So that's what happened in Westchester

I asked last week what happened in Westchester. We were hearing about layoffs at Gannett Co.'s Westchester County franchise, The Journal News.

The New York Times answered this week:

You’re Gone. But Hey, You Can Reapply.

OR from Columbia Journalism Review:

Gannett spins the hamster wheel

Bottom line in both reports: The entire business reporting and editing staff was laid off in a reorganization after all 288 news and advertising employees were asked to reapply for their jobs.

Design on the edge of innovation with NYT

The New York Times is looking for a full-time Web designer for its news development team.
The designer will help explore innovative methods for offering news online. The Web designer will aid in diverting from typical linear storytelling through maps, dynamic graphics, searchable databases, visualizations and other interactive features.
Candidates should have strong design skills and the technical ability to execute them. Applicants should have a thorough knowledge of HTML, CSS and Javascript. All potential hires should also be aware of cross-browser and front-end development issues and have a grasp on Web accessibility and how to design for users' needs. Experience in Flash, ActionScript or Ruby on Rails is a plus when applying.
View the job posting and apply online here.

IMAGE CREDIT: nytimes.com

Journalists can build a brand like a rock star

Sure they can!

In the top story on BusinessWeek's Management page this afternoon, Dan Schawbel writes about how anyone with an Internet connection and some ambition can develop their own marketing platform.

Schawbel points to the results of a study conducted on July 20 by Wetpaint and the Altimeter Group which shows that the most engaged brands on social media saw their revenue grow by 18%.

His examples are celebrity brands: Kathy Ireland, MC Hammer, Gary Vaynerchuk. All of them quickly saw impact on their brands after using Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and video blogs.

Journalists can do the same thing. Of course, revenue is counted not by sales but by loyalty, readers, viewers, story tips and, perhaps, longevity in the business.

• New York Times' Brian Stelter has 11,750 followers on Twitter.
• All Things Digital's Kara Swisher has 116,000 followers and drives a lot of traffic to her All Things Digital blog, which is part of The Wall Street Journal Digital Network.
• Michael Banovsky, who covers the auto industry in Toronto, has nearly 4,000 followers.
• And Miami Herald tech reporter Bridget Carey has 1,800 followers.

All are respectable business journalists, but none are household names. They would not expect to attract followers in the numbers that Oprah or Ellen or Ashton would.

But they are just four of hundreds of business journalists using social media to develop their brands and to reach an audience they may not have had before.

Whether you are a freelancer or get a regular paycheck, you are your brand. And you can always take lessons from the stars. It's Hammer time.

Vargas hops from one Post to another

The New York Times reports that The Washington Post's Jose Antonio Vargas is leaving The Post for The Huffington Post. Vargas will join Arianna Huffington's team next month.
At HuffPost, Vargas will be the technology and innovations editor. He will oversee a new section debuting this fall about technology and encourage innovation across the site.
In recent months, The Huffington Post also hired Washington Post columnist, Dan Froomkin.
See the full story here.

Star-Tribune Kindle Edition

Mediaweek.com reports that Minneapolis's Star-Tribune has revealed a new edition of the paper for the Kindle E-reader.
The Kindle device and software, developed by an Amazon.com subsidiary, allows readers to purchase and read a black-and-white edition of many newspapers around the country.

According to the report, The Star-Tribune edition costs $10 per month, or 75 cents a day—25 cents more than the cover price of a weekday edition.
And other Kindle edition prices are similar.
The Boston Globe, the Chicago Tribune and The Washington Post all charge $10 per month.

USA Today charges $11.99, The New York Times $13.99, and The Wall Street Journal costs $14.99 per month.

View the story here.

