Invisible Inkling

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

All About news-business

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 [...]

All I’m going to say about the Google/AP thing

September 4, 2007 – 9:52 am

Google News now links to wire stories from the original source (AP, AFP, etc.), hosted by Google, in addition to the 5,137 versions of each wire story posted at individual news sites.
Three reasons why this is good for newspapers:

Newspaper.coms no longer have to spend time, money, and resources on trying to build the best semantic, [...]

The eleventh obvious thing: Your subscribers are dying

July 16, 2007 – 6:44 am

Here’s a newsroom exercise sure to drive a stake of fear squarely into the heart of your circulation manager:
Count the number of obituaries printed in your paper in the last year for local residents over the age of 60.
Now compare that number to your paper’s drop in circulation over the same period.
If you see a [...]