Tag: Newspapers

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Fly On The Wall Blog Opinion

Gannett Shareholders Reject MNG Nominees, Avoiding Takeover For Now

UPDATE: Gannett/Tribune merger talks?

There’s some fairly good news for people who care about the information industry.

In an act of relative sanity, Gannett shareholders have — at least temporarily — turned back MNG/Alden Global Capital’s attempted hostile takeover. For Memphians, that means The Commercial Appeal avoided falling into the fire of hedge-fund ownership, though it remains a frying pan heated by economic pressure, and hedge-fund created trends. In the short run, it means we won’t lose the city’s historic paper of record, giving the newly right-sized and relocated newspaper an opportunity to claw its way back to relevance.

Beyond the actual vote, what followed was like a conversation from fantasy land.

Via USA Today:

Gannett Chairman [John Jeffry] Louis said the company is “laser focused on transformation” and is successfully transitioning to a business model that “positions the company to thrive in the digital future.” 

Settle down Flash Gordon! The laser-wielding chairman muddles issues and arguments, in ways a good debate team might challenge, but he’s at least partly correct. Only significant digital growth isn’t reclaiming segments of lost readership, and nothing is keeping pace with losses in traditional models where the bedrock of local news is going to pieces. Newspapers have been cutting their way to “sustainability” for decades now, and as a result, the products look like chemo patients, taking a cure that’s also killing them. Hopes and prayers go out in the form of stories about AI, digital inevitability, and an abiding belief that we’ll be saved by the same kinds of disruptions that brought us to this apocalyptic prom date.

Meanwhile, comments from MNG — a company famous for its community-be-damned, slash-and-burn roadmap to double-digit profits — read like broadcasts from Bizarro world.

Via USA Today:

“This is a win for an entrenched Gannett Board that has been unwilling to address the current realities of the newspaper business, and sadly a loss for Gannett and its shareholders,” MNG said in a statement. “Gannett’s newspapers are critical local resources, and we hope that Gannett’s incumbent Board and Management shift course to embrace a modern approach to local news that will save newspapers and serve communities. That would be the best outcome. If Gannett’s Board does not shift course from overpaying for non-core, aspirational and dilutive digital deals, we believe the stock will drop further.”

HA! That’s rich stuff right there. Though, who’s to say in regard to the final prediction.

For the moment, Memphis is a two-daily-newspaper town. Though, one — The Daily Memphian — doesn’t exist in paper form. That’s weird, right? And it feels like it should be awesome. Though, between intrinsic, probably unavoidable redundancy in beats, it’s difficult to measure at the moment just how much more is being covered or how much more audience is reached and influenced as a result.

Branding matters. The force with which any story lands is determined, in part, by reach, and the strength of certain social bonds. There’s historic erosion in both these areas and recent redundancies.

SB 30 Episode 9: Chris Davis of the Memphis Flyer

For our show April 28, we sat down with journalist Chris Davis of the Memphis Flyer and took an in-depth look at the current landscape of the print newspaper and how we got here, based in part on Chris’ great reporting for his Flyer series Justice in Journalism, and his March 14, 2019 story ‘Going to Pieces’ (link below).

Gannett Shareholders Reject MNG Nominees, Avoiding Takeover For Now (2)

If one cares to indulge in fantasy, (as executives at Gannett and MNG clearly do) it’s not that hard to picture a positive result from the almost certain disaster of MNG control. If the CA underperformed, it might be sold off locally, and relatively cheaply. Once upon a time interests behind The Daily Memphian wanted to pull off just that kind of ownership transfer, so it’s not completely insane to picture some kind of triumphant restoration, with lost employees returning to old beats in new digs. Like, I said — fantasy. It’s not entirely unprecedented but, as is the case with  most genie wishes, there’s a price.

Like one friend on social media said, “One-and-a-half cheers for the less bad guys!” That’s about right.  But I’m also reminded of Avengers: Infinity War when Drax the Destroyer tells Star-Lord he’s a sandwich away from being fat. Newspapers are priced to flip these days, and now that it’s been looted, the CA is one disruption away from whatever comes next.

via GIPHY

Gannett Shareholders Reject MNG Nominees, Avoiding Takeover For Now

One sentence summary: Gannett, and Memphis dodged a bullet, but the gun’s still loaded. 

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Fly On The Wall Blog Opinion

How Corporate Ownership Changed Memphis Media

CREDIT: Storyboard/WYPL

Storyboard/WYPL

I recently visited WYPL FM for a conversation about Memphis media with Storyboard Memphis publisher, Mark Fleischer. Though the interview was inspired by Going to Pieces, a Memphis Flyer cover story about the state of print media in Memphis, we stumbled down some deep rabbit holes in a detailed account of how daily newspapers like The Commercial Appeal lost revenue, relevance, and readers they are unlikely to reclaim. 

I’m honestly not sure that I ever really answered any of Mark’s questions, but we cover a lot of history, and context that’s not addressed in the original reporting so I wanted to flag the interview for interested readers. 

SB 30 Episode 9: Chris Davis of the Memphis Flyer

For our show April 28, we sat down with journalist Chris Davis of the Memphis Flyer and took an in-depth look at the current landscape of the print newspaper and how we got here, based in part on Chris’ great reporting for his Flyer series Justice in Journalism, and his March 14, 2019 story ‘Going to Pieces’ (link below).