Our economy's scribble

The New York Times recently created an interesting interactive graphic, taking a page from The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in charting the economic cycle and its major turning points.
The chart, reminiscent of drawings in "Harold and the Purple Crayon", illustrates how volatile our economy can be. Using O.E.C.D. data and charting methods, The New York Times actively illustrates the rollercoaster peaks and dips of the economy from the 1970s to the giant fall of May 2009.
Watching the swinging scribbles of the business cycle over the past 30 years (particularly its recent dive) may not be the most comforting thing in the world, but it is enlightening. Following the cues of O.E.C.D economists to simplify data into something visual and trend-revealing was a smart move on the Times part. Making it into a live-action graph that moves was an even smarter one, taking an otherwise complex and alien-looking graph and turning it into an engaging and insightful piece of multimedia.
View the interactive graphic here.

What do you think of the illustration of the economic cycle? What articles or graphics have you worked on lately that simplified complex data? Comment and let us know!

Have an idea for a good blog for The Pulse? Email it to us at businessjournalism@businessjournalism.org.

CHART CREDIT: The New York Times

The downturn reaches a Mongolian goat farm

Today, The New York Times ran an article called "Soft Market for Cashmere Takes Toll in China" that shows the yo-yo effect of the recession from America to China and back again.
The story speaks with goat farmers, yarn factory workers, and sales managers to trace what the drop in America's cashmere demand has meant for people in Mongolia and China.
Accompanying the article is an illuminating piece of multimedia. While a modest slideshow, it tells a strong visual story of the recession's impact on cashmere from a small Mongolian goat farm all the way to Saks Fifth Avenue in New York.
Stories that veer away from the obviously suffering industries (autos, banking, etc.) are more necessary than ever at a time when media organizations can get tunnel vision for the industries frying in the spotlight.
Covering the less blatantly struggling industries not only provides greater coverage diversity but adds detail to the overall picture of the economic recession to show that our problems are more widespread (both in the United States and abroad) than many perceive.
You can view the story here and the slideshow here.

What industries have you covered in the context of the recession? What's a strong piece of business multimedia you've seen? Comment and tell us about it or send it to The Pulse at businessjournalism@businessjournalism.org!

Photo credit: Timothy O'Rourke for The New York Times.

Pinching Forbes

The New York Times reported today that even Forbes is feeling the squeeze of the economy.
While Forbes magazine has 920,000 subscribers, its average issue price has steadily decreased and its ad pages are down 15 percent in the first quarter compared to last year.
The article reports Forbes has stopped matching contributions to its 401k program, laid off roughly 100 of its 1,000 employees since November and started five-day unpaid furloughs for its staff.
In the story, Mark M. Edmiston of AdMedia Partners asserts Forbes isn't worth half the $75 million its worth has been estimated in the past.
Yet the Times reports that Forbes' misery isn't without company, with the Publishers Information Bureau listing revenue of over $338 million for Forbes, $276 million for Fortune and $236 million for BusinessWeek.
The story shows the recession is impacting both people's demand for Forbes' economic content and its employees' desire to cover it. From the story:

“Everyone here likes the magazine, the people who run it, and most of us believe in the mission,” said one editorial employee who asked not to be identified because he was not authorized to speak with a reporter. “But that sense of mission is sort of hard to sustain when most of the news is bad. Capitalism is a less sexy topic for everyone, including us.”

View the story here.

Is covering capitalism less sexy for you? What do you think about the struggling of Forbes and its competitors? Comment and let use know.

Reuters and SABEW team up for discussion session

It comes as no surprise that our industry is changing.

To help prepare for the needs of the future, Reuters and the Society of American Business Editors and Writers are teaming up to host a discussion with some of the top producers in business journalism.

The dicussion, being held Tuesday, June 30, will include the following panelists: 

Chrystia Freeland, US managing editor, Financial Times
Larry Ingrassia, business editor, The New York Times
Sree Sreenivasan, dean of student affairs & new media professor, Columbia Journalism School
Laurel Touby, founder & CEO, Mediabistro.com

The discussion will be moderated by
Betty Wong, global managing editor, Reuters.

Get full details here.

