06-21-2013, 06:15 AM
Ad revenue is down 50% from the peak in 2004/2005, and staffers are being laid off. I had paper routes as a kid, and they provided some of my first door to door sales experiences in life, too: http://www.oregonlive.com/business/index...cart_river
Excerpt: "The Oregonian, the state's largest and longest continuously published newspaper, will curb home delivery to four days a week and lay off some staff as it reorganizes operations to emphasize online news.
The newspaper will continue to publish seven days a week. Advance Publications Inc., the paper's New Jersey-based owner, will close Oregonian Publishing Co. on Oct. 1 and begin operating The Oregonian and affiliate OregonLive.com through a subsidiary called Oregonian Media Group. It will also form a second company, Advance Central Services Oregon, to produce, package, distribute and provide other support services for the new company and other publications.
"Our print products will be driven by our digital focus," The Oregonian's publisher and president N. Christian Anderson III said in a staffwide meeting Thursday morning. "More than ever, we're going to be a digital-first company."
Anderson declined to say how many of The Oregonian's 650 employees would lose their jobs in coming months. Editor and Vice President Peter Bhatia told newsroom employees that the reductions would be "significant." But he said there would be new hiring as well.
The move comes as newspapers nationwide struggle to adapt to changes in readership and advertising. Several other Advance Publications newspapers have either reduced home delivery or have announced plans to.
Since 2004-05, the height of revenue in the industry, newspaper advertising revenue has declined by $27 billion, or more than 50 percent, said Ken Doctor, media analyst and author the book and website Newsonomics. Last year, print ad revenue declined by 9 percent, " a huge loss in the midst of an economic recovery," Doctor said.
Yet newspapers rely on advertising for roughly 73 percent of their revenue, he said, and digital ads generate only as much as 15 percent overall ad revenue. So, while advertising on Google and other websites now surpasses advertising in print, digital ads at newspapers aren't growing at the same rate, Doctor said.
"The major driver of this change is the devastating loss of print advertising," Doctor said. "They're not maintaining their share in what is the biggest ad boom in history."
Anderson declined to discuss revenue figures, but denied that the changes are a result of print revenue declines. He said the paper's profits are growing, logging double-digit increases in digital revenue.
"This is about building from a position we are today, which from an audience standpoint is a position of strength," Anderson said. "This is a deliberate strategy, not a reaction to something."
The Oregonian, first published as the Weekly Oregonian in 1850, will be sold only on newsstands on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. It will be delivered to subscribers and available for single copy purchase on Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. Print subscribers will also get an electronic edition of each day's paper, and many retirement homes will continue to get daily print editions.
The new companies will eventually relocate from The Oregonian's current home on Southwest Broadway, which was finished in 1948. It's not yet known when or where the move will occur.
They also will continue to publish the Hillsboro Argus as well as weeklies that Anderson launched within the last year -- the Beaverton Leader and Forest Grove Leader.
Managers began informing employees today whether they'd get job offers with the new companies or be laid off by Oct. 1 and offered severance packages. Among those being let go are business reporter and former art critic D.K. Row and music critic Ryan White.
Though newsroom titles and structure will change, Bhatia told the staff he "took great pains to make sure the structure represented what I'm fond of calling 'Oregonian journalism." The paper has won seven Pulitzer Prizes, five since 1999. The Oregonian currently delivers to 170,000 homes daily and sells 15,000 papers a day at newsstands, said Kevin Denny, the paper's vice president of operations and circulation. The Oregonian prints 263,000 Sunday editions with 30,000 of those sold at newsstands.
Bhatia said the new newsroom will have more than 90 reporters, "which is what we have today," including an investigative team and a sports staff with more digital resources.
"Everything goes to the web first and then flows back to print," Bhatia said.
At the Oregonian Media Group, Anderson will become president. Bhatia will keep his editor title but become vice president of content.
Barbara Swanson, currently vice president of sales of The Oregonian, and Hallie Janssen, Oregonian vice president of marketing, will keep those roles. Denny will become vice president and general manager of ACS Oregon.
Portland Mayor Charlie Hales called The Oregonian's announcement "a big change, and not a positive one."
"I've always had The Oregonian on my doorstep," he said. "I will miss that on the days that it's not there now."
Hales said the value of a newspaper is not replicated by other mediums, even with advances in technology. Hales noted that although he doesn't always agree with The Oregonian, and the newspaper doesn't always agree with him, watchdog and issue-based reporting from the newspaper is important to civic life.
"The way we get information on the web is, we look for what we think we want to know," he said. "When I open up a daily newspaper, there's often a headline about something that hadn't occurred to me. And that format calls me as a citizen to some new issue or problem that I would not have shopped for online or listened for on the radio."
Anderson said he realizes many subscribers who have a habit of reading their news in print will not like the change. But he said the changes stand to improve how consumers get news about Oregon.
"We're going to have excellent print products, especially on those days that are home delivered," Anderson said. "But what we're going to focus on is incredible digital products."
