The debate about the future of journalism reached the height of silliness last year when journalist turned banker Steven Rattner suggested that The New York Times be subsidized by the government like the BBC. But the economics of journalism has…
Allmenus.com, the online ordering portal with 255,000 restaurant menus around the country and 3,500 online ordering relationships, will focus on specific local markets via a new partnership program that gives a portion of revenues to newspapers or other local promotional…
Digital media is more cannibalistic than complementary and is seriously eating into the demand for traditional news sources such as newspapers, TV and news magazines, according to the third annual survey of news users done by Outsell Inc. The survey…
Under the new leadership of CEO Carol Bartz, everything is up for review at Yahoo, and that probably includes HotJobs, its recruitment site. But recent press reports suggesting that HotJobs has already been designated for sale are off base. The…
The News Hour with Jim Lehrer followed The New York Times' lead today with a segment on “news alternatives” (audio download here). Featured on the program were Joel Kramer of MinnPost, John Brod from Patch.com and Esther Thorson from The…
It would be a pity if The New York Times Co.’s Boston Globe were shut down, because its Boston.com site continues to innovate with local online advertising capabilities. Today, the company’s YourTown hyperlocal sites launched Flyerboards: a virtual bulletin board…
The New York Times weighs in today on whether hyperlocal sites will fill the local coverage gap left by shrunken or collapsed newspapers -- never mind that newspapers themselves have only recently rediscovered neighborhood-level news themselves. Almost of their attention…
The San Diego News Network seemed like a model for local news development but now its future is less clear. Launched last week after nearly a year of development, the network was built to provide compelling local content to the…
McKinsey & Co. consultant Ali Keshavarz, speaking at the NAA Annual Convention in San Diego, said he believes newspapers can add 20 percent to their online revenues by pushing harder on small-business accounts. McKinsey has been working on an SMB…
Speaking at the NAA Annual Convention in San Diego, McClatchy CEO Gary Pruitt says his company is now operating the leading local Internet business in each of its daily newspaper markets. Among the company's top markets are Miami, where it…
The Las Vegas Review-Journal has launched an ambitious local mobile video site using the The AP Mobile News Network, said AP President Tom Curley, speaking at the NAA Annual Convention in San Diego. The site extends The Review-Journal’s leadership onto…
It was kind of gutsy of NAA President John Sturm to go on Colbert's "Better Know a Lobby" segment last week on Comedy Central. But I don't think it turned out so well ... (Thanks to Steve Outing for the…
Next week is the Newspaper Association of America’s Annual Convention in San Diego. I’ll cover Google CEO Eric Schmidt’s keynote on Tuesday, in which he’ll express his support of the newspaper industry despite Google’s very public axing in January of…
Gabriels and Endeca have launched a new white-label auto portal. The effort formally kicks off a recently announced partnership to inject Endeca’s search capabilities into Gabriels' vertical sites. The new portal moves away from a simple listing product, offering a…
The New York Times publishes separate sports and business sections on Saturday, Sunday and Monday. It may soon move away from separate sections altogether. This past Saturday, there was not a single display ad in either the sports or the…
When I went to work in the new Information Services Division of Dow Jones in 1980, I was taken on a tour of the newsroom including the area where the news wires spit out a continuous flow of information called…
Thanks again to all those who attended Marketplaces 2009. If you missed the show, or any of our coverage, below is a collection of posts from the week. Marketplaces 2009: Top 10 Takeaways Thanks to everyone who came out to…
At the end of the second day of Marketplaces 2009, my colleague Matt Booth made a statement and then asked a follow-up question. He said, "most of what I've been hearing from the podium is optimistic. Don't people realize that…
Rob Curley and Chris Jennewein of Greenspun Interactive gave a lively presentation this morning at the Marketplaces conference representing the yin and yang of product features and business models. This is often in a state of imbalance at online newspaper…
NCI President and CEO Dan McCarthy told attendees of Marketplaces 2009 in Los Angeles today that "local marketing spend is going to be reduced tremendously. It will have a big impact on all marketing budgets,” he said. “Local media starts…