{"id":262,"date":"2007-04-04T18:37:00","date_gmt":"2007-04-05T01:37:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/paulgillin.com\/2007\/04\/interview-with-tribs-new-owner-barely-mentions-digital-media-threat.html"},"modified":"2007-04-04T18:37:00","modified_gmt":"2007-04-05T01:37:00","slug":"interview-with-tribs-new-owner-barely-mentions-digital-media-threat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gillin.com\/blog\/2007\/04\/interview-with-tribs-new-owner-barely-mentions-digital-media-threat\/","title":{"rendered":"Interview with Trib's new owner barely mentions digital media threat"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/o:p>Kevin Allen, a smart young writer who works for Ragan Communications, knows my rather strong opinions about the future of newspapers<\/a>. He sent me a link to this story about Sam Zell\u2019s acquisition of the Tribune Co<\/a>. and asked for a comment. Here\u2019s what I said: <\/p>\n

“I would never want to be quoted questioning Mr. Zell’s wisdom or insight, since he is clearly a very successful investor. <\/span>I was struck, however, by the fact that neither the Tribune article or the video interview went into any detail on the challenge that digital media presents to newspapers. <\/span>In fact, I could find the Internet mentioned only once in the Tribune article, in the first paragraph. <\/span><\/p>\n

“This seems curious to me, since online competition is clearly the biggest challenge facing newspapers these days, particularly in their classified advertising businesses. <\/span>Longer term, the newspaper\u2019s value proposition as a timely source of information is under siege. <\/span>This article seems more interested in the Tribune’s ESOP plan and ownership stake in the Cubs than in the serious long-term problems facing its industry.<\/p>\n

“It\u2019s been my experience that people of Mr. Zell’s age are almost incapable of relating to the culture and lifestyles of today’s digital youth. <\/span>This is not their fault, for it\u2019s almost incomprehensible to someone who grew up in the 50s or 60s to relate to the always-connected, always-interacting lifestyle of today’s teens. <\/span>It’s hard enough for me, at 49, to understand it. <\/span>I would think that anyone buying a newspaper today would have to look at what they\u2019re going to do to court this next generation of consumers, who have almost no affinity for newspapers. <\/span>The fact that this critical issue was not addressed in the Tribune interview or video is a glaring omission, in my view. I can’t believe the editors didn’t bring it up.<\/p>\n

“Apparently a lot of them aren’t even paying attention to it. As reported last week by MediaPost, \u201cThe first Newsroom Barometer survey–conducted by the World Editors Forum and Reuters–found that a staggering 85% of editors and news executives of 435 polled were optimistic about the fate of their publications.\u201d<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

“As they say, denial is not just a river in Egypt<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region> :-)”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kevin Allen, a smart young writer who works for Ragan Communications, knows my rather strong opinions about the future of newspapers. He sent me a link to this story about Sam Zell\u2019s acquisition of the Tribune Co. and asked for … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":""},"categories":[16,17],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pTy95-4e","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gillin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gillin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gillin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gillin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gillin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=262"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gillin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gillin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gillin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gillin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}