Who Would Subscribe to a Bankrupt Newspaper?

The automakers assert that bankruptcy isn’t an option for their companies, arguing that purchasing a car is different from buying, say, a ticket from a bankrupt airline. A car is a long-term investment of a lot of money, not a smaller one-time purchase you’ll use once in the near future. Car buyers need to know the makers and dealers will be around for service, recalls, annoying mailers inviting you to trade in prematurely during a Summer Tent Sale Blowout, etc.

Which brings me to the news that the Tribune Co., publisher of the Chicago Tribune, has may //edit 6:30 p.m.//declared bankruptcy. Curiously, it raises the same question: Would you subscribe to a bankrupt newspaper? I think not.

After all, subscribing to a newspaper is a long-term commitment too. Seven-day home delivery will set you back $156 per year. For that kind of dough I expect the company will still be around to deliver the goods.

I need to know that not only that the newspaper itself will arrive at the base of my juniper bush by 6 a.m. I expect the plastic wrapper bag, which I use every day to scoop my spaniel’s poop. I expect other subscriber services too: the annual calendar bundled with a solicitation for a holiday tip for the faceless delivery person, etc.

And don’t forget membership in Subscriber Advantage, a valuable rewards program available only to subscribers.

This program provides among many other features full access to 365 days of Tribune archives, exclusive invitations to VIP events, a monthly exclusive e-mail introducing me to a Tribune reporter, and all sorts of discounts. For example, Subscriber Advantage members get 20 percent off opening-night tickets to Chitty Chitty Bang Bang at the Chicago Theatre. If I subscribe, man, I expect the goods.

So no, I don’t think I’m going to subscribe to the Tribune. It’s just too big a long-term investment with too much uncertainty attached.

I could subscribe to the Chicago Sun-Times instead. While it’s a stabler business–which is to say it’s not been driven to the precipice of bankruptcy by a swaggering ignoramus who purchased the paper with debt I can’t believe anyone was stupid enough to give him. But then, no newspaper is really all that stable a business these days. A subscription is just too much of a commitment.

So I think I’ll just read the news on the Tribune’s website.

The content’s free, and I have a sense that it’s going to be around a lot longer than the printed newspaper.

Dangerous Ignorance: Report from Tribune’s “Innovation Officer”

A friend sent along this “Think Piece” report from Tribune Co.’s “Innovation Officer” Lee Abrams. It’s based on his recent visit to the struggling, shrunken, limp-on-the pole “flagship” Florida Sentinel papers in Orlando and South Florida.

I don’t know Abrams and do not wish him ill personally. Hell, he’s known as the “inventor” of the album-oriented rock radio format, the ’70s answer to Top 40 pablum and, later, the vital cultural firewall against disco. Many of his contemporaries [he's in his mid-50s] smoked some fine dope while listening to Steely Dan and Pink Floyd, for which we should all be grateful.

But Abrams’ report on his autumn trip to Florida is so delusional [or dishonest], so dated and mundane, so vapid and cliche-riddled, so dangerous and desperate that he needs to be called out on it for the good of the profession.

Following is the top of the Think Piece: [Add your own "sic"s where appropriate]

Spend several days in Florida at the Orlando Sentinel and South Florida Sun Sentinel. They reinvented themselves first so this trip was a re- invent of the re-invent. Great meetings that involved a wide range of people from all areas to discuss what works, what doesn’t and what we can do better. A lot came to table…including the things that are traditionally not discussed for fear of offending someone, or simply failing to be honest about ourselves.

The attitudes of the Florida papers amaze me. Professional, focused, zero drama, no baggage, no games. They are all about delivering quality and being in position to GROW. Now…and when the economy improves, they will be in perfect position to reach new levels. It’s all about re-gearing the product AND the culture to compete in the new world. They get it.

Especially positive was something we’ll be doing more of–people from Ft. Lauderdale coming to Orlando and vice versa. Cross pollination of ideas. I presented a series of things that are being done or discussed at other papers. Slightly lowering the target age without disturbing the core and increasing the number of days the paper is read were two topics we dove into. A few of the things we discussed are below— Things to think about…as components in re-inventing ourselves”

The ideas that follow will be numbingly familiar to anyone who was part of a newsroom retreat or re-launch since 1998. Make the paper easier to navigate with icons and lists! Interview local people! Don’t write in “newspaper-speak”! More photos! Cover sex and religion, “THE MOST IMPORTANT TOPICS IN THE WORLD!” Synergize with the web!

Set aside the whole “dumbing-down” theme, which is both self-evident and unselfconscious. More important is how the list carries the tone of a simpleton cheerleader who hasn’t been around very long and is driving people “forward” into a discussion that’s at least a decade old. That these ideas come from an “innovation officer” is funny-sad.

Between the Think Piece’s repeated uses of “gotta” and “wanna,” the superannuated thinking presented as the work of a “maverick,” and the desperate claims that the tide of public opinion can be reversed, Abrams eerily embodies the worst of the McCain/Palin ticket. This is not “the change we can count on.” This is more of the same failed policies of the past.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Every synaptic twitch, every erg, every creative spark, every focused thought devoted to such doomed efforts to stall the inevitable squanders a company’s most important resource: the brainpower of people committed to the survival of journalism rather than newspapers as they are currently known.

The way out, if there is one, is to create journalism optimized for digital platforms, take advantage of news consumers’ transforming habits, put edgy new technologies in play, develop new business models–and destroy the current paper product and replace it with a smaller, radically reshaped one. The way out does not involve this nervous, ignorant doodling.

Phew. I’m done. I publish the rest of the memo below.

