It seems to me that Patch beats a local paper any day. The argument that making a paper hyper local somehow saves it from having to compete with the Internet just seems off to me.
Warren Buffett on newspapers [pdf]
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Re: Warren Buffett on newspapers [pdf]
#42The only newspapers I read anymore are local newspapers that are free to read. I still feel like online resources are a terrible way of finding out whats happening around you. I read news online, but I read about shows and events in local papers.
I'm curious your thoughts on Patch. Personally, any local news I read I get from twitter of facebook via Patch
Re: Warren Buffett on newspapers [pdf]
#43Earlier quoted context omitted.
The problem is that the cost of generating and distributing that local news is not sustainable in the face of internet technologies. Witness this: I'm at a graduation celebration in Wisconsin this weekend, and all the parents attending throughout the day are very involved in student athletics. One of the kids was running in a track competition out of town with the rest of the school. The results were texted immediate…
You were witnessing the people who are directly connected to the event, either through a member of the team or through the school. What about the other 500, 5,000, or 20,000 people in the town that didn't care enough to have instant notification, but still want the information even if it's a day later? That's where you make money.
What about the other 500, 5,000, or 20,000 people in the town that didn't care enough to have instant notification, but still want the information even if it's a day later?
How many events in that class tend to happen? Anybody who cares about a high school track meet is either there, or connected via Twitter/FB/whatever with the people who are. Larger scale events are bipolar: they're either not of immediate interest (new highway construction announced), ignored entirely by most people (the President is in town), or people want to know what's happening now (chemical spill, bomb threat, school shooting...)
The one thing that can be said about local print newspapers is that they aren't the best vehicle for disseminating any of the above news topics except possibly the big-but-not-of-immediate-interest kind.
Finally, the ultimate fate of the newspaper cannot possibly be understood by anyone who, as in Buffett's case, admits he doesn't understand tech.
Re: Warren Buffett on newspapers [pdf]
#44Earlier quoted context omitted.
How could you possibly believe all of the efficiency gains from having a digital supply-chain wouldn't lead to a cheaper product?
To play the devil's advocate, a product that is cheaper to produce, doesn't necessarily sell for a lower price to consumers. The pricing could relate to consumer demand for the product, competitors' prices, etc., rather than being a simple function of the price of production. I'm not an economist, and I might be wrong.
I'm not an economist either, but what you say is - for what I understand - the consequence of the whole supply/demand concept. There is no global "value" of things, in the end the only real value is what people are willing to pay for it.
Re: Warren Buffett on newspapers [pdf]
#45Earlier quoted context omitted.
Those gains are MORE than cancelled out by the miserable rates they are charging for digital ads versus print. Thank about it: even if you read every page of the paper online every day for a month you wouldn't generate anywhere near $18 in revenue. Heck, you probably wouldn't generate that if you clicked on every ad. It used to be that the cost of the paper roughly covered just the printing and distribution. All the…
So here's a theory. An old adage used to be "I know half my advertising dollars are wasted, but I don't know which half!" Now that you can get analytics on ad views and interactions, we do know that the interaction rates on ads in publications are terrible. Therefore, they command lower rates. Is this a case where technology is "cleaning up" an ineffective use of marketing dollars? Another change for advertisers is t…
For sure, that's part of it. But I think a bigger part is that the role newspapers play in society is changing and new media is filling roles that were once their exclusive domain.
Or, put another way, I think Craigslist obliterating the classified ad market has more to do with it than analytics suddenly enabling marketers to see their ad dollars were wasted at newspapers.
I might pay extra for newspapers or media with no ads
I probably would too, but that's a terrible deal for the advertiser: pay us money to broadcast your message to only the cheapest, least engaged segment of our audience.
Re: Warren Buffett on newspapers [pdf]
#46Although he doesn't mention it here, Berkshire also owns about 18% of the Washington Post: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_assets_owned_by_Berkshi... Not sure if this is related at all, but Adrian Holovaty (co-creator of Django, founder of EveryBlock) also worked at the Washington Post -- he has been a big proponent of the hyper-local strategy for Newspapers (the original reason why Django was developed). Probab…
Here's a length how-the-sausage-is-made article about the Washington Post and their struggle with being a national vs local paper. I think the tl;dr is that they're trying to refocus on the Washington, DC area but IMHO as a DC resident, I don't think they are yet succeeding.
http://www.vanityfair.com/business/2012/04/washington-post-w...
Re: Warren Buffett on newspapers [pdf]
#47Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why do you think a version delivered to your iPad should be cheaper than the print version? Do you not receive the same value in both cases?
How could you possibly believe all of the efficiency gains from having a digital supply-chain wouldn't lead to a cheaper product?
Because I value the product more than I value the distribution channel. If you can deliver me interesting, in-depth reporting, then I'll pay for it and I honestly don't care how you get it to me.
Re: Warren Buffett on newspapers [pdf]
#48I love how Warren Buffett uses plain language in everything he releases. It's easy and pleasant to read for simple folk like me.
I consider it a sign of intelligence to be able to speak about complex issues in a plain and straightforward manner.
Re: Warren Buffett on newspapers [pdf]
#49Although he doesn't mention it here, Berkshire also owns about 18% of the Washington Post: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_assets_owned_by_Berkshi... Not sure if this is related at all, but Adrian Holovaty (co-creator of Django, founder of EveryBlock) also worked at the Washington Post -- he has been a big proponent of the hyper-local strategy for Newspapers (the original reason why Django was developed). Probab…
Yer absolutely right. Hyper local is the only way to win as a newspaper. Sure, you can just reprint the AP stories on the big international news of each day, but a better tactic is to post pictures of locals on the front page, and to let them voice their opinions in the op-eds and column sections. An Ohio paper did this just right a number of years ago, though I forget which city it was. It wasn't the Cox News towns,…
In "Made to Stick", they profile a newspaper called "The Daily Record" in Dunn, North Carolina. Their penetration into their local area is 112%. Quote from the owner:
"The fact is, a local newspaper can never get enough local names. I'd happily hire two more typesetters and add two more pages in every edition of each paper if we had the names to fill them up."
Look at the front page
All local stories (and a pay wall -- perhaps the future of Berkshire owned papers)
Re: Warren Buffett on newspapers [pdf]
#50It seems to me that Patch beats a local paper any day. The argument that making a paper hyper local somehow saves it from having to compete with the Internet just seems off to me.
I just took a quick look at Patch and it looked like very superficial robo-generated news from public sources (police blotter, HS sports schedule, stock photography). It doesn't look very readable. Here's an article that puts words around a calendar
http://chelmsford.patch.com/articles/softball-team-to-face-n...
This article is probably just auto-generated for town (it's about the view of Venus we are getting right now).
http://chelmsford.patch.com/articles/chelmsford-look-up-venu...
There are some articles better than these, but not much -- perhaps it's better for other towns.
Here's what a hyperlocal newspaper looks like:
Real names and faces of people the residents know. The articles aren't Pulitzer prize winning, but they're not just autogenerated.
You can't compete with auto-generated on price, but it doesn't seem hard to write better articles.