tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-66444032272758190652024-02-20T09:19:15.253-08:00Media Management in the Age of GiantsDennisHerrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13893784243095747825noreply@blogger.comBlogger11125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6644403227275819065.post-50529319777883127652016-01-27T08:38:00.001-08:002016-05-30T10:07:03.268-07:00Employment-at-WillOn page 160, the textbook briefly discusses "Employment-at-Will," in which legal sanction is given "to the principle that an employee works only at the will of the employer and can be dismissed at any time, <i>for any legal reason</i>." (Emphasis added.)<br />
However, that final caveat is being reinforced by litigation in many employment-at-will states in addition to the book's example of someone being fired contrary to an adopted staff manual's procedures.<br />
Albuquerque attorney Martin G. Marshall points out that the courts are chipping away at the employers' right to arbitrarily fire someone under this employment doctrine in many states. This makes it more likely that a fired employee can appeal to a jury, which is often more sympathetic to the employee than to the employer.<br />
As an example, Marshall cites court cases in New Mexico, which is an employment-at-will state and typical of others. He said the doctrine "has been swallowed by exceptions such a public-policy, whistle-blower, and anti-discrimination laws. Also, the National Labor Relations Board has taken the position that a broad employment-at-will in employee contracts or handbooks might violate the National Labor Relations Act."<br />
Marshall said the employer's situation is difficult. He recommends that a contract's at-will statement include a system of severance for "non-cause" terminations and a separate arbitration for "cause" firings.<br />
DennisHerrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13893784243095747825noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6644403227275819065.post-32024917754383823712014-08-11T12:16:00.001-07:002014-08-11T12:16:40.419-07:00Newspapers are left to fend for themselvesMore major media corporations are spinning off their print properties -- especially newspapers -- into separate companies. No longer under the national and in many cases international corporation's umbrella, such print properties are being put out into the storm by themselves.<br />
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A <i>New York Times</i> <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/11/business/media/media-companies-spin-off-newspapers-to-uncertain-futures.html?emc=eta1&_r=0">article</a> discusses how newspapers in particular are being set adrift by corporate owners such as Gannett, The Tribune Company, Journal Communications, and E.W. Scripps. As the article states, these new print-only companies "are sailing into very tall waves."<br />
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For newspapers, "the journalism moment we are living in is more about running for your life than it is about optimism," the article states. "Newspapers <a href="http://newsosaur.blogspot.ca/2014/08/are-newspapers-doomed-it-depends.html">continue to generate cash and solid earnings</a>, but those results are not enough to satisfy investors" on Wall Street.DennisHerrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13893784243095747825noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6644403227275819065.post-43094824344735615152013-09-11T14:25:00.001-07:002014-09-06T15:09:33.426-07:00Ah, the wonders of competition<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Advance Publications is beginning to back off the company's new strategy of publishing a print paper only three days a week and sending subscribers to the Internet the other days. At least in some cities.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Why? Subscribers have been enraged and competitors have been emboldened to step in.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So, after Advance scaled back the <i>Philadelphia Inquirer</i> in 2011 and the <i>New Orleans Times-Picayune</i> in 2012, both have been restored to seven-day printing again. In Philadelphia, Saturday newsstand sales had been suspended. In May 2013 that decision was reversed. In New Orleans, Advance decided to put a tabloid version of its <i>Times-Picayune</i> on the newstands on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays because the neighboring<i> Baton Rouge Advocate</i> had started selling subscriptions in New Orleans. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"The much ballyhooed unmaking of daily newspapering seems to be unmaking itself," <i>The New York Times</i> said in its <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/13/business/media/in-new-orleans-times-picayunes-monopoly-crumbles.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">analysis</span></a>, adding that, "The belief that historic monopolies will hold together just on the basis of inertia has proved to be wrong."</span>DennisHerrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13893784243095747825noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6644403227275819065.post-89270804149054669292012-09-27T19:47:00.000-07:002014-01-26T18:50:38.502-08:00Citizen journalists? Or suckers?There were 9,000 so-called "citizen journalists" who wrote free articles to build Huffington Post into a commanding aggregator site. When founder Ariana Huffington sold it for $315 million in 2001, quite a few began feeling more like suckers than writers — and that's what they were called in a 2012 Doonesbury cartoon.<br />
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Receiving a byline seemed nice until Ariana cashed her check for millions with no intention to share. Then some writers thought they should have gotten a piece of that action. After all, where would Ariana be if it weren't for their efforts? So they filed a class action lawsuit to get "back pay," if you will.
