Invisible Inkling

Ryan Sholin on the future of newspapers, online news and journalism education.

All About news-business

Transatlantic passenger ships

July 8, 2008 – 6:37 am

Mindy McAdams offers 10 simple facts about the survival of journalism.
Number 5:
“Newspapers were a nice business. Publishers could make the product insanely cheap (remember the penny press), and the advertising would cover the expenses, plus generate fantastic profits. However, this is clearly over. It’s done. It worked for a long time, but now, like trans-Atlantic [...]

It’s not the economy, stupid

March 6, 2008 – 9:30 pm

I’m sorry, but every time a newspaper executive discussing layoffs and buyouts blames things like “a drastic economic slump and the meltdown of the Bay Area housing market” I laugh.
Are you kidding?  Is that a joke?
Your profits are shrinking because The World Has Passed You By.
For more than ten years newspaper companies have done Not [...]

Debunking the coulda-shoulda-woulda myth of online news

January 21, 2008 – 7:18 am

I’m trying quite hard to stay out of the business of chasing after curmudgeons with a laptop in my hand, shouting “But you got it all wrong!”
Trying. Quite. Hard.
So let this be just a generic blanket response to a common misconception about the business of online news.
The premise, as laid out in hand-wringers [...]

Smart single-copy sales

January 14, 2008 – 7:08 am

In the IHT, via Romenesko:
“Now The Standard is fighting back, using a new, cashless payment system to try to make it easier for Londoners to buy the paper, even if they do not have the necessary 50 pence, or $1, in their pockets. Instead of handing over a coin or two, readers touch a card, [...]

Everybody’s Talking Heads

December 13, 2007 – 2:33 pm

I’ve seen David Byrne’s blog post about a visit to the New York Times in too many places today to figure out where I saw it first.
Here’s my favorite graf:
“At present, it is mostly the ads in the Style section, and the glossy Sunday and T magazines that pay for a disproportionate amount of the [...]