Sanest thing I’ve read about the newspaper industry in forever

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Sanest thing I’ve read about the newspaper industry in forever

Wednesday, September 2nd, 2009 | Media Behaving Badly |

Howard Owens - The Newspaper Original Sin: Keeping online units tethered to the mother ship:

In both Ventura and Bakersfield, I saw it as my job to figure out how to make enough money online to pay for the newsrooms as constructed at the time.

It wasn’t until late 2007 that a switch tripped in my head and I realized I needed to flip the expense/revenue picture upside down. Instead of thinking about how to generate more cash, I needed to figure out how to create a news operation that could exist profitably based on a reasonable expectation for local online revenue.

In a market where the newspaper newsroom might cost $10 million, I knew how to make $1 million online, or even $2 million, but I didn’t know — and still don’t — how to make $10 million.

So if I can make a million online, why do I need operate a $10 million newsroom, especially given the greater efficiencies of online publishing?

Via Jeff Jarvis via Jack Lail on Facebook. What, you thought I read about this in a newspaper?

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