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<br />
The lawsuit was thrown out in a March 2012 <a href="http://newsandinsight.thomsonreuters.com/Legal/News/2012/03_-_March/Unpaid_bloggers__lawsuit_vs_Huffington_Post_tossed/" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">ruling</span></a>. U.S. District Judge John Koetl said "no one forced" the writers to work for no pay.<br />
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"They never expected to be paid, repeatedly agreed to the same bargain, and went into the arrangement with eyes wide open," the judge wrote.<br />
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The willingness of so many people to write, take photographs, and shoot video for free to enrich multimillion-dollar conglomerates is a phenomenon that several national corporations are tapping into. An estimated 750,000 people have submitted free stories, videos, and photos to CNN's iReport website, for example, and billionaire Philip Anschutz uses free journalism from citizens as the foundation for his nationwide chain of Examiner websites. Local TV stations across the country are using the free videos and photos submitted by their viewers.<br />
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Meanwhile, the ranks of paid, professional journalists continue to decline. DennisHerrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13893784243095747825noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6644403227275819065.post-77282905976404741242012-08-18T19:43:00.002-07:002014-01-26T18:51:25.746-08:00Will readers be more important than advertisers?For the first time since the 1890s, a major daily newspaper is receiving more revenue from readers and circulation than from advertising. <i>New York Magazine</i> reported this turn-around in an <a href="http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2012/07/new-york-times-supported-by-readers-not-advertisers.html?imw=Y" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">article</span></a> on the second-quarter 2012 report from the New York Times Co. <br />
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(<i>The New York Times</i> is "probably the first major paper that has crossed that line," media analyst Ken Doctor said. "It is an interesting moment."<br />
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Print and digital advertising continued to fall for the Times Co. and its three newspapers, including the flagship <i>New York Times</i>. That shortfall still remains to be addressed. For the second quarter, advertising fell by 6.6 percent to $220 million. However, circulation revenue increased 8.3 percent to $223 million because of the <i>Times'</i> successful paywall and subscription price hikes.<br />
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The MediaNews Group newspaper chain also crossed the circulation vs. advertising line for the first time in January 2012, the magazine reported.<br />
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The demise of the nineteenth-century penny press circulation wars has led to newspapers' overwhelming reliance on advertising revenue ever since. The massive drop in ad revenue due to Internet competition is forcing newspapers to look more to their readers for support. "We have the pieces of an emerging business — we just have to see how far how far we can go," Doctor said. DennisHerrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13893784243095747825noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6644403227275819065.post-49433197955841641462012-07-06T13:29:00.003-07:002013-03-11T17:29:12.567-07:00The challenge of keeping reader's comments civil<div class="post-body entry-content" id="post-body-4718196152869327998" itemprop="articleBody" style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.4; position: relative; width: 520px;">
There have always been letters to the editor. However, the rise of instant reader feedback on the Internet, and the trend of newspapers to print anonymous reactions to the news, have intensified problems in the potentially wild world of interactivity.<br />
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Involvement of the public in commenting on websites and in newspapers often means that the discussion of serious issues devolves into name-calling, abusive, and even libelous insults.<br />
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Although it seems like a modern problem, editors have been wrestling with reader comments at least since the mid-1700s.<br />
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“In the conduct of my newspaper I carefully excluded all libeling and personal abuse,” Benjamin Franklin wrote in his autobiography. “Whenever I was solicited to insert anything of that kind and the writers pleaded, as they generally did, the liberty of the press—and that a newspaper was like a stagecoach, in which anyone who would pay had right to a place—my answer was that I would print the piece separately if desired, and the author might have as many copies as he pleased to distribute himself, but that I would not take upon me to spread his detraction.”<br />
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Several newspapers, broadcast entities, and online sites refuse to print any comments because readers turn rancorous so often under the cover of anonymity or fake names. Several media companies are pursuing different strategies toward vetting reader comments. <a href="http://www.poynter.org/latest-news/top-stories/106403/portland-press-herald-drops-reader-comments-in-response-to-vicious-postings" style="color: #213abb; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><link></a> Others publicize a real-name policy to stem the negativity, such as the <i>Grand Island</i> (Neb.) <i>Independent</i> <a href="http://www.stephanieromanski.com/2010/03/the-triumphant-return-of-commenting" style="color: #213abb; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><link></a> which warns:<br />
