11 Comments

1. Jay says:

   May 4, 2009 at 6:17 am

   Why would newspapers have a future if they forsake their mission to inform the public and instead view their mission to manipulate the public? I recall that when the Margaret Sullivan and the News was beginning their web blog their were skeptics who wondered how transparent it would be and whether it would be censored for content and subject? Well as a city resident today I think I have the answer…. the blog is there for manipulation.

   I just looked for blog content (Monday morning) on Tuesday’s , May 5, Board of Education election and could not find anything. No institution has a greater effect on a community than a school system and it’s leadership and the News cannot find the courage to open its website to that content. I would argue that when the editors of the News call for public participation and then ignore the subject they are subjecting themselves to the charges of hypocrisy.

   Why should the Buffalo News have a future in this community when it deliberately chooses to ignore this election.
2. Adam K. says:

   May 4, 2009 at 3:48 pm

   He said EXACTLY the opposite as what you imply about the Buffalo News:

   http://www.bizjournals.com/buffalo/stories/2009/05/04/daily2.html

   >Warren Buffett said Berkshire Hathaway
   >Inc. will maintain ownership of The
   >Buffalo News…

   >His reasoning for holding on to the News
   >stems in part from a concessions
   >package agreed to in March with
   >members of the Buffalo Newspaper
   >Guild-CWA Local 31026. That agreement,
   >which included the buyout of some
   >three dozen union members at the
   >newspaper, will save the News $2.9
   >million this year.

   >The Audit Bureau of Circulations most
   >recent industry report for The Buffalo
   >News showed Monday through Friday
   >circulation had dropped 2.6 percent to
   >173,925, Saturday and Sunday circulation
   >fell a matching 3.3 percent to
   >175,764 and 252,240, respectively.

   >The circulation decline at The Buffalo
   >News was below the average decline
   >nationally, which indicated a 7 percent
   >drop for 395 newspapers, according to
   >ABC’s data.

   The Buffalo News is turning a profit. Neither Great columnists such as Alan Pergament and Allen Wilson nor local news coverage are easily replaced by the internet, and the Buffalo News website is highly profitable, according to recent data and a report from Margaret Sullivan.
3. Starbuck says:

   May 4, 2009 at 6:19 pm

   Jay makes a good point about the News seeming overly selective about what they’re willing to blog about. I don’t know if it’s due to them deliberately avoiding certain topics as Jay infers about the school board, or maybe it’s a more random result of their web site still being an afterthought to most of their writers.

   If I were them, I’d not ask but tell every reporter and columnist that every article more than a few sentences and every local column and op-ed is to have a blog post without exception, even if the post is only the headline and link to the full text. Their blog page could also use a little better organizing.
4. David Allen says:

   May 5, 2009 at 2:03 am

   One of the reasons newspapers are going under are their websites, which give it away for free. Theyre putting themselves out of business. There have been recommendations for papers to establish a paid online subscription model, but noone’s jumped on board yet.

   All I know is, if I couldn’t read the News’ Bills’ coverage online, I would be more likely to pick up a newsstand copy.

   The bigges problem with declining newspaper profits is that the daily print media can no longer afford to fund the in-depth reporting that’s the hallmark of the best papers. No other medium – blogs, radio, television, etc… have the resources to spare someone for such a job. It will be missed.
5. marc odien says:

   May 5, 2009 at 11:31 am

   David:

   Newspapers haven’t jumped on the paid online subscription model because it has thus far (with the exception of the WSJ) proven to be an complete failure (NYT select). Unless you are offering content that cannot be found ANYWHERE else, putting up barriers to your content is not a feasible business model in today’s world of google.

   Daily print media needs to back away from things that can be found everywhere else and focus on the in depth reporting that you say they can no longer afford. They can’t afford not too.

   As Jeff Jarvis says in his book WWGD “do what you do best, link to the rest”.

   Adam:

   The union concessions made at the news were nothing but a temporary band-aid. And yes, because of the older population in WNY, the death of the printed Buffalo News will be a lot slower than in other parts of the country.