How Corporate Ownership Changed Memphis Media

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Fly On The Wall Blog Opinion

News Makers 3: Media Talk with Wendi Thomas of MLK50 and Storyboard’s Mark Fleischer

This post is supplemental to the Memphis Flyer cover package Going to Pieces about the state of print journalism in Memphis. This, and other posts featuring additional commentary by Wendi Thomas of MLK50, Jacinthia Jones of Chalkbeat.org, Eric Barnes of The Daily Memphian, and Mark Fleischer of StoryBoard Memphis were created to include voices and ideas that didn’t make it into the main story.

Wendi Thomas

Every day I wake up and discover I’m not on the wrong side of Wendi Thomas’  Twitter feed, is a good day.  I kid, but  when I typed that I’m pretty sure I heard a faint chorus of voices from Memphis’ political and business communities saying “Amen.” And that’s a good thing. Whether she’s dragging area media because newsroom diversity (and its lack), determines content and perspective, or calling out bosses who won’t pay a living wage, Thomas is one of Memphis’ most critical journalists — castigatory, elucidative, and vital.

In spite of her long history as a columnist and editor for The Commercial Appeal, I didn’t sit down with Thomas to talk about struggling dailies or the print journalism business. We didn’t get too deep into discussing the reporters she’s cultivated and work she’s published online as founder of the digital “Justice Through Journalism” forum, MLK50, either. I asked Thomas to help me develop a working definition of “information justice,” a topic I’ll come back to in future posts. But some of our conversation did overlap with the Memphis Flyer cover story, Going to Pieces, so I’m sharing some lightly edited excerpts that complement both Jacinthia Jones’s vision for mass partnership and Madeline Faber’s thoughts about transparency and engagement.

Like Jones and Faber, Thomas thinks outside the traditional newspaper bundle. She shared some common sense ideas for distributing less commodified, hyper-local news directly with those the news most likely affects.

Memphis Flyer: I want to talk about information justice but I’m not completely sure I know what I mean by that.

Wendi Thomas: I think information justice starts with “just us” — and who the “us” is. The media doesn’t provide everybody with the information they need to live better lives, or make better decisions about things that are critical — housing, shelter, you know… I read a story about FedEx expansion plans. There’s new tech for getting boxes on planes but not a word about how this might affect employment. When you’re writing with an eye toward justice, these are the kinds of questions you’d ask. So that story wasn’t written for people who work in the hub, or even worried that they might have to ever work in the hub.


I try to imagine a media environment where the information people —low income people in particular — need to make better choices is accessible without too much expense or hassle. And I wonder who profits from the current media environment, where you have to make an effort to get information.

WT: I’ve never found out much about it, but you’ve probably seen a quote I tweet: “If you want to solve any problem in America, don’t study who suffers from it, study who profits.” That’s a huge gap missing in journalism as a whole. There are exceptions, like reporting about expensive calls from the jail. That story was out one week. The next week we weren’t going to make juveniles pay to call their parents anymore. Period, full stop. Public policy can be changed quickly in ways that affect vulnerable people. But somebody has to systematically examine industries, and government organizations, to find where those places are.

I don’t know anything about that quote’s provenance, but I’ve seen you share that and thought it was absolutely right.

WT: I was at a people-powered publishing conference where they were talking about, instead of trying to put our middle class selves in the shoes of a person in poverty, they should be involved in every step of the process. In my 25 years in journalism, this is something I’ve only done sporadically. We tend to think, you know, you report the story
– you go out and talk to the people, you write the story, you do the follow-up. But what if we completely dismantled that process? What if people are involved at every step, and you report on your reporting, in maybe less formal ways. Maybe it’s not 8 paragraphs or 400 words. Maybe it’s using Facebook Live or posting in a group. We talk about growing audience. Part of growing our audience is involving people in the process, and not always deciding what’s best.

You see that kind of transparency sometimes. I’m thinking of the Washington Post’s investigation of the Trump Foundation, which involved posting notebooks, and keeping the process front and center. That changed things a little. But the level of engagement you’re describing is still rare, I think.

WT: It’s not built into our process. Your editor’s going to ask you, “Do you have art?” “Do you have diverse sources?” They’re not going to ask you, “How many times you engaged the people most affected by this?”

Let’s talk for a minute about how people get information, which obviously isn’t always the same as “news.” People weren’t always coming to the newspaper bundle for news. There are entertainment listings, housing and help wanted ads. Now people with public service information partner to multiply resources. Like if you’re doing a voter registration drive, you might piggyback with a health services opportunity, and engage people in barber shops and other third spaces. Can newsrooms learn from that?

WT: The library may be a more economically diverse third space. If we’re rethinking how we distribute information, there’s this system where you can send direct mail. Political candidates do it all the time, but I’ve never seen a journalist use it. So, say you’re writing something about 38126, which I think is the poorest zip code. So what if you used direct mail to distribute stories or solicit information in 38126? Or, you know, use the inserts you get in your MLGW bill? What if there was something in that? Or billboards? I have seen the Commercial Appeal do a little bit of that. Smaller outlets probably think they can’t afford billboards. But what if a non-profit found a way to underwrite [it] and every week maybe they worked with a different [news] outlet?

For justice-forward reports you can follow MLK50 — now part of ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network here.
————————————————————————————————-

Mark Fleischer says he’s heartened by the changes he’s seen at The Commercial Appeal since they hired new staff. But when Fleischer’s monthly newspaper Storyboard Memphis was in the works, Memphis’ daily was, “getting worse by the day.”

Fleischer, a California transplant now living in Midtown, describes himself as an urban studies enthusiast and “news junkie.”

“I started talking to people and realizing how many other stories need to be told,” he says. “And people have no means to tell them.” That’s when Fleischer, who’d already been blogging about Memphis, got an idea to start a digital magazine. That idea evolved into Storyboard Memphis, a monthly  broadsheet-style newspaper with original historical and urban-themed reporting, supplemented with news articles from many of Memphis’s digital-only news organizations like Chalkbeat and High Ground News.