New York Times starts consumer blog

According to Talking Biz News, The New York Times will be starting a consumer blog focusing on issues like consumer protection. Larry Ingrassia, business editor for The New York Times, announced the creation of the blog in response to a reader's comment that asked why the paper didn’t have a consumer column.
View the story here. To see Ingrassia's announcement, click here.

When business and free speech collide

The Wall Street Journal was the first to report on China's recent mandate requiring all new computers sold in the country to contain filters restricting citizens from viewing pornography and other online content it deems harmful.
China has long been notorious for its online censorship, using it to quash movements it opposes (like the freedom of Tibet) and obscure the darker parts of its history (like the Tienanmen Square massacre).
The New York Times wrote an article mentioning the impact this regulation will have on American computer companies including Dell, Lenovo and Hewlett-Packard. While the story explains that companies are still examining the regulation, the anonymous industry executives it quotes seem more concerned with how it will set back production than how it will curtail the liberties of others. Says one executive on the regulation:

“The wording may be intentionally vague but the message is clear: we have no choice in the matter,”

This seems to be a popular view of many technology companies working in China. Yahoo helped Chinese Internet police arrest a dissident Internet journalist in 2007 and Google has helped China censor its searches for years now.
While business journalists have examined the moral implications of these companies' business decisions, it still feels that many are pulling punches. Cooperation with China's censorship flies directly in the face of many of these companies' purported goals and self-sculpted images. Journalists shouldn't hesitate to pounce on that hypocrisy.
As a whole, business journalists should call businesses on it when their products do harm to those they're supposed to serve. It not only helps the journalist and their readership, but the companies in bettering themselves.
Business journalism should never forget to emphasize what companies sometimes forget; in the end, there is always a choice.
View the article here.

What do you think about the current accountability of companies aiding in China's censorship? Comment and let us know.

Last day to ask your questions

Today marks the last day that you can submit questions to John M. Geddes, managing editor of the New York Times.

Prior to working for the Times, Geddes has held posts at BIS Strategic Decisions, The Wall Street Journal and the A.P.-Dow Jones News Service.

Email your questions to askthetimes@nytimes.com.

Click here for more information.

GM bankruptcy: an opportunity?

The New York Times journalists Jack Healy and David Stout wrote an interesting piece today examining the positive spin the White House and General Motors Corp. are trying to put on the company's recent filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
Great analysis like this of how business events are framed by those involved will never fail to serve readers a healthy dose of perspective.
From the story:

"In Washington, Mr. Obama was more than halfway into a speech before he mentioned the word "bankruptcy” in the same breath with “G.M.” Fritz Henderson, the company’s chief executive, spoke for 20 minutes at a news conference before saying the b-word. And a press release from G.M. described the move as a 'fast track to competitive future.' "

View the story here.

GM chairman to resign, five GM directors to keep seats

General Motors Corp. Chairman Rick Wagoner is being forced to resign, according to The New York Times.
Five of G.M.'s 12 directors will keep their seats, according to The Wall Street Journal.
View the story here.
For a great overview of G.M., click here.

Need other information or resources? Comment on The Pulse and we will help get it for you.

Making lemonade out of newspaper dispensers

The New York Times recently ran a story on artists and entrepreneurs capitalizing on the newest casualties of the struggling news industry-newspaper and flyer dispensers.
The dispensers have been transformed into everything from flower planters to digital displays that show the front page morning news.
Perhaps media organizations should take the cue and think of ways to make their products and distribution more environmentally and socially beneficial.
View the story here.

What do you think about the dispenser makeovers? Comment and tell us!

GM bankruptcy resources

The Los Angeles Times has created a list of General Motors Corp. top 20 unsecured creditors with the type and amount of claims each has in G.M., a great resource for reporting how G.M. filing for bankruptcy will affect other organizations. It also has great graphics on the number of union workers at G.M. and G.M.'s global sales by region.
The New York Times also has enlightening multimedia on G.M.'s current predicament, including a timeline graphing G.M.'s history from 1908 to today chronicling its struggles and successes up to the Chapter 11. Its graph contrasting the amount of cars and trucks G.M. has been producing since the 1960s is also very insightful. A NYT map showing the number and locations of jobs the company has cut in the past two years helps show where plants may be closed and jobs may be lost in the aftermath of the bankruptcy filing.
Click here to see the most recent press releases from G.M.