*WEEKLY THEMES to encourage 7 day readership. Start on Sunday with a highly visible presence. The idea is to drive readership by super-focusing on a “hot” theme. It’s an old radio trick. Want to force listening? Do a “Beatles Week”–even though a station already plays them, FOCUSING and packaging/aggregating a core hot artist creates a must listen buzz. For papers, it could be:

Restaurant Week: Monday Celebrity Chefs; Tuesday Florida’s Killer Steak Houses; Wednesday 4 Star restaurant recipes that a home cook can handle…. etc…

Sex: SEX AND RELIGION ARE THE TWO MOST IMPORTANT TOPICS ION THE

WORLD! A weekly theme of Sex/relationships. Monday Gay Florida Tuesday Does E-Harmony work? Weds Teens & Sex exposed… etc…

Religion: Monday: Can Jews and Muslims co exist; Tuesday The religious ultra right; Wednesday Catholics in America…. etc…

The idea here is to take a wide appeal topic and DRIVE readership, OWN it…and present this topic in a ‘weekly themes’ format. Where every day the topic is superserved. And of course there’ll be revenue off opportunities with many of these

*STAR EVERYTHING. Are you a “listing service” or experts? Listing events for Kids? Star them. So Mom can say “Oh–The Sentinel gives the science fair three stars, lets take the kids”. Give events and places a ‘reason’…be the expert not just the lister. Same goes for restaurants of course, and well, just about everything you ‘list’.

*24 HOURS IN PHOTOS. We “own” photos…so why not act like we do and give them a HIGHER profile via this compelling feature? A good example of importing FROM the web as picture galleries certainly do well. Te Baltimore Sun has been doing this well, and selling adjacencies to camera stores.

*LOGOIZING. Creating logos for features makes them noticeable. I love the boxing gloves and the I-think logos that Allentown. (These are logos for a point/counterpoint and a high school student editorial) Those logos take these features to a higher level. It’s “competitive” thinking vs. ‘assuming people know these features exist’. Some do…most don’t unless we force it. A logo is a tasteful way to do just that.

*HEADLINES OF THE WORLD. A celebration of newspapers. What does the Teheran Times say about Obama? What does Pravda say about our economy? These are compelling and amazing headlines that shouldn’t be hidden on Newseum for other journalists to see. There may be no better way to illustrate global opinion than to use headlines from around the globe.

*WORDING. At the Sentinel there was a story about exotic Asian restaurants, and the reefer was “Learn about Tasty Treats”. Tasty Treats??? OK for Campbell’s in 1955 or for a candy article, but other than that, it’s old world newspaperspeak!

*SCAM PATROL. Identity theft…Infomercials that are questionable…Nigerian 419 scams…they’re everywhere. We need to inform and BUST these 21st century menaces. It’s REAL…It’s NOW.

*POKER. I know the Sun Sentinel does this. It’s HOT. Poker is the 21st Century Bridge.

*10 QUESTIONS WITH. Daily. A local icon. Ask him/her ten questions. Favorite restaurant…favorite vacation spot. PERSONAL questions, so you experience the “real” side of people you usually only read news about.
Fascinating insight into the ‘real’ side of politicians, celebrity chefs, sports figures, business leaders etc…

*GREEN ICON for environment stories. Are we engaged with green? Probably not in a noticeable way. A green icon is a classic example of thinking competitively. Green is important to many. STEP OUT AND TELL PEOPLE we are engaged!(and deliver)

*ARCHIVES. PRINT (NOT ON WEB) a classic front page from the past. We OWN this!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Tribune Co. Web Renovations: Identical Cousins

The era of cookie-cutter news Web sites is hard upon us. Three recent renovations of Tribune Co. newspaper Web sites are distinctive largely in the fact that they can hardly be distinguished from each other.

As you read this blog entry, launch in new tabs www.baltimoresun.com, www.sun-sentinel.com, and www.chicagotribune.com.

Now scroll to the top of each site, then click across the tabs. Have a look.

Now scroll to the bottom of each site, and click across the tabs. Take it in.

I will not belabor the similarities, but suffice to say the architecture of all three the sites is identical. Diligently faddish five-tab navigations fill the center column above the fold. Classified ad promos top the narrow left nav. Below the fold are promos for feature articles and the requisite blogs, videos and photo galleries. Each home page ends with a compressed five-column site navigation box.  

Each site features temperature readings alongside the paper’s logo, though to be fair I did notice that during my visits each Tribune Co. location appeared to have different weather. 

And each site has in its header a sad solicitation urging visitors to subscribe to the ink-and-pulp edition (along with at least three more pitches on the home page). This can no longer be called a strategy or even a tactic; it’s a prayer of self-comfort. 

It’s clear that the folks at Tribune Co. have decided to roll out a flexible design across its many newspaper properties. Each site does have some local differences, but it’s largely a matter of which module goes where or what the site navigation language says.

(Now launch new tabs and call up www.orlandosentinel.com, www.mcall.com, www.courant.com. . .you get the idea. It appears www.latimes.com and www.newsday.com are still on the to-do list.)

It’s easy from a distance to question the wisdom of this tactic–to argue that a local service, especially one that has to reinvent itself at hyperspeed in a fog, should take a form unique to its community. You can argue it stifles local creativity at a time when a troubled giant like Tribune Co. desperately needs it. It locks in via corporate oversight tactics that may look foolish in a few months (or already). What happens at Tribune HQ when the folks in Baltimore have a better idea?

Or when the readers revolt? Take a look at the reader feedback the Tribune has gathered on its site.

So, Tribune chiefs, what do you do when your company-wide Web rollout is under attack by diverse local mobs?