Over at the Charles Apple Blog, a report that Apple put up about some scary Tribune production tactics has caused a huge stir. Seventy-seven comments and counting, this is clearly an issue no one should miss.
My take: I don’t find the templated modules to be such a problem provided they are done in a tasteful manner. They need to fix the reported problems that don’t allow local copy editors to change the text within said modules. For inside pages, this is a fairly streamlined way of saving the company money and only hurting the readers when it is done poorly. That said, I am not comfortable with where this is going. If section fronts and styles are being overtaken by the “mother ship,” then we have a serious problem. That concept would effectively make newspapers pointless. The paper may as well shrink down to a one-section local.
Filed under: Newspapers, Print, State of the Industry
Well, at least someone is trying something different. Hopefully the Monitor publishes the results of this experiment. My guess: No one will care.
Beginning this Sunday, we are going to begin reversing that trend a bit. From now on, each Sunday edition of The Monitor will prominently feature one or more “Print Edition Exclusive” stories that are of major impact, importance and interest to Valley readers.
via Monitor introduces Sunday ‘Print Edition Exclusives’ | monitor, print, edition – Now – TheMonitor.com.
Filed under: Newspapers, Print, State of the Industry, Web , Experimentation, Newspapers, Print, Web
From the Charles Apple blog; it appears as though Denver’s number two paper, the Rocky Mountain News, is closing its doors after nearly 150 years. I don’t think I need to say anything about the weight this event holds, because its exceedingly evident.
While I don’t live in Denver or anywhere near their circulation, I can say that they will be missed.
Below, I’ve attached a three part interview the Rocky Mountain News executive editor John Temple did with John Caldara. This interview was done pre-mortem, but basically explains the nuts and bolts of why the paper (might have) folded.
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Filed under: Newspapers, State of the Industry
