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Updates from Newspapers & Technology |
Seattle P-I shutdown soon?
Speculation that Hearst Corp. might shut down the Seattle Post-Intelligencer as early as this week grew following reports that the company has discussed with P-I reporters the option to work in an online-only version of the daily.
The P-I reported that some of its reporters were interviewed by senior managers to see if they would be interested in writing for a Web-only edition.
One reporter, Hector Castro, turned down the offer after being informed that his salary and benefits would be cut dramatically if he opted to accept.
The interviews, in combination with a Jan. 9 statement by Hearst that it would close the P-I if it couldn't find a qualified buyer within 60 days, has fueled the assumption that the paper could fold this week.
McClatchy to cut 15% of workforce
Saying that it's dealing with an "unprecedented deterioration in revenues," McClatchy Co. today said it would cut 15 percent of its workforce, or approximately 1,600 jobs.
The publisher said the reductions would affect operations groupwide, but that each newspaper would be responsible for administering the cutback within its own operations.
The company also said it would consolidate and outsource business functions, but offered no specifics. McClatchy has already closed some printing facilities and many of its papers have outsourced their ad production.
"We have been transitioning steadily from a traditional newspaper company to a hybrid print and online, news and advertising company for some time," said McClatchy CEO Gary Pruitt said. "The effects of the current national economic downturn make it essential that we move even faster to realign our workforce and make our operations more efficient."
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Local Paper Report
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by Dwight Bitikofer
publisher
03/06/2009 - Everyone
I talk to these days is asking how we are doing. They have heard the
gloom and doom headlines nearly every day the past couple of months
about newspapers curtailing days of circulation, going completely
online or going out of business.
Most of that talk is about big papers. Most of that talk is about daily papers.
But
let's look at community papers. We are the little guys. Often we are
free papers, paid for by advertising. Most of that advertising is from
locally-owned independent businesses and professionals who depend on
direct connections with our readers - their biggest base of potential
customers and clients.
Read more...
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TOWNNEWS.COM RELEASES NEW CONTENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
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 (Paid Announcement)
BLOX CMS is being released for public viewing at the Newspaper Association of America's MediaXchange, March 8-11, in Las Vegas.
BLOX allows editors, web masters or others designated by the newspaper to place programmable and movable blocks of content any place on a Web site. The blocks can be moved by newspaper staff members, or can be programmed to move, appear or disappear at designated times and dates.
Each block can be programmed to pull in text, photos, videos, graphics, html documents, related links and portable document files. Smart blocks can change structure or design in response to the type of content they are fed (video versus text, for example).
All the content is managed in a centralized database, and content can be easily shared between other newspapers on BLOX CMS.
The new CMS relies heavily on tagging, including content type, section, location, and relational. Each item - whether text, graphic, photo or video - is a separate item that can be tagged. TownNews.com has built an export mechanism that will allow tagged data to be fed to The Associated Press, Yahoo!, group news feeds, or other locations.
BLOX CMS contains its own word processor and photo editor that can be linked with commercial word processors and photo editors. On the drawing board are plans that would allow BLOX content to export to Adobe InDesign and other page design products.
Later this spring, TownNews.com plans to release an integrated social marketplace solution merging business information (default business listings as well as detailed profiles) with user-generated content (videos, photos, etc), calendar information and advertising content (both display and classified) - all under a single sign-on. BLOX Social Marketplace will allow businesses and members of the public - if granted permission by the newspaper - to manage commenting, advertising, content and reviews on business profile pages.
BLOX CMS is a hosted software-as-a-service (SaaS) solution hosted at the TownNews.com data centers in New York City and Chicago. In addition, BLOX hosting utilizes the Akamai world-wide content delivery network. The BLOX project was headed up by Brad Ward, TownNews.com's vice president of technology, chief programmer Patrick O'Lone, and Christine Masters, lead product development manager.
"We are very proud of BLOX CMS," said TownNews.com General Manager Marc Wilson. "We think BLOX and BLOX Social Marketplace will set the new standard for content management systems."
About TownNews.com
TownNews.com, based in Moline, Ill., is majority owned by Lee Enterprises (LEE), a premier publisher of daily, weekly, online and specialty publications. TownNews.com hosts more than 1,500 online publications, and offers a wide variety of products and services to U.S. newspapers. For more information, visit www.townnews.com.
# # #
If you'd like more information about this topic, please call Greg Booras at 904/794-1400 or e-mail Greg at gbooras@townnews.com.
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Cheers,
Craig McMullin
AFCP
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Follow AFCP on Twitter
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AFCP Goes Social
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