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January 21, 2007
Media Ownership: Trib & LA Times
A lot of ink has been spent in the LA Times on the impending sale of the Tribune Company. It's rather odd to read about this situation in the LAT, since it is one of the Trib's assets.
Even stranger is listening to Angelenos pontificate on the future of "dead tree media." They seem to buy the hype that there's something seriously wrong with newspapers. The only thing wrong with the newspaper industry is that it is controlled by public companies that care only about profit margins.
As Katharine Graham taught us in her memoir, good journalism has nothing to do with being popular. If shareholders had controlled WaPo during Watergate, do you think they would've stuck with the story? In the face of declining readership and daily attacks from the White House Press Office? I doubt it.
Plus, let's review the recent history of the LAT: it had a 20% profit margin last year. And the bean counters still forced newsroom cuts on the place. They're not alone - Time Inc. cut a huge portion of their workforce last week, stating that they're transitioning to a focus on the web. Funny thing about the web - it requires writers just as much as paper magazines.
So, do I think it's a good thing that local billionaires have put in competing bids for the LAT? I suppose so. But I don't trust any of them - not a one of them has ever worked in the news industry. They're more likely to make the LAT into their personal papers than to really transform it into a bigger powerhouse. The thing that the Chicago Trib does right and the LAT doesn't do well at all is have internet properties that are really useful - Metromix is a major online hub for hipsters in Chi-town. It provides easy to access listings for food, nightlife, and other entertainment. Plus, the Red Eye (the free weekday tabloid available at public trans stations) increases the number of young people reading Trib material and pushed to the web for further info. There is no part of the LAT sprawling web presence that compares to the utility of Metromix.
But then, for being the entertainment capital of the world, LA is sorely lacking in a lot of things available in Chicago. We don't have a local restaurant review show like Check, Please! (then again, we probably don't have enough independent restaurants to warrant a review show), we don't have a public t.v. weeknight news show to offer real local news like Chicago Tonight. And, instead of critiquing our own big industry like Chicagoans Roger Ebert & Richard Roeper do, we create a million fawning celebrity-obsessed craptastic t.v. shows like Extra and Entertainment Tonight.
So to review - I don't understand this town:
1. The only thing really wrong with the newspaper industry is that its owned by public companies rather than local media families.
2. I don't understand people who think billionaires from other industries are the best future for the LAT.
3. I don't understand how people seriously think the blogosphere or other online sites can kill newspapers. Even when young people look for news coverage, they need a source for the news - and newspapapers' online sites are still 100x better for the straight news than the ramblings of the blogosphere.
4. As long as news companies continue to expand their online presence (think WaPo buying Slate), they will continue to be at the top of the news media heap.
Further reading:
"2 Southland billionaires make case to buy Tribune: Eli Broad, Ron Burkle meet with panel also reviewing offer by The Times' founding family." by James Rainey in today's LAT
Posted by cj at January 21, 2007 04:32 PM