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THREE POLITICAL WEB LOGS MAKE A RUN FOR THE MAINSTREAM

Three Political Web Logs Make a Run for the Mainstream
By Roderick Boyd
New York Sun
May 3, 2005

www.nysun.com/article/13179

In a dramatic sign that Web logs are going mainstream, three of the largest political blogs are banding together to form what is believed to be a first-of-its kind ad-supported network.

To broaden their appeal beyond national security issues, the three - ArmedLiberal.com, RogerLSimon.com, and LittleGreenFootballs.com - will receive editorial advice from the owner of one of the most heavily trafficked blogs, Instapundit.com's Glenn Reynolds, among others.

The venture will be called Pajamas Media, a not-so-subtle reference to the September remarks of a CNN executive, Jonathan Klein, who said a typical blogger has "no checks and balances" and is just "a guy sitting in his living room in his pajamas."

No launch date has been set.

The idea of Pajamas Media is to use an extensive network of globally affiliated blogs to provide first-person, in-depth coverage of most major news events, including both camera and video footage, Roger Simon said.

Using as an example the tsunami that swept through parts of Asia and Africa in January, Mr. Simon said bloggers managed to post hundreds of updates, first-person accounts, and video clips, often before major press organizations could deploy their staffs. With 162 affiliate blogs in dozens of different countries, according to Mr. Simon, the new venture will have the ability to get "in the middle of stories" that major news organizations can't, "because our affiliates will have a physical proximity, language, and cultural knowledge that the Associated Press man will often lack." Mr. Simon is a Los Angeles-based screenwriter and mystery novelist whose credits include the Woody Allen directed "Scenes From a Mall" and the Moses Wine detective series.

The LittleGreenFootballs blogger, Charles Johnson, said the challenge is to keep the freewheeling character of a popular blog - where opinions and criticism are given freely - while meeting high standards and aggressively pursuing stories.

"Look at how blogs, with no coordination and limited money, scooped major papers and the networks on stories like Dan Rather, Eason Jordan, and the tsunami," he said.

Mr. Johnson, whose blog averages about 70,000 unique visitors a day, has been called the first writer to conclude that documents purporting to prove that President Bush used political leverage to get out of Air National Guard training exercises in the early 1970s were computer-generated and inauthentic.

Instapundit.com's Mr. Reynolds, a University of Tennessee law professor whose blog averages more than 130,000 unique visitors a day - according to the Truth Laid Bear, a blog that tracks Web log traffic - said large press organizations have nothing to fear from a successful Pajamas Media.

"I think it is a tired cliche that because there won't be newspaper editors at PJM, that somehow the product will be diminished," Mr. Reynolds said. "We do not need four or five layers of editors to screw this up like they have at the L.A. Times. Hopefully, we'll have live feeds and middle-of-the-crowd commentary from the next Beirut demonstration."

Mr. Reynolds's mention of the Los Angeles Times was a reference to a March 29 column by that paper's press critic, David Shaw, asserting that reporting at the Times and other papers was preferable to the work of bloggers because of the multiple layers of editing that each story undergoes.

Mr. Reynolds argued that the work of the blogger-reporters of Pajamas Media would improve the quality of reporting on major events.

"Hopefully, reporters from larger organizations will use us as another resource to cite when they report on a big story," he said. "We're not a threat to their jobs, but we'll make them do their jobs better since their will be another record out there."

From a practical perspective, he said, one of the goals of the founders, once financing is in place, is to get a handheld camcorder and a laptop notebook into the hands of all their affiliated bloggers.

The economics of launching what is in effect a global blog-based wire service is complex but not insurmountable, Mr. Simon said.

"We have about seven different investment offers on the table right now," he said, "so getting off the ground shouldn't be a problem."

Syndicating advertisements through affiliated blogs so that advertisers reach a global network, according to LittleGreenFootball's Mr. Johnson, will sustain the project.

Citing demographic research he said he has done on his site, he said: "We've got a lot to offer advertisers. My blog and many others have a lot of six-figure readers, a lot of graduate degrees, and reader loyalty."

Mr. Simon went a step further, saying his readers, based on an informal survey he did on his site three months ago, have a median income of $100,000. His blog averages about 18,000 unique visitors a day.

The timing is right for Pajamas Media's advertising syndication approach, according to the president of a marketing company for Web sites, Tom Hespos, who said the key to successful advertising on blogs is tapping into what he called "their audience dedication." He said blog readers will frequently log into their favorite sites three or four times a day and often do not ignore or dismiss advertisements as readily as they do in print or on television.

"As long as they continue to identify the blogger as credible, blog audiences have proven remarkably loyal and resilient," Mr. Hespos said, "and that extends to advertising."

