Happy Fourth of July. Enjoy the day. Turn off the computer and read the paper the old-fashioned way, in print!
Newspaper industry: worst of times, or best?
To paraphrase Dickens, it is the best of times and the worst of times for the newspapers business. The worst of times: layoffs, more every day including downsizing at some of the country’s biggest papers. Just yesterday, the Los Angeles Times said it was cutting 250 jobs, including 150 in the newsroom, bringing its total […]
OC Register experiment to move some edit functions to India
I write about outsourcing a lot, for publications like Workforce Management and IncTechnology.com, so I know companies are outsourcing more of what they consider to be non-essential business tasks: processing payroll checks, staffing health benefits call centers or other back-office human resources or finance department duties. Sometimes it’s to reduce overhead costs. Sometimes it’s to […]
Online Journalism Review shuttered, Niles starts SensibleTalk
If there was ever a need for a scholarly discussion of online media it is now, when more people are turning away from newspapers and to the Internet for their news. But don’t tell that to the University of Southern California. Earlier this week, the university’s Annenberg School of Journalism pulled the plug on the […]
Will freelance writers save newspapers?
Are freelancers the wave of the future for newspapers? They might be. Daily newspapers are trimming jobs and looking for other ways to cut costs, and one way to do that is by using contract workers such as freelancers. Some papers, including major dailies such as the New York Times and Los Angeles Times, routinely […]
I'm in a New York state of mind
I’m in New York today meeting with editors. In honor of the trip, here’s five media-related things I like about New York: 1. The New Yorker – My favorite magazine. From week to week, you never know what stories you’ll find – wild boars, smallpox, Seymour Hirsch’s latest Iraq war expose, a George Clooney profile. […]