Memphis Flyer: An online magazine sounds great, but how does it work? It’s tough putting even quality content behind a paywall if it’s not unique or if similar content is available somewhere else free.

Mark Fleischer: I didn’t see a digital magazine taking off. A couple of guys we all know in publishing said, “You should think about print.”… It took a year for me to convince myself that was doable… For-profit seemed the most straightforward way to go. I don’t want to be chasing non-profit money all the time.

You’ve solved at least part of the newsroom riddle by aggregating content from several of Memphis’s digital-only content providers, which is great for a lot of reasons. You get content, they get a sampler platter where they’re included in one nicely curated space with all these other information providers you’d have to track down individually online. Also, the digital divide — there are a lot more people who aren’t online than most people think.

Mark Fleischer: I remember thinking, if I can just convince High Ground to partner with me, and I can be their print medium. Then I’ve really got something.

The kind of deep dives into neighborhoods High Ground does seems like it really lends itself to the urbanist-focused work you’re doing.

Mark Fleischer: Yes. And I talked to Tom Jones at Smart City — same thing.

Another good fit.

Mark Fleischer: I realized, the more I talked about this, the more I realized there was an appetite for print. Maybe more like a hunger.

And there’s already all this content out there…

Mark Fleischer: It’s out there. But it’s out there in digital format. When I came up with Storyboard, I originally thought about telling a stories through all media: audio, podcast, video, photography, art. All that. Well, there’s no reason I can’t do that in print. Not audio and video, obviously, but we can certainly use the medium and get as close to that as possible… High Ground isn’t going to print any time soon. It’s just not in their model. Tom Jones can’t go to print, he doesn’t have enough content. But together we do have enough content. It’s like showing all the work being done by High Ground and Smart City and all these other niche publications.

Storyboard also features original reporting by Fleischer, fiction, poetry, puzzles, and children’s pages. Distribution is free but not forced. It’s available in coffee shops and other public places around Memphis.

This is the last supplemental post to the Memphis

Eric Barnes

 Flyer cover story Going to Pieces. For readers interested in a more in depth conversation with Daily Memphian executive editor, Eric Barnes, he and I spoke at length shortly after the digital daily’s 2018 launch.  Our more recent conversation, was brief and to the point, so there wasn’t really enough leftover content to make a stand-alone post.

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Fly On The Wall Blog Opinion

News Makers 2: Chalkbeat’s Jacinthia Jones Proposes More Media Partnerships

Jacinthia Jones

This post is supplemental to the Memphis Flyer cover package Going to Pieces about the state of print journalism in Memphis. This, and other posts featuring additional commentary by Wendi Thomas of MLK50, Jacinthia Jones of Chalkbeat.org, Eric Barnes of The Daily Memphian, and Mark Fleischer of StoryBoard: Memphis were created to include voices and ideas that didn’t make it into the main story. They will be published throughout the rest of the week.

“I heard from another reporter today asking if we were having issues with the School Board,” Jacinthia Jones says. As it happens, Chalkbeat.org, the digital education policy newsroom where Jones works as Memphis bureau chief, had been experiencing problems gathering needed information. So she answered, “Yes.”

Sometimes Jones sounds more like a old school union organizer than a veteran reporter and editor: “There’s strength in numbers,” she says. “We’re all out there fighting this battle by ourselves instead of collectively fighting it.” She thinks the best bet for survival is some kind of strategic, symbiotic partnership between competing organizations.

“As government agencies and entities become tougher to get information from, there’s strength in us being able to go as a united front,” she says. “For us to be able say, “This is a public record, you shouldn’t be able to charge this ridiculous amount!” We’re all losing. Now we need each other. At the end of the day our goal is to tell the stories that need to be told here in Memphis.”
[pullquote-1] Jones’s proposal is a variation on the old riddle, “How do you eat an elephant?” On one hand, there is a lot of redundancy in reporting — many microphones in the same official’s face collecting the same boilerplate comments for various organizations. Meanwhile, there are complicated stories in Memphis that aren’t being told as well as they might be, if they are even being told at all — Stories large enough that every media organization could cover some unique aspect, playing into that newsroom’s specific strengths.

Mass partnership on a deep-dive topic might be a consumer-immersive way to take big, hard-to-reach stories apart, “one bite at a time.”

Memphis Flyer: This is maybe more of a prompt than a question. With search engines and social media gobbling up so much of advertising budgets the narrative is always about how competitive organizations have to be to compete over the scraps. There’s less talk sometimes, about the different ways they may lean on one another as newsrooms shrink and partnerships become more important, particularly in the not for profit world.

Jacinthia Jones:There is a competitive nature to what we do. But if you look at it just that way, we’ve got such a small share. And when I say “we” I mean traditional and online media, because of Google and social media, even though those aren’t news organizations. That’s where a lot of people go to get their news. So, from my position — particularly since I moved into the nonprofit world — is that things are better when you partner. We don’t have the money we used to. We don’t have the resources to staff these large newsrooms. So you’re seeing more and more topic-specific organizations and smaller newsrooms in general. In Memphis we’re all doing the same thing— local journalism. We may want the story first, but we also want to leverage the audience of our partners. That’s why at Chalkbeat we make our content free. We want everybody to re-publish. Another benefit of partnering — We’re all smaller now.

MF: Education is a community cornerstone. It’s always such an important issue at elections. It’s something that was always part of the daily news bundle — and still is. But the work you do is filling some big gaps.