Mr. Simon said his blog makes about $1,000 a month and recently carried ads for Friendster blogs - featuring a revealing pose by the actress Pamela Sue Anderson - and a physical-conditioning program.

Mr. Hespos said that with attractive demographics, a popular blogger can make between $4,000 and $5,000 a month, which he said makes blogs economically viable. Based on standard rates of between $10 and $15 per thousand page views, he said it shouldn't be difficult to get Pajama Media's blog network into the $5,000-a-month range to start. Moreover, if the venture manages to gather page views going into the millions, the revenues could easily increase to between $12,000 and $15,000 per month.

There are caveats, however. The first is that blog advertising is unpopular with a large segment of traditional advertisers, such as Proctor & Gamble, who are uncomfortable with the potential of their products' being sold near potentially controversial copy.

When advertisers consider buying space on blogs, according to Underscore Marketing's Mr. Hespos, the notion of editorial material reflecting negatively on the advertiser is a big question mark.

"There are no controls for blog advertising, so you need an advertiser that has demonstrated a comfort level with that, because there is no moving a product away from a controversial opinion or off-color remark," he said.

Examples of name-brand advertisers that have had an aggressive blog advertising presence include Sony and Nike, which both have had large ad placements on various Gawker Media blogs.

 

WASHINGTON POST: NEWSPAPER CIRCULATION DECLINES

Newspaper Circulation Continues to Decline
Internet, Cable Cited as Competition
By Annys Shin
The Washington Post
May 3, 2005

washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/02/AR2005050201457.html

Circulation at 814 of the nation's largest daily newspapers declined 1.9 percent over the six months ended March 31 compared with the same period last year, an industry trade group reported yesterday.

The decline continued a 20-year trend in the newspaper industry as people increasingly turn to other media such as the Internet and 24-hour cable news networks for information.

Newspaper industry officials also blamed the National Do Not Call Registry, which has forced newspapers to rely less on telemarketing to secure subscribers, and a shift in strategy among major newspapers away from using short-term promotions to acquire new readers.

"Of all the things that have happened, [the change in telemarketing rules] had the single largest impact," said John Kimball, chief marketing officer for the Newspaper Association of America, an industry trade group. Newspapers relied on telemarketing to acquire an average of 60 to 65 percent of their home delivery subscribers, Kimball said. As a result of the registry, newspapers have cut that figure down to 50 or 55 percent.

Kimball also said newspapers are focusing less on short-term promotions and more on going after people who are likely to subscribe for a longer period. Such subscribers "take a lot longer to acquire in the first place, and acquisition costs are higher," he said.

For the six months ended March 31, The Washington Post reported a weekday circulation decline of 2.7 percent, to 751,871, compared with the corresponding period a year earlier. Sunday circulation decreased 2.4 percent, to 1,000,565.

Post executives said the company is relying slightly less on so-called third-party sales, in which newspapers sell copies in bulk at a discounted rate to outside groups that distribute the paper, usually for free. But executives did not attribute the decline to any one factor and said the figures are an improvement.

"Our numbers are not down quite so much this year compared to last year," said publisher Boisfeuillet Jones Jr.

Circulation of the Wall Street Journal, owned by Dow Jones & Co., decreased by 0.8 percent, to 2,070,498, said Amy Wolfcale, a Wall Street Journal spokeswoman.

Wolfcale attributed the decline to a 23 percent increase in price over the past three years and a change in distribution strategy as the Journal prepares for a scheduled September rollout of a weekend edition. The Journal, for example, has stopped supplying some public waiting rooms where people don't congregate on the weekends, Wolfcale said.

About one-third of U.S. newspapers reported gains in circulation, according to an analysis by the Newspaper Association of America.

Among those adding subscribers was the New York Times, which reported weekday circulation of 1,136,433 and Sunday circulation of 1,680,582. Its weekday circulation is up 0.2 percent from the same period last year.

New York Times executives attributed the growth in the newspaper's circulation to its increased distribution nationally. The Times is now available by home delivery in 318 markets, up from 266 at this time last year, said spokeswoman Catherine J. Mathis.

Circulation at USA Today, owned by Gannett Co., was flat, said spokesman Steve Anderson. As of March 31, its weekday circulation was 2,281,830, Anderson said.

USA Today's circulation held steady even as the newspaper increased its newsstand price to 75 cents from 50 cents in September. Anderson attributed the stability in circulation in part to higher travel-related sales.

Circulation at the New York Post was virtually flat in the six-month period compared with the corresponding period a year ago, at 678,086. The New York Post still lags behind its arch rival, the New York Daily News, which saw its circulation slip 1.5 percent, to 735,536.

