Iowa Supreme Court Blocks Use Of Records

An Iowa Supreme Court justice has issued a highly unusual order prohibiting the Des Moines Register from publishing information gleaned from court records. The Register has objected, calling the order an unlawful form of prior restraint that violates the First Amendment and “stands as an undesirable and unsustainable outlier in the law and policy of this state and this nation.”

NYT Publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. Retiring

He transformed The Times into an international media company, and built one of the most successful digital pay models in news. Succeeding him is his son, current deputy publisher, A.G. Sulzberger (right), a principal architect of the company’s digital transformation.

NEWSTECHFORUM 2017

WaPo Sees Monitization Promise In YouTube

Micah Gelman, the paper’s director of video: “YouTube is a place that people come to watch video specifically. People are much more accepting of a pre-roll experience there….We can sell [YouTube] in a way that we cannot sell Facebook.” (Photo: Jack Pagano, Ariana Television Network)

NY Times Halves Its Free Monthly Articles

The great paywall tightening of 2017 continues. The New York Times said Friday that it will cut the number of free articles available to “most” non-subscribers each month from 10 to five. The change is the most significant one the Times has made to its pay model since 2012, when it cut the number of monthly free articles from 20 to 10.

Sebastian Tomich To Head NYT Advertising

In addition, Amber Guild is named president of T Brand Marketing Solutions; Lisa Howard becomes SVP-GM, media; and Andy Wright becomes SVP, partnerships.

WaPo Expands Media Coverage With Sarah Ellison

WaPo ‘Shocked And Appalled’ By Ala. Robocall

Disney Ban Elevated Tension At LA Times

Journalists at the paper, in the middle of organizing a union, disagreed with the new editor’s call to lie low on social media.

Washington Post On Reddit Surprises Users

They are struck by the paper’s non-promotional, ultra helpful presence. The not-so-revolutionary secret to the Post brand’s gradual acceptance by Reddit is its consistent transparency, including responding to unflattering accusations about the “Amazon Washington Post” and its ownership.

Internal Turmoil Over WSJ Mueller Editorials

A series of virulent anti-Mueller editorials has reporters worried about their paper’s credibility.

NYT Nearing Goal Of $800M Digital Business

Success? The New York Times is on track to hit $579 million in digital revenues this year — and $900 million by 2020.

NY Times Eyes Expanding Service Journalism

Getting paying subscribers is the new obsession of publishing companies. The New York Times is famous for its Pulitzer-winning news coverage, but it’s the how-to pieces that are among the best performers when it comes to signing up new subscribers. The Times has had service journalism as part of its bundle since at least the 1970s, but it’s taking a more systematic approach to it today as part of an effort to double its digital revenue.

Gannett Having Trouble Finding A Digital Chief

Gannett, parent of USA Today, has hired a headhunting firm to search for a new chief digital officer — but the search so far has been a slog,

Washington Post Releases Video Editorial

Lewis DVorkin New L.A. Times Editor In Chief

Tronc-owned Los Angeles Times named Forbes Media executive Lewis DVorkin as its new editor in chief, Ross Levinsohn, the paper’s publisher, said Monday. At Forbes, DVorkin, 65, held roles including executive editor, editor and chief product officer. He previously worked at The Wall Street Journal, Newsweek and The New York Times.

L.A. Times Newsroom Goes Public With Union Push

Washington Post Digital Subs Soar Past 1 Million

UPDATED 3:30 P.M. MONDAY

Raycom Sees Synergies In Newspapers Buy

The deal will add Community Newspaper Holdings’ 110 newspapers and other publications to Raycom’s portfolio, less seven it has to sell to comply with media ownership rules. Raycom and CNH are principally owned by Alabama state pension fund and based in Montgomery. “There are general administrative costs we can take out of the business,” while taking advantage of content sharing and sales opportunities, says Raycom CEO Pat LaPlatney.

At Papers, Free Content Still Trumps Paywalls

WaPo’s Robot Reporter Has Published 850 Articles

Judge Approves Sale Of Alaska’s Largest Paper

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — A federal bankruptcy judge on Monday approved the sale of Alaska’s largest newspaper for $1 million, saving the paper from folding. Judge Gary Spraker made his […]

NY Times Makes Key Digital Appointments

On Tuesday, the New York Times Co. announced key appointments to product and design and the formation of a new products and ventures group, further defining the structure it announced in June. […]

DMA 21

St. Louis TV Critic Gail Pennington Retires

Chronicle Shows The Way For Legacy Papers

The San Francisco Chronicle has been profitable for four straight years, and is adding editorial and business staff. Revenue is growing at a rate of about 4% per year, says Publisher Jeff Johnson. That’s at a time when revenue at most of the major publicly traded newspaper companies has continued to drop. CJR recently visited the Chronicle to learn how the newspaper righted its ship and what lessons its comeback might have for other news organizations. 