JJ: One of the beats you see cut in traditional papers are education reporters. That’s why Chalkbeat was able to expand. Look at the cities we’re located in — places where the newspaper cut that part of coverage. Also, and obviously with notable exceptions, you typically see entry level reporters moved into that position. But once a reporter gets experience on the education beat you move on.

MF: It’s such a clear example of public interest reporting losing out to the newspaper economy. Education is allegedly something we prioritize. But the most important stories aren’t always the best read.

JJ: When started at The Commercial Appeal we had three education reporters and a higher-ed reporter. Now they have one education reporter and that’s not her title. She covers K-12 and also covers higher ed.
With other editorial responsibilities.

MF: So you are very clearly filling a gap in coverage resulting from layoffs and a shrinking paper.

JJ: And we don’t just cover education at Chalkbeat. We’re covering equity issues and inequity. You see newspapers you see them moving away from covering the large school districts chasing readers in the suburbs. This isn’t just chasing advertisers, but subscribers. It’s essentially chasing the money.

MF: Where do your readers come from? Or, how do they find you?

JJ: We have readers who come directly to us. We get a lot of support among educators, teachers, administrators, and policy makers because we cover education more deeply than mainstream media. Our mission is, we want to partner with as many people as possible. We want to partner with you! That enables us to reach audiences that may not know us and come to us. So yes, I want The Daily Memphian, the new kid on the block. I also want to partner with smaller, activist organizations like MLK50.

Editor’s note: Going to Pieces looks at Memphis’ information providers and news environment at a time when the city’s daily newspaper has been greatly diminished. We hope these excerpts provide some depth/context, and give readers a better sense about what’s unique about various organizations in terms of product and process. [content-1]

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Fly On The Wall Blog Opinion

News Makers #1: Meet Madeline Faber of High Ground News and The Tri-State Defender’s Karanja Ajanaku

This post is supplemental to the Memphis Flyer cover package Going to Pieces about the state of print journalism in Memphis. This, and other posts featuring additional commentary by Wendi Thomas of MLK50, Jacinthia Jones of Chalkbeat.org, Eric Barnes of The Daily Memphian, and Mark Fleischer of StoryBoard: Memphis were created to include voices and ideas that didn’t make it into the main story. They will be published throughout the rest of the week.

Madeline Faber

High Ground News is an online publication that’s been in Memphis four-and-a-half years. It’s part of network of 15 small, digital newsrooms, each unique, but all parented by the Issue Media Group in Detroit. Issue was created to get beyond tyrannizing negative narratives that contributed to the Motor City’s decline, and tell more complete stories about the place and people who live there.

“We stand out among the other publications because we have this explicit focus on neighborhoods,” High Ground executive editor Madeline Faber says. A different approach to community engagement, combined with not being held to the rigors of daily publishing, creates a petri dish environment where new strategies can be tested.

• On identity and adaptability
“Our on-the-ground program within High Ground News started out as a kind of ‘special section’ where we would cover Memphis neighborhoods. Now that’s really all we do, because we saw people responded to this kind of coverage. It fills a gap in the landscape — covering neighborhoods in context.”

• On High Ground’s “pop-up” newsrooms:
“We open pop-up newsrooms for four months. The first month is for research, relationship building, and working with partners in neighborhood, followed by three months of weekly coverage — written articles, profiles of business owners, nonprofit leaders, elders, and video and photo essays. We’ve piloted community engagement techniques that other publications don’t really have the capacity to do. So we do a lot of face-to-face with our readers. We do that with community newsrooms. We have office hours where residents can meet with journalists, talk about how their neighborhoods have been depicted in the media. We convene residents and ask them, ‘What is the information you need about your neighborhood? What are the problems going on now? What are the themes here we need to really flesh out?’ And and events. We do lots of events. Storytelling panel discussions.”
[pullquote-1] • On a “positive” news identity
We’re not in the positive news business or the advocacy business, but I do feel like it’s our responsibility to put some heft in the other side of the scales that have been so unbalanced over the years. It surprises me there are still people who don’t know about Orange Mound’s legacy as the first subdivision where African-Americans could own their own homes on their own property, and that it was built on top of a former plantation. That’s such cool information.

But what we do is take that knowledge and consider it when we consider the fact that there hasn’t been quality affordable housing built in Orange Mound in forever. The affordable housing they have may not be quality affordable housing. The elders of the neighborhood don’t know how to encourage the young people to stay and grow because there isn’t any housing being built or rehab that speaks to a young professional demographic. We show that people choose to live there, thrive there, and open businesses. They shouldn’t be pushed to the margins because there aren’t multimillion-dollar deals happening in these neighborhoods. And a lot of Memphians don’t live in our economic centers, they live in neighborhoods.

• On capacity
We are limited by our capacity in what we can do. It was just me … But what we’ve been trying to do in our own small universe is rebuild trust in these neighborhoods with media. To explain to them, we’re not helicoptering in. We’re here to show a side of the neighborhood that hasn’t been shown. That’s important to us ethically as journalists and personally as Memphians.

• On Transparency
One of the antidotes [to issues in contemporary journalism] is going to be transparency. We should connect people to other resources … . It’s not up to us to hoard access; we should be sharing access as much as we can. Even putting footers at the bottoms of stories explaining how we came to stories. The more we decentralize that process the closer we get to information justice.

———————————————-

Executive editor and sssociate publisher Karanja Ajanaku has been with the Tri-State Defender since 2007. He had previously worked for the Commercial

Karanja Ajanaku

Appeal for, “26-years, 6 months, three weeks and two days.”