The circulation figures were the first released in the wake of circulation scandals at several major newspapers last year. The Chicago Sun-Times, Newsday and the Dallas Morning News said they overstated their circulation. As a result, the Audit Bureau of Circulations censured them and did not include their circulation numbers in yesterday's report.

 

WALL STREET JOURNAL: NEWSPAPER CIRCULATION DECLINES

Newspaper Circulation Continues Decline, Forcing Tough Decisions
By Julia Angwin and Joseph T. Hallinan
The Wall Street Journal
May 2, 2005

online.wsj.com/public/article/0,,SB111499919608621875-72vA7sUkzSQ76dPiTXytqgOMS5A_20050601,00.html?mod=tff_main_tff_top

The newspaper industry, already suffering from circulation problems, could be looking at its worst numbers in more than a decade.

Circulation numbers to be released today by the Audit Bureau of Circulations probably will show industrywide declines of 1% to 3%, according to people familiar with the situation -- possibly the highest for daily newspapers since the industry shed 2.6% of subscribers in 1990-91.

The biggest publishers may show the largest declines: Gannett Co., which owns about 100 newspapers, says it will be down "a couple of points" from last year's levels. Circulation at Tribune Co.'s Los Angeles Times is likely to be off in excess of 6% of its most recently reported figures. Belo Corp.'s Dallas Morning News expects to report daily circulation down 9% and Sunday circulation down 13% from the year-earlier period. All projected figures are for the six months ended in March.

The Wall Street Journal, published by Dow Jones & Co., expects to report today that total circulation for the six-month period declined 0.8% to 2.07 million.

Long stuck in a slow decline, U.S. newspapers face the prospect of an accelerated drop in circulation. The slide is fueling an urgent industry discussion about whether the trend can be halted in a digital age and is forcing newspaper executives to rethink their traditional strategies.

Rather than simply trying to halt the decline, which can be done readily through discounts and promotions, they're being forced to try to "manage" their circulation in new ways. Some publishers are deliberately cutting circulation in the hope of selling advertisers on the quality of their subscribers. Others are expanding into new markets to make up for losses in their core markets. Some are switching to a tabloid format or giving away papers to try to attract younger readers. Others are pouring money into television and radio advertising and expensive face-to-face sales pitches to potential subscribers.

The losses come at a time when Americans have many news outlets that didn't exist 20 years ago, including cable-television news channels and Internet sites, as well as email and cellphone alerts. Many newspapers have substantial and free online sites offering much of what is in the printed paper. These sites might not hurt readership overall, but they can erode a newspaper's paying audience.

At the same time, many newspapers have undercut the print product itself, trimming staff and coverage. They also have failed to figure out how to attract younger readers to their pages.

At a recent industry conference, News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch sounded the alarm about what he called a "revolution" in how young people access news. News Corp. owns television stations, movie studios, cable channels and 175 newspapers world-wide. Mr. Murdoch said young people essentially relied on the Internet for news, and unless the newspaper industry recognized these changes, it will "be relegated to the status of also-rans."

Others say newspapers are simply facing the familiar fate of TV and magazines, which have also lost audience in the past 20 years and have tried to adapt by focusing more on demographic groups. "Mass media in general has just become a little bit less mass," says Jason E. Klein, president of the National Newspaper Network LP, a sales arm of the industry.

Daily circulation of American newspapers peaked in 1984 and had fallen nearly 13% to 55.2 million copies in 2003, according to the Newspaper Association of America. At the same time, advertising revenue -- adjusted for inflation -- has barely budged. In 1985, newspaper advertising, adjusted for inflation, was $43.04 billion, not much less than the $44.94 billion reported in 2003. That's just 4.4% real growth over 18 years. During that same period, the gross domestic product, measured in current dollars, grew 161%.

The circulation declines have accelerated recently due in part to two major problems. The federal do-not-call law, which went into effect in 2003, particularly hurt newspaper publishers, who had relied on telemarketing for as much as 60% of new subscribers. And scandals at several newspapers have made some publishers less aggressive about counting certain kinds of subscribers.

Newspapers have long used various techniques to boost circulation. The New York Post famously doubled its circulation in the early 1980s through contests and giveaways -- but lost all those readers as soon as the contests stopped. In recent years, the Post, owned by News Corp., has boosted circulation in part by cutting its price to 25 cents.

"If you're willing to spend the money to buy circulation, you can pretty much make your circulation what you want it to be," says John Morton, a newspaper-industry consultant.

In the past year, some newspapers fabricated circulation figures. Hollinger International Inc.'s Chicago Sun-Times, Belo's Dallas Morning News and Tribune's Newsday have all acknowledged that they overstated circulation figures.

