lil
02-19-2007, 01:38 PM
You run a media corporation. Your bottom line is getting smacked by softening ad revenues. Your stockholders scream: "Keep that stock price up." You want your newspaper division to continue to pull its 20 percent profit margin ([Only registered and activated users can see links]) to keep those damn institutional investors happy. Otherwise they'll threaten you with a Knight Ridder knockout ([Only registered and activated users can see links]) and break up your mega-media company.
But it's harder than ever to keep up that ungodly profit margin, 'cause revenues are goin' down and expenses are goin' up. Fat profits on flat revenues ain't gonna keep your newspaper division alive ([Only registered and activated users can see links]) much longer.
Craigslist and Emily's List and eBay and every other database-driven site have stolen your classifieds ([Only registered and activated users can see links]). The big national advertisers are moving money hand over fist to the social networkers ([Only registered and activated users can see links]) like YouTube and FaceBook and Myspace and Friendster ... Damn that viral marketing ([Only registered and activated users can see links]) ...
Gotta move the whole news things online, you think. Hey, even Sulzberger doesn't give a damn if The New York Times survives as a print gig. Even Artie wants to move online ([Only registered and activated users can see links]), and he's even more risk-averse than those dolts running Dow Jones.
Yeah, yeah, that's the ticket, you think. First, you'll whack the size of your newsroom ([Only registered and activated users can see links]). Can't wait. Wall Street wants your sinking stock price up now, not five years from now.
Hey, wait. You can whack readers, too. Cut that expensive rural circulation. Screw 'em if they don't have broadband in the sticks so they can't get to your paper's Web site. Damn advertisers don't want those kinda readers, anyway. You'll take that regional paper that covers the whole damn state and delivers hard copies to neighboring states and whack all of that down to one big city and its 'burbs ([Only registered and activated users can see links]). Screw paying $5 to deliver one copy of the paper to some farmer in rural Buttfuck. Now you can whack the circulation staff as well as the newsroom.
Yeah. Gotta be innovative. Hey, you think, remember the "universal desk" from a .....
[Only registered and activated users can see links] .html
But it's harder than ever to keep up that ungodly profit margin, 'cause revenues are goin' down and expenses are goin' up. Fat profits on flat revenues ain't gonna keep your newspaper division alive ([Only registered and activated users can see links]) much longer.
Craigslist and Emily's List and eBay and every other database-driven site have stolen your classifieds ([Only registered and activated users can see links]). The big national advertisers are moving money hand over fist to the social networkers ([Only registered and activated users can see links]) like YouTube and FaceBook and Myspace and Friendster ... Damn that viral marketing ([Only registered and activated users can see links]) ...
Gotta move the whole news things online, you think. Hey, even Sulzberger doesn't give a damn if The New York Times survives as a print gig. Even Artie wants to move online ([Only registered and activated users can see links]), and he's even more risk-averse than those dolts running Dow Jones.
Yeah, yeah, that's the ticket, you think. First, you'll whack the size of your newsroom ([Only registered and activated users can see links]). Can't wait. Wall Street wants your sinking stock price up now, not five years from now.
Hey, wait. You can whack readers, too. Cut that expensive rural circulation. Screw 'em if they don't have broadband in the sticks so they can't get to your paper's Web site. Damn advertisers don't want those kinda readers, anyway. You'll take that regional paper that covers the whole damn state and delivers hard copies to neighboring states and whack all of that down to one big city and its 'burbs ([Only registered and activated users can see links]). Screw paying $5 to deliver one copy of the paper to some farmer in rural Buttfuck. Now you can whack the circulation staff as well as the newsroom.
Yeah. Gotta be innovative. Hey, you think, remember the "universal desk" from a .....
[Only registered and activated users can see links] .html