in the U.S., notes that some 10 newspapers have dropped them in the past 12 months. "We are going through a bad time in journalism," she adds. "Papers are giving less to their readers." Since early 2008, a string of major news papers have seen their ombudsmen leave, either through layoffs, buyouts, or simple retirement. In many cases, cash-strapped editors have chosen to let those positions remain empty — or be eliminated. Among those that have lost their ombuds since January: The Sacramento Bee, the Star Tribune in Minneapolis, The Sun of Baltimore, the Fort Worth (Texas) Star-Telegram, the Orlando Sentinel, The Hartford (Conn.) Courant, and The Palm Beach (Fla.) Post.

James Witt, executive editor in Fort Worth, says 10-year ombudsman David House was laid off as part of a 50-person newsroom cutback in June: "We now have a team of 40 editors and some senior reporters who all rotate. We each take it for one day. You take the calls, the e-mails, and it has actually worked great."

In early August, Pam Platt, public editor at The Courier-Journal in Louisville, left the post to take an editorial board position and editors chose to eliminate her former job. It had special significance because Platt was president of the Organization of News Ombudsmen, and the Courier-Journal had been the first North American newspaper to have such a position — going back more than 40 years."

I was sad," she says. "It has been an important part of the institution, but also a part of the community. I was in a lot of contact with the people." Platt, who held the post for seven years, says she would receive reader questions and complaints on all subjects. "When we dropped the stock tables, it was hundreds [of complaints] that week," she recalls. "I talked to people every day and I felt that I raised [those] concerns."

In Baltimore, Paul Moore's public editor position was eliminated in January along with other positions. He moved to a deputy managing editor role that he says will include a blog where he can write about newspaper concerns and respond to reader questions. "There is no regular column anymore, and I had done an internal memo to staff each week about issues," he points out. The public editor from May 2004 to January 2008, Moore admits, "there is a certain amount of inevitable burnout in a job like this." He adds that he would average 20 phone calls and 30 e-mails each day from readers: "It is contact with readers as much as anything, an interaction that occurs."

In her final column as Courant ombudsman on July 27, Karen Hunter called the job she lost through a layoff fascinating, "But with a smaller staff and a new Courant in the making, there will be little time for debates over such esoteric issues as political slant of the cryptogram or the theory that race is a fallacy."

Orlando Sentinel Editor Charlotte Hall, who lost public editor Manning Pynn to a voluntary severance offer in March, says a paper without such a person can cover the needs of reader concerns better than some think. "

The point is to be accountable to the public, and some papers have done that with an ombudsman," she claims. "Some write very good columns and explain process. On the other hand, a system that holds every editor directly accountable to readers also works very well. Papers can distance themselves too much from readers if everything goes to one person. There are real pros to having them and real pros not to having them." Comments Pynn: "When I took the job, I found there were a lot of people who had questions, but no one to answer [them]."

Palm Beach Post Editor John Bartosek, who at least temporarily cut the position following the retirement of 21-year ombudsman C.B. Hanif in August, believes there are other ways to handle the needs of the job: "It might not be the exact same format — it might not be a full-time position."

Former USA Today Reader Editor Brent Jones, who in July became standards and recruitment editor, says he still handles some of the same tasks, but added other responsibilities: "I obviously have to divide my time, but there will be others who will assist with reader concerns."

Deborah Howell, ombudsman at The Washington Post since 2006, says, "The ombudsman is the one person the reader feels like they can go to if they have a problem with the paper. That is the person they know to go to." And Clark Hoyt, public editor of The New York Times, believes cutting such positions, even to part time, is a detriment.

"It is a sad development," he says. "It closes an important avenue for readers to talk to newspapers and interact with newspapers, especially in a world we live in today where newspaper credibility is under challenge. Having a voice for readers is an important role."

* Editor's note: This story first appeared in E&P's September 2008 print edition.

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