The Tri-State Defender is 68 years old, having launched in 1951. “Our intent was to be an expression of the desires and needs of the African American community,” Ajanaku says, quoting copy from an early editorial page. “That intent and that need is as fresh today as it was in 1951. That’s what we stay focused on,” he says.

Like many of Memphis’ print news businesses, The Tri-State Defender is trying to develop new revenue streams. Online content is being reorganized behind a paywall.

•On The Tri-State Defender’s unique position
“When we look at ourselves, we understand, generally speaking, what’s going on with the newspaper industry and the challenges. But when we look at it specifically relative to Memphis and specifically relative to Memphis, we’re in growth mode. We have reason to think we have been underperforming relative to our possibilities.
[pullquote-2] •On the Tri-State Defender’s role relative to The Commercial Appeal
“Even if the Commercial Appeal was at full capacity, the need that we meet isn’t affected. It doesn’t matter if the Commercial Appeal is at full capacity or goes out of business.”

•On being uniquely positioned to tell the story of African-Americans and Memphis
“We’re the longest ongoing entity that can tell the story from the inside out. The Commercial Appeal does a good job. I did a good job when I was there writing about the African-American community. But you still can’t quite tell it from the inside out. There is a value to that position.”

•On what matters.
“We have to do better as journalists, better in Memphis. What does better mean? We have to be what we’re supposed to be: Watchdogs. We have to ask questions. We have to get in there and dig. If we do a better job with that we may just find a larger market.”


Editor’s note: Going to Pieces looks at Memphis’ information providers and news environment at a time when the city’s daily newspaper has been greatly diminished. We hope these excerpts provide some depth/context, and give readers a better sense about what’s unique about various organizations in terms of product and process. [content-1]

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Fly On The Wall Blog Opinion

Hail Caesar: Gannett Papers Announce Changes in Opinion Strategy

There’s no good way to illustrate these stories but posts without images generate less clicks and ‘the need to establish consistent expectations about content pushes news outlets to cover stories in predictable ways and to use personalities as a way to build brand recognition.’ So here’s a picture of me in front of weird paintings of fish. I’m sorry.

Today’s terrible journalism news: Gannett newspapers saw fourth-quarter losses in circulation and revenue. According to Marketwatch the company is reporting a 12 percent dip in sales, with circulation revenue dropping 9 percent and print advertising dropping 24 percent. The one area where Gannett has been growing also took a hit as “digital advertising and market services declined about 3 percent.”

I’ve been anticipating this news since all three of Gannett’s major Tennessee newspapers individually announced changes framed as big improvements to their editorial pages.  Those changes, like the disappointing quarterly report, fit a pattern and seem to be part of a downward trend with no bottom in sight. 

Gannett newspapers across the state of Tennessee, including The Commercial Appeal, have run similar editorials letting readers know they are “listening.” They’ve heard you and are, per you, developing new and improved strategies for kinder, more inclusive opinion journalism.

Redesigns can be a good thing and the print real estate traditionally reserved for unsigned editorials and nationally syndicated columnists, absolutely should be reappraised. At the same time, relinquishing the former has to also be seen as the final gasp of an era when local and regional newspapers had (or believed they had) some weight to throw around — when thick bundles of newsprint stacked as high and wide as you could see stood in evidence. But as the marketplace of ideas flattens into the marketplace, the land and physical assets these once powerful newspapers own and occupy, are seen as possessing more immediate value than either the medium or its message.   

Gannett Tennessee’s new editorial plan, as variously/similarly described in its Knoxville, Nashville, and Memphis papers, includes weird Aristotelian ideals for letters to the editor which, in accordance with natural law, should not exceed 200 words in the west, 250 words in the center, and 300 words in the east of the state. The columns also suggest we’ll be seeing less national political commentary and “more about solutions than takedowns of the people and organizations trying to do things,” whatever that tragically vague construction means. Of course people and their sense of place/community matter very much, as they often do in communications seeking to persuade people who live in places and communities. Obviously, there will be more local stuff! And there will be more you!

Via the CA:

“By tradition, opinion has long been the section where readers found the institutional view of The Commercial Appeal. It is also where you read guest commentaries, local and syndicated columnists, letters to the editor, editorial cartoons and, of course, the daily Bible verse.

Starting this week, we are moving away from that approach to one that showcases more community voices, puts an emphasis on analysis and an expanded newsroom engagement with Memphis through community events we sponsor.

Readers have repeatedly told us that they want to see more locally produced guest commentaries and letters to the editor. And we want to deliver more of what you want.”

What also has to be understood, whether it’s spelled out or not, is that all this “more” is the direct result of newsrooms constantly struggling to produce a viable product with less.

The “different but same” nature of Gannett’s editorials makes it hard to take their grass roots too seriously. As a rule, newspapers have always cast a wide net but walked a narrow path, as they’ve attempted to attract and inform readers while also being an exciting, activated, and (most importantly) safe place for advertisers. Not to mention the fact that, newspapers have frequently listened to consumers and then intentionally adapted away from their needs/demands in a misguided effort to attract lost and non-readers. This was always done with full awareness that it made bundled distribution less attractive to the same loyal, long-suffering consumers that sustained newspapers when changing technology screwed all distribution and revenue models. Naturally, we’ll observe more content shifts reflecting the relative value of newspaper properties as measured against their tangible assets or lack thereof.

This pic used to help generate clicks, but now I think it makes people think they’ve already read the post. Economies, content, etc.