Former Oregonian reporter Ryan Frank, now publisher of the University of Oregon student paper The Emerald, sought donations via social media for a bar tab for laid-off staffers. He'd raised more than $3,000 Thursday afternoon."
Excerpt: "The Oregonian, the state's largest and longest continuously published newspaper, will curb home delivery to four days a week and lay off some staff as it reorganizes operations to emphasize online news.
The newspaper will continue to publish seven days a week. Advance Publications Inc., the paper's New Jersey-based owner, will close Oregonian Publishing Co. on Oct. 1 and begin operating The Oregonian and affiliate OregonLive.com through a subsidiary called Oregonian Media Group. It will also form a second company, Advance Central Services Oregon, to produce, package, distribute and provide other support services for the new company and other publications.
"Our print products will be driven by our digital focus," The Oregonian's publisher and president N. Christian Anderson III said in a staffwide meeting Thursday morning. "More than ever, we're going to be a digital-first company."
Anderson declined to say how many of The Oregonian's 650 employees would lose their jobs in coming months. Editor and Vice President Peter Bhatia told newsroom employees that the reductions would be "significant." But he said there would be new hiring as well.
The move comes as newspapers nationwide struggle to adapt to changes in readership and advertising. Several other Advance Publications newspapers have either reduced home delivery or have announced plans to.
Since 2004-05, the height of revenue in the industry, newspaper advertising revenue has declined by $27 billion, or more than 50 percent, said Ken Doctor, media analyst and author the book and website Newsonomics. Last year, print ad revenue declined by 9 percent, " a huge loss in the midst of an economic recovery," Doctor said.
Yet newspapers rely on advertising for roughly 73 percent of their revenue, he said, and digital ads generate only as much as 15 percent overall ad revenue. So, while advertising on Google and other websites now surpasses advertising in print, digital ads at newspapers aren't growing at the same rate, Doctor said.
"The major driver of this change is the devastating loss of print advertising," Doctor said. "They're not maintaining their share in what is the biggest ad boom in history."
Anderson declined to discuss revenue figures, but denied that the changes are a result of print revenue declines. He said the paper's profits are growing, logging double-digit increases in digital revenue.
"This is about building from a position we are today, which from an audience standpoint is a position of strength," Anderson said. "This is a deliberate strategy, not a reaction to something."
The Oregonian, first published as the Weekly Oregonian in 1850, will be sold only on newsstands on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. It will be delivered to subscribers and available for single copy purchase on Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. Print subscribers will also get an electronic edition of each day's paper, and many retirement homes will continue to get daily print editions.
The new companies will eventually relocate from The Oregonian's current home on Southwest Broadway, which was finished in 1948. It's not yet known when or where the move will occur.
They also will continue to publish the Hillsboro Argus as well as weeklies that Anderson launched within the last year -- the Beaverton Leader and Forest Grove Leader.
Managers began informing employees today whether they'd get job offers with the new companies or be laid off by Oct. 1 and offered severance packages. Among those being let go are business reporter and former art critic D.K. Row and music critic Ryan White.
Though newsroom titles and structure will change, Bhatia told the staff he "took great pains to make sure the structure represented what I'm fond of calling 'Oregonian journalism." The paper has won seven Pulitzer Prizes, five since 1999. The Oregonian currently delivers to 170,000 homes daily and sells 15,000 papers a day at newsstands, said Kevin Denny, the paper's vice president of operations and circulation. The Oregonian prints 263,000 Sunday editions with 30,000 of those sold at newsstands.
Bhatia said the new newsroom will have more than 90 reporters, "which is what we have today," including an investigative team and a sports staff with more digital resources.
"Everything goes to the web first and then flows back to print," Bhatia said.
At the Oregonian Media Group, Anderson will become president. Bhatia will keep his editor title but become vice president of content.
Barbara Swanson, currently vice president of sales of The Oregonian, and Hallie Janssen, Oregonian vice president of marketing, will keep those roles. Denny will become vice president and general manager of ACS Oregon.
Portland Mayor Charlie Hales called The Oregonian's announcement "a big change, and not a positive one."
"I've always had The Oregonian on my doorstep," he said. "I will miss that on the days that it's not there now."
Hales said the value of a newspaper is not replicated by other mediums, even with advances in technology. Hales noted that although he doesn't always agree with The Oregonian, and the newspaper doesn't always agree with him, watchdog and issue-based reporting from the newspaper is important to civic life.
"The way we get information on the web is, we look for what we think we want to know," he said. "When I open up a daily newspaper, there's often a headline about something that hadn't occurred to me. And that format calls me as a citizen to some new issue or problem that I would not have shopped for online or listened for on the radio."
Anderson said he realizes many subscribers who have a habit of reading their news in print will not like the change. But he said the changes stand to improve how consumers get news about Oregon.
"We're going to have excellent print products, especially on those days that are home delivered," Anderson said. "But what we're going to focus on is incredible digital products."
Former Oregonian reporter Ryan Frank, now publisher of the University of Oregon student paper The Emerald, sought donations via social media for a bar tab for laid-off staffers. He'd raised more than $3,000 Thursday afternoon."