Comments on: A bet on the next news ecosystem: NYT plans modest cuts to lucrative Escapes section & Sunday magazine

By: But First, Find a Fax Machine - City Room Blog - NYTimes.com

But First, Find a Fax Machine - City Room Blog - NYTimes.com — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 16:13:16 +0000

[...] at The Times cause a swirl of speculation. [...]

By: MichaelJ

MichaelJ — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 18:00:32 +0000

Here’s my two cents for a new revenue source.
I truly believe that the NYTimes is perfectly placed to lead a reinvention of Textbooks for over the 9th grade. The long tail of the Times content + a wikibased ECM + PediaPress Open Source software to link wikis to PDF.

one editor (say the Science editor) + one educator (someone familar with Science Standards + one writer to do a 300 to 500 contextualizing essay.

The opportunity is to replace Textbooks with Wikibooks and subscriptions to WikiNewspapers.

Textbooks are expensive with content that is not timely. The NY Times is built for smart and for speed. The addressable market is clear. In NYC, the decision maker is Joe Klein and his staff.

By: Dave Chase

Dave Chase — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 14:46:04 +0000

Though I’m not personally affected by these (and other) layoffs it is painful and repetitive to read the hundreds of articles/posts about journalist layoffs. Nieman would do a great service if it would uncover all the emerging successes in revenue generation. Others more eloquent than me have shot holes in the folly of micropayments and non-profit approaches that don’t have the ability to scale beyond limited exceptions. The bottom line is revenues have to exceed costs no matter the legal status of the entity and cost cutting alone won’t come close to getting the job done. Let’s be honest and recognize that the vast majority of online sales efforts by newspapers have been dismal failures. That is *the* issue that needs to get addressed more than any other.

I know my site (www.sunvalleyonline.com) isn’t the only one that has managed to eke out a profit even though we didn’t get “free” content from an offline counterpart. I have started blogging for the paper I’ve read more than any in my life – The Seattle P-I. As everyone knows, they are making the bold step of online-only. While I don’t have connection with the business side of their operation, I have shared my thoughts on the Ten Mistakes that the P-I needs to avoid on the Path to Profitability – http://blog.seattlepi.com/seattlestartupbuzz/archives/165167.asp.

I’m certain that we aren’t the only one having pockets of success. With your resources and connections, I bet the newspapers and technology companies supplying them could highlight many successes. It would be a lot less depressing to read those accounts than the drumbeat of how to cut production costs.

By: New York Times’ Bill Keller tells it like it is « Virtualjournalist

New York Times’ Bill Keller tells it like it is « Virtualjournalist — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 23:02:44 +0000

[...] by Anthony Salveggi on March 28, 2009 At least he was honest. When New York Times Executive Editor Bill Keller addressed his newsroom earlier this week, he had to deliver the bad [...]