Unbundling content is easily justified on a spreadsheet. Art columns, for example, may be well read, but they aren’t given the importance of public affairs reporting (which isn’t prime for advertisers), and when it comes to straight clicks, little can compare to food and beverage columns. Restaurants and national food/drink brands buy ads, so if you’re a business major working for a holding company that owns a bunch of newspapers, it makes total sense to calculate the small number of readers you’ll lose completely by eliminating arts coverage as long as you can effectively sell the perceived public value of hard news while expanding popular dining and related soft/syndicated news. In another example, as page counts dwindle in print space, and digital content is prioritized, sports sections may run trend stories or business/recruiting analysis instead of next day scores and review. Similarly, election results may go digital-only, etc. But as more diverse, professionally created content is stripped away in favor of paid, nonprofessional, or owned off-market content, it becomes evident that the bundle is/was exponentially more useful and valuable than any particular sets of content. And by “the bundle,” I don’t just mean box scores, election results, stories about street names, horoscopes, and housing, I’m also counting newsprint’s famously pejorative applications as fire-starter, birdcage liner, and hand prop for would be demagogues.

To borrow from the Columbia Journalism Review, “Despite all the flaws of the traditional newspaper — and there are many — the bundling of hard news and civic information with soft news, sports, comics, and more is amazingly effective at supporting broad-based political and civic engagement.”

“From 2008 to 2009 civic engagement declined more sharply in Denver and Seattle than in other major cities—a result he attributes to the closures of the Rocky Mountain News and The Seattle Post-Intelligencer during that period, which left them as one-newspaper towns. His conclusions are consistent with a 2013 study in the Journal of Media Economics, which similarly found that after The Cincinnati Post closed in late 2007, electoral competition and voter turnout declined in areas of Kentucky where the Post was the leading paper. It’s hard to prove a direct causal connection between the papers’ closings and reduced engagement, but other research has found that residents of areas where the newspaper market doesn’t match up well with congressional district boundaries were less informed about their representatives, which in turn caused legislators to be less responsive to their constituents’ needs.”

So, you’re a Gannett newspaper in Tennessee and your “readers have repeatedly told [you] they want to see more locally produced guest commentaries and letters to the editor.” Have they? What a wonderful coincidence these super-thoughtful consumers are demanding such cost-effective (mostly free) content! Clearly Gannett, you have raised them right.
   
Consumer habits are no big mystery, so it’s no insult to observe that allowing the public’s interests determine public interest is like letting a toddler determine household nutrition standards. It’s also bad business for companies who aren’t nihilistically calculating managed blood loss against short-term profit. As an aside, and regardless of whether or not pulp has a future, this last bit touches on one of the reasons why fully digital models for local general daily news delivery, are still a sketchy proposition. Using both the digital-forward CA and Daily Memphian as examples, what’s on offer is a basic selection of popular content (food/business/sports) and the kind of hard news everybody used to know about due to the social function of widely circulated newspapers, but which relatively few people may actually read/subscribe for.

As a perceived public good, journalism’s power/value has always exceeded the technical reach of public affairs reporting and consumer advocacy. In other words, when newspapers were widely circulated, nobody had to actively consume hard news or advocacy to benefit from it. Going forward, this age-old assumption has to be modified to exclude deep familiarity, and with the understanding that presumed universal benefits for non-readers fade when techno/economic scales tip and enough non-readers can also be described as non-subscribers/consumers. This will be especially so in the absence of strong reciprocity and community engagement. Like newspaper properties whose practical worth is now weighted against tangible assets, once credit is lost, you’re discredited.

Hail Caesar: Gannett Papers Announce Changes in Opinion Strategy

The clip linked above is from the movie Hail Caesar. In it, you’ll see George Clooney, dressed as a Roman soldier for his role in a manufactured religious epic. He’s been kidnapped by a gaggle of weirdo communist writers who tell him that a man who understands economics and history can accurately predict the future. Now I don’t claim any extraordinary insight into either of these fields, or any gift for precognition. But I did, rather flippantly, predict this change in direction, while ranting about newspaper history and economics, and their relationship to a controversial opinion column published in several of Gannett’s Tennessee newspapers. I regret that the political-sounding headline, “MAGA Bro Pens Love Letter to MAGA CAP,”  may have kept some from reading media criticism that anticipates how modern economies and user habits will eventually yield more populist, probably non-professional content.

Welcome to eventually; Hail Caesar. 

Categories
Special Sections

Media

Newspapers and Magazines

ANIMAL WORLD: 454-0807.

Monthly publication devoted to animals. Annual subscriptions are $28. theanimalworld.org

AT HOME TENNESSEE: 684-4155.

This monthly magazine covers home interiors in the Memphis area. A one-year subscription is $20. athometn.com

THE BARTLETT EXPRESS: 388-1500.

This weekly newspaper covers Bartlett and Arlington. A subscription is $22 for one year. bartlettexpress.com.

BEST TIMES: 458-2911.

Published monthly, “Best Times” provides news, consumer information, entertainment, and resource guides for seniors in Memphis and Shelby, Fayette, DeSoto, Tipton, and Lauderdale counties. The subscription rate is $20 per year. Besttimes.com

THE COLLIERVILLE HERALD: 853-2241.

This weekly newspaper covers Collierville, Byhalia, Cordova, and Germantown. A subscription is $18 per year for Collierville residents and $22 for outside the town.

THE COLLIERVILLE INDEPENDENT: 853-7060.

This weekly newspaper covers Collierville, Rossville, Piperton, Moscow, Eads, Fisherville, Byhalia, and Cayce. A subscription is $9.36 per year inside Collierville.

THE COMMERCIAL APPEAL: 529-2211.

A member of the Scripps Howard group, “The Commercial Appeal” covers local, state, national, and international news. Rates for home delivery every morning are $18.69 per month, $15.44 Wednesday through Sunday, and $11 Sundays only. commercialappeal.com

THE CORDOVA BEACON: 388-1500.