 

COMMENTARY BY W. JOSEPH CAMPBELL

How The Media Got Hurricane Harvey Right

Twelve years ago, headlines across the United States told of chaos and anarchy that supposedly was sweeping New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina’s devastating landfall. The horror and mayhem that news organizations so widely reported 12 years ago proved highly exaggerated. It is useful now to recall the erroneous and exaggerated coverage of Katrina’s aftermath because the destructive sweep of Hurricane Harvey in Southeast Texas at the end of last month gave rise to little such egregious misreporting and produced few if any examples of the media having “rioted” in their storm coverage. For news organizations, Harvey was no Katrina.

Tronc Buying The New York Daily News

The paper’s owner, Mortimer Zuckerman, is selling the nearly 100-year-old tabloid it to Tronc, the publisher of The Los Angeles Times and The Chicago Tribune. The deal represents the end of an era for The News, which was long a voice for New York’s working class. It may also signal the end of the political influence of its owner, the real estate magnate Mortimer B. Zuckerman.

Media Startup Handing Struggling Papers A Lifeline

NY Times Beats Palin Defamation Lawsuit

The New York Times has prevailed in defense of a defamation lawsuit brought by Sarah Palin over an editorial that mistakenly linked one of her political action committee ads to a 2011 mass shooting that severely wounded then-Arizona Congresswoman Gabby Giffords. U.S. District Court Judge Jed Rakoff dismissed the complaint on Tuesday.

The Guardian Establishes Nonprofit To Support It

NEWSPAPERS

Ft. Wayne News-Sentinel Moving To Digital

Washington Post Brings AI To Its Native Ads

Publishers are running into a wall with so-called native ads. Once seen as the panacea for declining digital ad rates, these ads that are designed to mimic editorial content have turned out to be costly to make and distribute and hard to scale, which makes them a tough sell with advertisers and also eats into publishers’ profit margins. The Washington Post is trying to solve the problem with artificial intelligence.

New L.A. Times CEO’s Salary: $1 Million

The new CEO and publisher of the Los Angeles Times will have a starting salary of $1 million, and he’s positioned to make much more depending on the financial success of the Times and the company that owns it, Tronc. Ross Levinsohn, 54, the former interim CEO of Yahoo, took over as the head of the Times on Monday in a leadership shakeup at the newspaper.

Can Levinsohn Spark Growth At LA Times?

Ross Levinsohn is used to tough jobs. But this week, the 54-year-old digital media executive took on what could be his most difficult assignment yet: figuring out how to generate more revenue from the journalism produced by the 135-year-old Los Angeles Times at a time when the news industry is grappling with sweeping shifts in consumer behavior and a proliferation of online outlets.

Tronc Purges Senior Leadership At L.A. Times

Several top editors at the Los Angeles Times were terminated Monday as the paper’s corporate parent moved to install new leadership. Davan Maharaj, the newspaper’s former editor in chief, has been replaced by Jim Kirk, the former top editor of the Chicago Sun-Times. Kirk left the Sun-Times last week to join Tronc, the owner of the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune and several other regional newspapers. Kirk’s title will be interim executive editor, and he will lead the search for a new editor in chief.

How A Local Newsroom Aims To Build Trust

Jim Kirk Leaves Sun-Times To Join Tronc

Wall Street Journal Tested Live Push Notifications

The Last Great American Newspaper War?

Breaking story after story, two great American newspapers, The New York Times and The Washington Post, are resurgent, with record readerships. One has greater global reach and fifth-generation family ownership; the other has Jeff Bezos as its deep-pocketed proprietor and a technological advantage. Both, however, still face an existential foe.

NEWS ANALYSIS

The New York Times Needs Two Bold Moves

The New York Times should accelerate the shift underlined in its latest quarterly results: reconsidering the daily print product and moving aggressively abroad.

Megaclustering Of The American Local Press

People in the newspaper industry increasingly joke about the triumvirate of Gatehouse Media, Digital First Media and Gannett taking over the bulk of the country’s 1,350 daily newspapers as conglomerate Gannett-Gatehouse-DFMCo. Today, those three companies own a full quarter of the nation’s dailies, as family-run operations dwindle and final generations of newspaper-owning families look for the exits before the passageway becomes too narrow. At the 25% level, we may seem like a long way away from Gannett-Gatehouse-DFMCo, but a newer phenomenon — megaclustering — moves the industry closer in that direction.