If even well-managed, award-winning newspapers can't thrive in the current business climate, what does that portend for lesser papers? That's a question asked by Media Life, an online media magazine, in the wake of staff cuts last week at The Washington Post.  The Post, one of the country's preeminent papers by any standard, has been hit hard by newsprint costs, declining readership, and competition from other newspapers in the region.  "Analyst John Morton says what the Post is experiencing is in some ways typical, the result of online publications taking a bigger bite out of print newspapers. He does …

This morning's Wall Street Journal takes a look at NBC's predicament if, as could occur within the next few weeks, it learns that “Today” co-host Katie Couric is leaving to take the Evening News anchor seat at CBS. Who would assume Couric's job, and what kind of domino effect would that have at the popular morning show, not to mention other programs on network TV?  For example, would co-host Matt Lauer stay, go, or demand a huge payday when his contract comes up for renewal in 2008?  Would ABC's “Good Morning America” use the opportunity to surge past a …

Alan Saracevic, who works for the San Francisco Chronicle, has written a good, insightful piece about the apparent collision between old media (analog) and new media (digital) and how the two really need to get along more amicably.  He begins, rightly, by observing that so much of modern-day digital media can call San Francisco its birthplace.  Many seminal companies and phenomena, from Apple Computer to Craigslist, are based in the area. But Saracevic believes the great divide between the old and new is both overdrawn and not necessary. If the young Turks who tramp around in the digital fields …

Gary Pruitt is 48, a former First Amendment attorney, and hip to popular culture.  For years, he's been spoken of as one of the brightest lights in the executive ranks of the newspaper industry, a leader who understands its fast-changing contours and has some strong ideas what what needs to be done to keep papers' vital. Now, as head of the McClatchy Company, which is purchasing Knight Ridder, he will have an opportunity to prove his stuff.  But while he's eager to get on with it--especially the sale of KR assets that don't fit into his company's long-range strategy--he …

Famously eccentric publisher Bob Guccione Jr., son of famously eccentric publisher Bob Guccione, spoke to Ad Age about his acquisition of Discover magazine and the changing nature of the magazine industry itself.  As expected, he did not mince words:  "The main changes have been the deterioration of the notion of [magazines] as a business. It seems now that publishers sell their magazines’ advertising space for ever less while production costs ever more. It seems like there's been an erosion of, just, sense.  More and more titles are congealing into the corporate pool. When that happens, in many cases some …

Gary Pruitt, chairman and CEO of the McClatchy Company, which this week made the successful bid for Knight Ridder's properties, writes in The Wall Street Journal about why newspapers have plenty of life in them yet. Pruitt comes at his readers with the kind of passion that suggests he actually cares about the medium, not just the profits it can throw off. His points are familiar: newspapers in many markets are still making good money, they are finding ways to live amicably in the new-media world, they perform a much-needed service. Pruitt: "Even the biggest bears among newspaper analysts acknowledge …

Advertising Age says the new McClatchy Company--the one beefed up by its purchase this week of Knight Ridder's papers--will continue to do what it has always done--keep its ad strategy focused on local markets.  The company has already announced it intends to sell some of the bigger papers it acquired from KR (its two Philadelphia papers, for example), thus minimizing opportunities for creating an effective new national ad matrix.  Instead, McClatchy will stick close to home with its ads.  "Wall Street analysts--who’ve seen past newspaper mega-mergers fail to deliver on promises for a synthetic national ad buy made up …

Radio industry executives this week heard an influential industry executive whip them hard, saying that radio was going to be left behind if it didn't make some critical moves--and fast.  "Radio is at a critical moment in its history, on the verge of tremendous growth and poised for transformation," Mark Kaline, global media manager for Ford, said in a keynote address at the “What’s The Frequency? New Rules For Radio Forum” in New York.  Mediaweek, reporting on Kaline's speech, said he told his audience that "the medium could squander its opportunity if it doesn’t act quickly. Radio needs to …

Rupert Murdoch and his minions are on a tear, plotting Web Strategies left and right. Those who don't adapt to the new platform are toast, Murdoch has been telling the industry for months.  He's a full-blown convert.  His latest move: The Sun of London is linking its Web site to MySpace.com, the amazingly popular (60-plus million users) social-networking portal Murdoch's News Corp. acquired last year. The idea is to get the Sun's readers deep into MySpace, where they can create their own Web pages, react to Sun content, write blogs, upload video clips.  News Corp. had also thought about …

The battle royal continues: à la carte pricing is good for cable customers. No, it's bad. No, it's good. Back and forth, the battle has raged for years, with the Federal Communications Commission itself actually staking out two different positions along the way. Most recently, relying on the results of a Booz Allen study, the FCC lined up with consumer groups that have long demanded an option allowing subscribers to pick and choose among channels. But a more recent study points to mathematical errors in the Booz Allen work and says that--as the cable industry has argued all along--à la …