Weekly paper covering Cordova. A year’s subscription costs $22.

COTTON GROWER MAGAZINE: 756-8822.

A free publication covering the cotton industry for growers, ginners, and other industry players for more than a century. Mail subscriptions only.

THE COVINGTON LEADER: 476-7116.

This biweekly newspaper covers Tipton County. Subscription rates are $36 per year for in-county and $47 for elsewhere in Tennessee; $74 outside Tennessee. covingtonleader.com

THE DAILY NEWS: 523-1561.

Published Monday through Friday, except for legal holidays, “The Daily News” contains general news with a focus on legal notices, business, and finance. Subscription costs are $69 for six months and $99 for one year. memphisdailynews.com

THE DESOTO COUNTY TRIBUNE: 662-895-6220.

This weekly newspaper covers DeSoto County, Mississippi. Subscriptions are $18 per year for in-county; $16 for senior citizens in-county. dctribune.com

THE DESOTO TIMES TODAY: 662-429-6397.

This daily newspaper covers DeSoto County in Mississippi. Subscription rates are $20 every three months, $35 for six months, and $49 for a year. desototimes.com

THE EAST SHELBY REVIEW: 872-2286.

This weekly newspaper reports the goings-on of Eads, Lakeland, Brunswick, Bolton, and Arlington. A year’s subscription is $22.

EDIBLE MEMPHIS: 552-4742.

Quarterly devoted to regional foods and farmers. A year’s subscription is $28. ediblememphis.com

THE EVENING TIMES: 870-735-1010.

This daily newspaper covers the West Memphis, Arkansas, and Crittenden County area. Subscription rates are $75 per year for area residents and $93.50 per year for those outside the area. theeveningtimes.com

THE FAYETTE COUNTY REVIEW: 465-4042.

A weekly devoted to news and information related to Fayette County. For those inside Fayette County, a one-year subscription costs $18. fayettecountyreview.com

GAZE: 229-5877.

Free monthly newspaper covering the gay and lesbian community. gazememphis.com

THE GERMANTOWN NEWS: 754-0337.

This weekly newspaper focuses on news pertinent to the Germantown community. A one-year subscription is $25. germantownnews.com

GRACE: 579-9333.

This bimonthly publication’s mission is to offer a positive voice for African-American women in Memphis and the issues that concern them. Subscriptions (six issues) are $21.95. gracemagazine.com

HARDWOOD MARKET REPORT: 767-9126.

Weekly trade publication. Subscription are $230. hmr.com

THE HEBREW WATCHMAN: 763-2215.

A weekly publication featuring local, national, and international news of Jewish interest. Subscription costs are $25 for one year.

JABBERBLABBER: 725-2223.

A free monthly publication designed to foster the creative skills of children through a variety of art projects. jabberblabber.com

JACKPOT MAGAZINE: 662-363-3637.

A bimonthly magazine providing the latest information on Tunica County casinos. Subscription rates are $30 for six months, $50 for one year. jackpotmagazine.com

JUSTINE MAGAZINE: 761-2845.

A bimonthly publication geared toward teenage girls. A one-year subscription costs $14.95. justinemagazine.com

THE LAMPLIGHTER: 827-4797.

Free monthly newspaper covering the Cooper-Young neighborhood. cooperyoung.org/lamplighter.asp

MEMPHIS: 521-9000.

“Memphis” magazine covers all aspects of life in the Bluff City. A one-year subscription costs $15; renewal rates are lower. “Memphis” is published every month except August, when it publishes the annual City Guide. memphismagazine.com

MEMPHIS BUSINESS JOURNAL: 523-1000.

This weekly contains news about the local business community and issues pertinent to area businesses. A one-year subscription costs $82. bizjournals.com/memphis/

MEMPHIS BUSINESS QUARTERLY: 521-9000.

Quarterly magazine focusing on business matters in the region. Subscription are $9.95. mbqmemphis.com

MEMPHIS DOWNTOWNER MAGAZINE: 525-7118.

This monthly magazine covers city development, history, personal profiles, and current events. Subscription rates are $15 for one year and $26 for two years. memphisdowntowner.com

MEMPHIS FLYER: 521-9000.

“Memphis Flyer” is a free newsweekly covering arts, news, and entertainment in the Mid-South. memphisflyer.com

MEMPHIS HEALTH & FITNESS SPORTS MAGAZINE: 729-4200.

A free monthly tabloid covering local health, fitness, and recreation news. memphishealthandfitness.com

MEMPHIS PARENT: 521-9000.

This free monthly magazine covers news of interest to parents of children who are school-age and younger.

MEMPHIS REGIONAL CHAMBER GUIDE (MEET MEMPHIS): 521-9000.

Published annually, this is a complete resource for companies and families relocating to Memphis. memphischamber.com

MEMPHIS WOMAN: 761-8114.

This free monthly magazine illustrates the success of women in the Mid-South. Mail subscriptions are $16 for one year.

MIDSOUTH: 271-6700.

A monthly home and garden magazine. Annual subscription (10 regular issues) is $19.95. midsouthmagazine.com

THE MID-SOUTH TRIBUNE: 728-5001.

This weekly newspaper has a predominantly African-American and limited Hispanic readership extending throughout the Mid-South. The cost is $1 per issue; a year’s subscription is $37.50.

THE MILLINGTON STAR: 872-2286.

This weekly newspaper covers north Shelby County. Subscription costs are $22 per year. millingtonstar.com

NATIONAL HARDWOOD MAGAZINE: 372-8280.