Have other information or resources you'd like us to find for you? Comment and let us know.

NYT names first new media editor

The New York Times has named its first Social Media Editor.
Jennifer Preston, a journalist, author and adjunct professor at Columbia University, has been appointed to the job, according to reports from the technology news blog ReadWriteRead.
From the story:

Social media at newspapers doesn't have to be about promotion or damage control, it's also a real resource. "One thing I want to encourage more is writers responding to comments and using comments as a resource," Ingram says. "That's commenting 2.0, I think...One of the biggest things we need to do is identify and encourage members of the community who are thoughtful, intelligent, and produce comments of value -- encouraging them to contribute more, elevating what they do and suppressing some of the noise."

Wired: editorial success and ad failure

An article in today's The New York Times details the challenges faced by Chris Anderson, the editor in chief of Wired magazine.
On one hand, the magazine has been a success editorially under Anderson's leadership. Wired won three National Magazine Awards last month.
But the story details how the magazine has lost 50 percent of its ad pages this year, a number that ranks it "among the worst off of the more than 150 monthly magazines measured by Media Industry Newsletter. Only Portfolio, which Condé Nast shut down last month, and Power and Motoryacht fared worse."
To read the full story click here.

A reporter's credit crisis

Edmund Andrews, an economics reporter for The New York Times, offers a unique glimpse into his own credit nightmare.
Although Andrews knew the Federal Reserve well and wrote stories warning buyers about specific mortgages deals, he ended up stretching his finances beyond what he could afford.
Andrews story on his "personal credit crisis," offers an in-depth look at how he accumulated $805,700 in subprime debt by believing he could beat the odds.
Read the story here.

Times Wire launches on NYT homepage

TechCrunch reports that Times Wire, a new service which allows you to see New York Times articles, blog posts and stories by some wire services as they are placed on the web, is now available on the homepage of the paper's Web site.
Times Wire is updated every minute. In addition to a "Your News" section where readers can select the news they want to view, Business and Technology news also has its own section.
From the story:

Business and Technology is actually one of the sections that has its own tab right now, as the NYT clearly knows that tech lovers will probably be more interested in this than the average reader — at least right now. For all other sections, you can use the “Your News” area to filter the various sections of the site into your wire feed. There are also photos featured on the right hand side of the site, that you can click on to go to the story they pertain to.

News Corp. posts results; newspaper division hit hard

News Corporation released its first quarter results Thursday, showing an operating profit of $755 million, down 47 percent from the previous quarter.
The newspaper division, however, was hit particularly hard, according to The New York Times:

The company’s newspapers in particular had a dismal performance. Newspaper operating income fell to just $7 million for the quarter that ended March 31, from $216 million a year earlier. Advertising revenue at The Journal fell 33 percent. News Corporation took a large write-down for the quarter that ended Dec. 31 to reflect the decline in the value of The Journal.

Chairman Rupert Murdoch remained optimistic, saying, "It is increasingly clear that the worst is over... The days of precipitous declines are gone."
Murdoch also stated that at least some News Corp. outlets will begin to charge for content online soon, according to Editor & Publisher.

In a conference call with analysts and journalists after the release of the media and entertainment giant's quarterly results, Murdoch said The Wall Street Journal has proven newspapers can charge for online content.
Asked specifically if he envisioned charging readers for that content from his general interest newspapers such as The Times of London or The Sun, Murdoch replied, "We are absolutely looking at that. Very much so."

As for a general time frame, Murdoch said that some newspapers should begin charging within the next year.

Click here for the Times article, and here for the Editor & Publisher article.