   Alan Pergement is not replaceable? Really? Blogs and online only media can certainly cover local news. Its going on all over the country. We just havent seen a real investment here in Buffalo yet. But that day will come soon enough

   And that is a much longer conversation that i unfortunately do not have time to get into at the moment
6. Adam K. says:

   May 5, 2009 at 1:23 pm

   Marc, what I wrote wasn’t that he was not theoretically duplicable. Of course he theoretically is.

   But he’s irreplaceable.

   Every time he writes a column, look at the list of the most read stories on Buffalonews.com. He’s usually #1, if there’s major news he may fall to 2 or 3. It is not uncommon for him to have 2 of the first three spots. He’s that good.

   He’s irreplaceable because he’s excellent at his job. Because local TV coverage simply does not exist anywhere else. Because no one else – this site included – has the resources to pay for Neilson and Arbitron ratings and then write about them. Just because someone else writes a blog about local tv doesn’t mean it would replace Pergament.

   So yeah, Alan Pergament is irreplaceable.
7. marc odien says:

   May 5, 2009 at 4:11 pm

   Sorry Adam, Its been a long day.

   I think i misunderstood you when you said “local news coverage”.

   You actually meant covering the people who cover local news, not local news in general??

   I agree that Alan Pergament is excellent at what he does, but I wouldn’t go so far as to say he’s irreplaceable.

   Its an interesting niche that hasn’t really been explored on the local blogosphere yet.

   There have been a couple of sites over the years dedicated to covering the local news (remember Real Amherst?) and another whose name escapes me at the moment but they were mostly gossip sites.
8. Adam K. says:

   May 5, 2009 at 8:49 pm

   Marc-

   I do think that local news coverage is more or less irreplaceable as well.

   I tend to think that when local news coverage moves entirely from print to the internet, well run papers that carry little debt, like The Buffalo News, will be the leaders of that internet coverage.

   Hell, I think that its absolutely clear that The Buffalo News IS the undisputed local news king on the interwebs. Sites like this, BR, Fix Buffalo, etc do commentary nicely, but I view them more in the Artvoice category of the news industry. They rarely if ever report news without citing another news source.

   The Buffalo News has embraced the web well anyways. They were awful until 2007 or so, when the redid their website and added a breaking news section that they actually updated throughout the day. Their more recent refresher added significant multimedia and made the site even better. They have smartly started to put together very professional web videos, and while they are rare, I tend to think that soon they will be a major source of the News’ coverage. Their blogs are often fun to read, although I think they’d be smart to start linking to blog entries from their stories.

   Check out the link I added to my name. I’d be willing to bet a significant amount of money that The Buffalo News website brings in far more $$$ than WNYMedia, WGRZ.com, WKBW.com, WIVB.com, the illuzzi letter, WBEN.com, and WGR550.com combined.

   I think that the demise of the newspaper business has been overreported by nervous reporters and overeager web 2.0 honks. Maybe the print edition stops someday (I bet home delivery dies decades before newsstand sales die), but The Buffalo News will still be Buffalo’s leading news source in 2059.
9. Ben McD says:

   May 6, 2009 at 8:02 am

   Would it be so bad if newspapers died?
10. David Allen says:

    May 6, 2009 at 11:33 pm

    Marc and Adam,

    You both make excellent points. People aren’t going to pay for stuff they can get free elsewhere. But all local news isn’t equal – anyone can write about local media, but few, if any, can do it as well as AP. There are dozens of sites covering the Bills, but I would still pay to read Jerry Sullivan’s coverage. There’s lots of information on the web, but what’s killing the papers is the giving away of ‘professional journalism.’

    In the end, newspapers as we know them are on their way out. I’m sure they will find a way to survive in some form or another. But I’m guessing they will be a leaner, meaner animal, which would be sad because they would lose the ability to invest in the lengthy, in-depth, local stories that nobody else has the resources ro interest in doing – that part is irreplaceable.