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“This is a community conversation, but The Independent is controlling it on our site. Therefore, we set the rules….Although the first amendment to the U.S. Constitution allows for freedom of speech, Congress is not in charge of this site. This is a privately owned Web site.”</div>
DennisHerrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13893784243095747825noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6644403227275819065.post-71349299537176217612012-07-03T14:50:00.002-07:002013-03-11T17:29:56.238-07:00An end to the "good old days" with unions<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">The success of people banding together for sudden flash-mob rebellions in several Arab countries and elsewhere in 2011 has led to a new dynamic that could foretell problems for managers of companies, if it hasn't occurred already.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><br />
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</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">Now there is conjecture that encrypted texting on smartphones and use of social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and others, could lead to groups being formed spontaneously in a workplace.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><a href="http://blogs.findlaw.com/law_and_life/2011/03/facebook-the-labor-union-of-the-future.html" style="color: #213abb; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">[link]</a></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">Disgruntled employees could organize themselves over grievances even in union-free offices, and do it almost instantly. Such sudden uprisings could be much more difficult to control or predict than a union-managed situation. And, of course, unions could marshall their members into an immediate work-stoppage or other protest much more effectively than in the past.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><br />
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</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">One more issue for present and future managers to think about.</span>DennisHerrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13893784243095747825noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6644403227275819065.post-10653741047040501392012-06-26T18:04:00.002-07:002013-03-11T17:30:37.482-07:00The new media moguls (they're not journalists)<div class="post-body entry-content" id="post-body-2332527204883503123" itemprop="articleBody" style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.4; position: relative; width: 520px;">
A problematic development of recent years is the take-over of significant media companies by investment firms in the roles of equity investment or venture capital financiers. Whereas even most media conglomerates had been headed by people with experience in some field of journalism, these investment firms are non-journalism enterprises focused solely on profits.<br />
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Martin Langeveld of the Nieman Journalism Lab put a spotlight on these new private financial firms taking over media companies in January 2011. <a href="http://www.niemanlab.org/2011/01/the-shakeup-at-medianews-why-it-could-be-the-leadup-to-a-massive-newspaper-consolidation/" style="color: #213abb; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><link></a> He followed that up with another in-depth look at these non-journalism entities and their media holdings in March 2011. <a href="http://www.niemanlab.org/2011/03/who-owns-newspaper-companies-the-banks-funds-and-investors-and-their-big-slices-of-the-industry/" style="color: #213abb; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><link></a><br />
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Editor James O’Shea described the new finance: “By early 2007, Wall Street had undergone a dramatic transformation. The investors and investment banks circling (media companies) were . . . creating fee-laden packages of loans that could be converted into securities and peddled to big pension funds, institutional investors, or hedge funds and make even more money.” The most active private investment firm now is Alden Global Capital. <a href="http://www.poynter.org/latest-news/top-stories/139303/how-alden-global-capital-has-become-a-major-player-in-the-media-business/" style="color: #213abb; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><link></a><br />
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Clear Channel Communications, the nation’s largest operator of local radio stations, and the newspaper chains Journal Register Co. and Freedom Communications, are just three of several media companies taken over recently by investment consortiums. There have been many other post-2000 media buyouts by investment firms, including Univision, TV Guide, Warner Music, and Reader’s Digest.</div>
DennisHerrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13893784243095747825noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6644403227275819065.post-48799586988849499652012-06-20T08:47:00.003-07:002013-03-11T17:31:13.765-07:00Tough job market? Can you start a Web business?<div class="post-body entry-content" id="post-body-5918146831062814458" itemprop="articleBody" style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.4; position: relative; width: 520px;">
If you've just received your degree and still can't find a job, maybe you should look into starting your own online business. I know it's confusing and you're broke, but you don't need much — if any — money to start a blog, as one example of how people are profiting from the Internet these days.<br />
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And you can keep your options open, starting up your blog while continuing to look for a regular job.<br />
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In 2009, it was estimated there were about 20 million blogs. Out of that total, about 452,000 Americans made a living mostly or entirely from blogging. The Wall Street Journal called blogging "America's newest profession." <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124026415808636575.html" style="color: #213abb; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><link></a><br />
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Although many bloggers are opinionated and uninformed, there are also many who are experts in their subjects and respected for their writing. All it might take is to be entertaining.<br />
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A Google search will lead to thousands of links, many free, on how to start a blog and make it profitable. Here's just <a href="http://www.avivadirectory.com/successful-blog-launch/" style="color: #213abb; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">one</a>. The vast majority of new blogs close down within a year for many reasons, and most make little or no money. While you're hunting for that perfect job, however, this might be the best time to look into being one of those 452,000 who succeed.</div>
DennisHerrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13893784243095747825noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6644403227275819065.post-49484728801823283472012-06-09T09:29:00.000-07:002013-03-11T17:31:31.705-07:00Facing layoff? Maybe it's time to buy a business<div class="post-body entry-content" id="post-body-8933430061266960495" itemprop="articleBody" style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.4; position: relative; width: 520px;">
If "owning 1 percent of something is worth more than managing 100 percent of anything," as businessman Harvey Mackay and many entrepreneurs believe, a struggling economy offers an opportunity to buy your own business.<br />
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Prices for all small businesses — notably media companies such as weekly newspapers and smaller magazines, radio stations, and PR and advertising firms — have been declining since the recession started in 2008.<br />
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The median selling price for a small business in the second quarter of 2011 was $150,000, down from $155,000 a year ago. <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904800304576478790019087086.html" style="color: #213abb; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><link></a> Because most small businesses are sold through seller financing of 70 to 80 percent of the price, a buyer would need to put down about $30,000 to $45,000 for that median business. That’s a lot of money, but it’s not $150,000.<br />
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Sure, a lot of businesses are on the market because they’re failing. Make sure you know the reason the business is for sale because, as business broker Robert F. Klueger has said, if you don’t know that, then you don’t know anything.</div>
DennisHerrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13893784243095747825noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6644403227275819065.post-16943550689478060102012-06-04T18:12:00.001-07:002013-03-11T17:32:16.371-07:00Perhaps this is the future or part of itSome former journalists who leave their mainstream media jobs — voluntarily or involuntarily — are starting online news sites. <br />
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One of the older and best established examples of this new media is <a href="http://anewscafe.com/" target="_blank">aNewsCafe.com</a>, a northern California news website started in late 2007 by Kelly Brewer and Doni Greenberg. Brewer is a former editor of <i>The Albuquerque Tribune</i> and the <i>Record Searchlight</i> in Redding, Calif.<br />
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Check
out the site for how a successful news site, now almost four years old,
provides news from a stable of paid and unpaid writers and pulls in
revenue from advertising and donations.<br />
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It's admittedly difficult to survive without corporate backing. When the <i>Seattle Post-Intelligencer</i> closed its print newspaper in 2009, it became one of the first papers to switch to Web-only publication at its news site at <a href="http://seattlepi.com/" target="_blank">seattlepi.com</a>.
About 130 journalists lost their jobs because only 20 were needed to
produce the site. Several of those who lost their jobs started a
competing news website at <a href="http://seattlepostglobe.org/" target="_blank">seattlepostglobe.org</a>, but it survived only two years.DennisHerrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13893784243095747825noreply@blogger.com0