Globe union and NYT reach deal

Early this morning, a tentative deal was reached between the New York Times Co. and The Boston Globe.
The Globe reports that the agreement includes "substantial pay cuts, unpaid furloughs, and modifications to the lifetime job guarantee provisions that protect almost 200 employees in the Boston Newspaper Guild."
From the story:

The Newspaper Guild was the last major union without a tentative agreement after more than a month of high-stakes bargaining to wring $20 million and major contract concessions.

The two sides began the bargaining session last night so far apart that the company had proposed what it called its "last, best offer," deeply slashing wages of guild members by 23 percent to gain the $10 million in concessions, according to union and management representatives with knowledge of the negotiations.

Times Co. will not close Boston Globe...yet

The New York Times is reporting that its parent, The New York Times Company, has reached a "tentative agreement" with several unions at The Boston Globe. While talks with the largest union "remain unresolved," the process of shutting down New England's largest daily has been postponed.

From the story:

In negotiations that went past the midnight deadline set by the company, deals were struck with the three unions representing more than 500 mailers, drivers and press operators. More than ever, the fate of the paper appears to turn on talks with the Boston Newspaper Guild, which represents more than 600 newsroom, advertising and business office workers. The company said it had also reached agreements with smaller unions representing machinists, electricians and other workers.

This, however, does not mean that the Globe is safe. If union members do not agree on certain concessions, the paper may be forced to close.

For more click here.

Washington Post Co. loses nearl $20 million in quarter

The Washington Post Company released its quarterly results Friday, which showed that the company lost $19.2 million in the quarter, according to The New York Times.

The newspaper division reported an operating loss of $54 million. And to punctuate that unit's decline, cable TV revenue overtook publishing for the first time. Now newspapers bring The Washington Post Co. less revenue than either cable or Kaplan education services, two units that have helped shield the company from the publishing industry's woes. The Washington Post Co. had seen nine straight quarters of declining profit before the loss this time around.

The year-over-year decline in revenue was due largely to a decrease in ad revenue of 33 percent, a figure that has not been uncommon for other large newspaper companies so far in 2009.
However, while most other companies are seeing online ad revenue increases in the general range of 10 percent, the Washington Post Co. posted an 8 percent loss in the category.
To read more, click here.

NY Times union tentatively agrees to pay cuts

The Newspaper Guild, which represents newsroom employees at The New York Times, has agreed in principle to a five percent pay cut on union employees, according to an article on the Times' website.

The company has said that the pay reduction would save $4.5 million and avert the elimination of about 80 jobs, mostly in the newsroom. But the union, in reaching the agreement, did not win assurances from the company that there definitely would not be layoffs through the end of the year. If employees are laid off during the period, however, severance packages would be paid based on employees’ salaries before the reduction.

Union members will vote on the pay cut next week. The move comes as the Times is looking for ways to save money after losing nearly $75 million in the first quarter of the year.
To read more, click here.

Circulation decline speeding up

Figures released by the Audit Bureau of Circulations show that newspaper circulation for the six months ending March 31 fell 7.1 percent, according to The New York Times.
That's an increase from the 4.3 percent and 3.6 percent drops over the previous two six-month periods.

Of the top 25 newspapers in the United States, all posted declines in circulation except for The Wall Street Journal, which eked out a 0.6 percent gain, according to figures released by the Audit Bureau of Circulations. For the others, the declines ranged from 20.6 percent for The New York Post, to a slight 0.4 percent drop for The Chicago Sun-Times.

The Audit Bureau also showed, however, that the number of unique visitors to newspaper websites is still increasing.
The sites combined to draw 73 million unique visitors per month in the first quarter of 2009, a year-over-year increase of 10.5 percent.
Click here to read more.

Average time spent declines for many in March

Among the top 30 newspaper websites in terms of unique monthly visitors, most saw a decline in the average time spent per visitor in March, according to Editor & Publisher.