Monthly publication, now in its 78th year, covering all aspects of the hardwood lumber industry. A one-year subscription is $55. nationalhardwoodmag.com

THE NORTH SHELBY TIMES: 358-8034.

This free weekly newspaper covers Midtown, Bartlett, Raleigh, Frayser, Millington, and south Tipton County. northshelbytimes.com

NUMBER: AN INDEPENDENT JOURNAL OF THE ARTS: 678-2224.

This free publication focuses on the contemporary visual arts in Tennessee, Arkansas, and Mississippi. numberinc.org

LA PRENSA LATINA: 751-2100.

A free bilingual (Spanish and English) weekly publication devoted to issues of interest to the Hispanic and Latino community. laprensalatina.com

RSVP: 276-7787.

A free monthly, this magazine follows Memphis social events and is distributed throughout the area’s main business districts.

THE SHELBY SUN TIMES: 755-7386.

This weekly newspaper covering east and southeast Shelby County is mailed free to everyone in the 38138, 38139, 38017, and 38018 zip codes. The subscription cost outside these areas is $22 for one year.

SKIRT: 521-1927.

Free women’s monthly magazine featuring profiles, essays, shopping tips, book reviews, advice, and more. memphis.skirt.com

THE SILVER STAR NEWS: 452-8828.

This free weekly covers news of interest to the black community. Mail subscriptions are available for $27.50 per year.

THE TRIANGLE JOURNAL: 278-6642.

Free monthly newspaper distributed by the Memphis Gay and Lesbian Community Center. mglcc.org/trianglejournal.htm

THE TRI-STATE DEFENDER: 523-1818.

Weekly newspaper covering local, state, and national news with an emphasis on the black community. The subscription rate is $30 for one year, $20 for senior citizens. tri-statedefenderonline.com

VIP MEMPHIS: 766-2999.

Free monthly lifestyle magazine featuring party pics, stories on home decor, and more. vipmag.com

AM RADIO

WHBQ 560 AM: 375-9324. Sports talk format. sports56whbq.com

WREC 600 AM: 259-1300. News talk. wrecradio.com

WCRV 640 AM: 763-4640. Christian family radio. bottradionetwork.com/station_memphis/memphis_home.asp

WSMB 680 AM: 767-0104. Fox sports radio. 680wsmb.com

ESPN 730: 522-1919. ESPN sports. 730espn.com

WMC 790 AM: 726-0555. Classic country. wmc79.com

KWAM 990 AM: 260-KWAM. News talk. kwam990.com

WGSF 1030 AM: 454-9948. Various types of Hispanic music and programming. flinn.com

WDIA 1070 AM: 259-1300. Talk/R&B/Blues. am1070wdia.com

WLOK 1340 AM: 527-9565. Gospel music. wlok.com

WOWW 1430 AM: 375-9324. Disney music. flinn.com

WBBP 1480 AM: 278-7878. All-Christian gospel music and ministry. bbless.org

FM RADIO

WQOX 88.5 FM: 320-3464. Operated by Memphis City Schools students. Urban adult contemporary.

WKNA 88.9 FM: 800-766-9566. News talk, National Public Radio, and classical.

WYPL 89.3 FM: 415-2752. Radio reading service for the blind operated by the Memphis Public Library; selections played from Memphis music collection.

WEVL 89.9 FM: 528-0560. Diversified alternative programs featuring blues, bluegrass, Celtic music, rock, reggae, etc. wevl.org

WKNO 91.1 FM: 325-6544. National Public Radio affiliate and

classical music.

WUMR 91.7 FM: 678-4867. All-jazz station operating from the campus of the University of Memphis. wumr.tripod.com

WMFS 92.9 FM: 535-0939. Alternative rock. 93xmemphis.com

WSNA 94.1 FM: 767-0104. Adult contemporary. Snap941.com

WHAL 95.7 FM: 259-1300. Inspirational. hallelujahfm.com

WYYL 96.1 FM: 375-9324. Hispanic music. flinn.com

WHRK 97.1 FM: 259-1300. Urban contemporary. k97fm.com

WXMX 98.1 FM: 680-9898. Classic rock. 981themax.com

WKIM 98.9 FM: 535-0999. ’70s, ’80s, and ’90s pop. 989kimfm.com

WMC 99.7 FM: 726-0555. Adult contemporary. fm100memphis.com

KJMS 101.1 FM: 259-1300. Urban adult contemporary. v1011.com

WEGR 102.7 FM: 259-1300. Album-oriented classic rock. rock103.com

WRBO 103.5 FM: 680-9898. Urban oldies, soul classics. soulclassics.com

WRVR 104.5 FM: 767-0104. Soft rock. wrvr.com

WGKX 105.9 FM: 680-9898. Country music. kix106.com

KXHT 107.1 FM: 375-9324. Hip-hop, urban. Hot1071.com

WHBQ 107.5 FM: 375-9324. Top 40 hits. Q1075.com

TELEVISION

WREG CHANNEL 3: 543-2333. Local affiliate of the CBS network. wreg.com

WMC CHANNEL 5: 726-0555. Local affiliate of the NBC network. wmctv.com

WKNO CHANNEL 10: 458-2521. The local public broadcasting station, featuring educational, dramatic, musical, performing, and public-service programming. wkno.org

WHBQ CHANNEL 13: 320-1313. Local affiliate of the Fox network. myfoxmemphis.com

WPTY CHANNEL 24: 323-2430. Local affiliate of the ABC network. abc24.com

WLMT CHANNEL 30: 323-2430. Local affiliate of the CW network. myeyewitnessnews.com

COMCAST: 365-1770. Call for cable-TV prices. comcast.com

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