The large decline at the Dallas Morning News is partly due to circulation figures for the March reporting period being compared with year-ago figures compiled before the company announced that circulation had been overstated. The company said at the time that these overstatements would reduce circulation by about 1.5% daily and 5% Sunday. Dallas-based Belo says it expects its March 2005 report to be audited by the Audit Bureau of Circulations and released in mid-May.

And many other companies have come under scrutiny for bulking up their circulation with discounted copies that didn't attract high-quality readers.

In the wake of these scandals, advertisers have been demanding accountability from publishers. "I want the quality readers proved to me," says Brenda White, who buys newspaper ads for clients of the media-buying agency Starcom, a unit of Paris-based Publicis Groupe.

Now, many publishers are taking fewer shortcuts to boost circulation. Chicago-based Tribune, for instance, is cutting back significantly on the number of discounted copies sold to places such as hotels, hospitals and schools. Scott Smith, president of Tribune's publishing unit, said this number will be down 10% from year-ago levels.

Such readers -- who often pay nothing for the paper -- often aren't considered good quality and their actual numbers are impossible to validate. Good-quality readers tend to pay for the newspaper with the intention of reading it.

At the Tribune-owned Orlando Sentinel, those types of daily sales jumped 53% in two years, to nearly 38,000 copies a day. But advertisers were unenthusiastic, so the newspaper pulled back. Take hotel copies, Mr. Smith says: "Are the people staying in those hotels actually going to shop with those advertisers?" The answer in many cases, he says, is no. In February, the Sentinel sent a letter to advertisers saying it was cutting many of the nearly 20,000 papers a day it sent to hotels.

At the same time, publishers are searching for ways to attract new readers to replace telemarketing and discounted sales. McClatchy Co., which has posted 20 straight years of subscriber growth -- an unprecedented record in the industry -- uses everything from door-to-door sales crews to sending lapsed subscribers handwritten notes imploring them to resubscribe. McClatchy is a small newspaper chain that operates 12 dailies, including the Sacramento Bee and the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

McClatchy Vice President of Operations Frank Whittaker notes that the company keeps its newsstand and subscription prices low, guarantees "on the porch" delivery in most of its markets, has never cut the amount of space it allots to news and has never had across-the-board layoffs -- all of which is fairly unusual in the industry. The company has also been favored by strong markets such as Sacramento, Minneapolis and Raleigh-Durham. "There's no silver bullet," says Mr. Whittaker. "It's really a story of blocking and tackling."

The New York Times Co., which is losing circulation in its core market of New York, says it will post circulation gains in today's report due to its strategy of expanding into new markets around the nation. In the past year, the company has added about 50 markets. At the same time, the Times is marketing to immigrants in New York and college students around the country. "We are cultivating the next generation of readership," says Scott Heekin-Canedy, president and general manager of the New York Times.

The Wall Street Journal's 2.07 million circulation total after an expected 0.8% decline includes some paid online subscriptions allowed under ABC rules. A company spokeswoman said the decline in print circulation reflects the impact of aggressive price increases over the past few years as well as a decision to drop some marginal marketing programs and to eliminate some copies distributed to public waiting rooms. The spokeswoman said that the Journal's year-earlier figures, reported last May at 2.1 million, have since been adjusted downward by 13,600 copies due to minor errors and the effects of rule changes.

But replacement marketing efforts can be costly. The Los Angeles Times, where circulation has fallen to 902,000 copies from 1.1 million in 1999, has pledged to spend $10.5 million to boost circulation. Gannett Chief Financial Officer Gracia Martore told analysts last month that "we are clearly spending more money per order" to bring in circulation."

Gannett, which is based in McLean, Va., and whose daily circulation is likely to be down in today's report, has also joined an industrywide effort to promote an alternative metric: readership. Readership is how many readers view each copy of the newspaper -- a number that is typically two to four per copy. Readership is a widely used metric in the magazine industry but has only recently begun to be promoted by newspaper publishers.

"Newspaper circulation is important but readership is the key issue," says Don Stinson, senior vice president of marketing for Gannett's newspaper division. "At the end of the day what we want to deliver to advertisers is prospects who are ready, willing and able to buy what they have to sell. Whether the person pays for the newspaper or got it from somebody else isn't particularly relevant. It's whether they read it."

To that end, 500 newspapers have begun submitting detailed demographic data about their readers to the Audit Bureau of Circulations to provide newspaper ad buyers with the same kind of data they get about radio listeners and TV viewers, such as age, gender and household income.

"Generally what we're trying to do is get a level playing field," says Kevin Campbell, director of marketing and sales at ABC.

Corrections & Amplifications:

The Wall Street Journal, published by Dow Jones & Co., said it expects to report that total circulation for the six months ended in March declined 0.8%. The initial version of this article incorrectly said total circulation declined 1.5%.