The average time spent per person at the NYTimes.com dropped by six minutes in March 2009 compared to the same period a year ago. The NYTimes.com has some company: The Wall Street Journal lost more than five minutes March 2009. So did Politico.
In fact, just over half of the top 30 newspaper Web sites (ranked by uniques) experienced declines in the average time spent per person.

Some sites enjoyed large gains, however. Both The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Newsday improved by more than eight minutes.
The New York Times was overtaken in first place by the Star Tribune, which lost about thirty seconds to finish with an average of over 32 minutes.
While the news can be interpreted negatively from an advertising standpoint, it can also be a sign that the number of unique users is increasing, which is the case for some papers on the list.
To see the list and read more, click here.

New York Times considers charging for content

At its annual conference Thursday, New York Times Company Chairman Arthur Sulzberger Jr. said that The New York Times is considering charging for some content again, according to Editor & Publisher.

Sulzberger did not specify any particular business model, but suggested the Times would look again at trying to get paid for its content. For several years, the flagship paper charged international users to access its site, and for a few years charged for access to opinion columns and other contents in its Times Select program.

Sulzberger did not say that the paper would stop running ads online, a practice he characterized as extremely successful.
He offered no time frame for a potential move beyond a statement that more information would be available "at a future date."
Click here to read more.

Former publisher of the Chicago Sun-Times gets 29 months in prison

The New York Times reports that F. David Radler, former publisher of the Chicago Sun-Times, was sentenced to 29 months in prison and fined $250,000 for stealing millions from shareholders of Hollinger International.

Radler's partner Conrad Black was sentenced last week to 6 1/2 years in prision for his role in cheating shareholders out of $6 million.

''I'm sorry for what I've done,'' said Radler, 65, who had pleaded guilty to fraud and testified against Black in return for a reduced sentence.

To read the Times full report click here.

Time Warner hires media analyst

Time Warner hired Douglas Shapiro, a former stock picker for Banc of America Securities, to become the company's head investor, according to a New York Times report.
Shapiro will work under Jeffery L. Bewkes, who within the next few weeks will replace Richard D. Parsons as Time Warner's chief executive.
The report states that "Major changes are likely under Mr. Bewkes that could result in a breakup of the media giant, whose assets include the Warner Brothers movie studio, CNN, Time Inc. and AOL."
To read the story click here.

Snippets: Murdoch interviewed on Fox News

Shareholders approved News Corp's purchase of Dow Jones today. Rupert Murdoch then appeared on Fox News.

Snippets from the interview...

• He plans to develop international editions of The Wall Street Journal.

• In regard to competition with The New York Times: "We are a long way in front now."

• Despite the success of the WSJ.com paid subscriber model, Murdoch talks of making the site free saying they'll cover the subscription revenue by increasing total online circulation (viewers) resulting in greater online advertising revenue. More eyes, more ad dollars.
  

• On how to get young people reading newspapers again: "Make newspapers better and more exciting."

• On making articles shorter: Murdoch wants to "keep the paper busy." Perhaps break stories in parts, "guts on the front page" and the rest inside.

• On Fox Business Network: "It's going well." Dow Jones and Fox Business Network will help each other.

Murdoch also talked politics and shared views on the writers' strike and its impacts on the industry.

David Pogue now a CNBC contributor

David Pogue, a personal technology columnist for The New York Times, is joining CNBC as a contributor. Starting today, he will offer up tech talk and gadget reviews on CNBC's Business Day programming. Pogue is also an Emmy award-winning tech correspondent for CBS News and a prolific "how-to" writer with titles in the "For Dummies" series.

Read the full release here.

Internet access in flight

Several major airlines may soon allow passengers to log onto the Internet during their flights.
The New York Times reports that next week, JetBlue Airways will offer a free e-mail and instant messaging service on one aircraft, a first in the United States.
American Airlines, Virgin America and Alaska Airlines also plan to add more Web options in the next few months.
The report says the airlines’ goal is to turn their planes into the equivalent of a wireless hot spot once the aircraft reaches its cruising altitude.
To read the entire story click here.