Black and white and thinner all over

The amazing shrinking newspaper.

The Tribune newspapers are moving to a 44-inch web which translates to an 11-inch broadsheet page. 11 inches.

The Chicago Tribune and Los Angeles Times are soon to be less than a foot-wide.

The industry norm lately has been 12 inches, down from an industry standard of 13.5 inches until just a few years ago.

So, 13.5 minues 11 inches. 1.5 inches along the length of 21 inches. That's losing a solid story on every page.

How much of that loss comes from the business sections? How many business sections have lost a day a week or even two? Is your work going online anyway or are you being asked to write less?

Chomp into the restaurant and beverage industry

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution is seeking a full-time journalist in Georgia.
The reporter would cover the beverage and restaurant industry, focusing heavily on the Atlanta-based
Coca-Cola Co. and its subsidiary companies. The journalist will delve into many aspects of Coke, including:

• The company's new leadership.
• The challenges Coca-Cola faces as it globally expands.
• Coke's consumer marketing and marketing trends.
• Coca-Cola's corporate community involvement.
  
• The health debate over Coca-Cola and other sodas.
• Other beverage companies and their impact on Coke.
  

The journalist will also cover the restaurant industry through breaking news, features and trend stories. Atlanta-based national brands like Arby's, Chick-fil-A, Hooters, Popeyes, Waffle House and Wendy's will all be included in the writer's beat.
Applicants should have at least five years' experience as a business reporter for a major daily newspaper or similar organization and a background in breaking news. They should also be skilled in working in the print and digital sides of a publication and be adept in multimedia. Applicants with a college degree will be preferred in the application process.

Discover more about the job and apply online here.

Aim for The Star-Tribune

The Star-Tribune wants an assistant managing business editor to add to its newsroom in Minnesota.
The editor will lead the business team of reporters and editors to produce breaking news, beat and trend coverage, projects and investigations for the business section, Page 1, other paper sections and the Web. The selected candidate will work with staff to create content and multimedia across multiple platforms. Job reviews, budgeting and spending will also be overseen by the editor.
Applicants should have a thorough understanding of business and previous leadership experience. They should also have a background in developing enterprise and strong collaborative ability.
To apply, e-mail your resume and a letter saying why you are the right candidate by Oct. 30 to Managing Editor for Operations Duchesne Drew at ddrew@startribune.com. You can also mail your application to:

Duchesne Drew
Managing Editor for Operations/Recruitment
Star Tribune
425 Portland Ave.
Minneapolis, MN, 55488

Click here to learn more about the job.

IMAGE CREDIT: twincities.bizjournals.com

Break banking news in Nashville

The Nashville Business Journal is looking for a full-time banking reporter in Tennessee.
The journalist will pen breaking news and features on banking and finance. His or her coverage will focus on current upheaval in the industries and the Troubled Asset Relief Program. The journalist will also attend industry events.
Candidates should have previous experience working for a newspaper and a strong understanding of banking and finance. They should also demonstrate an ability to work with others to create strong news content.

To apply, send a resume and work samples to Editor Lance Williams at lawilliams@bizjournals.com.

Read more about the job and apply online here.

Cover courts and business in Florida

The Daily Business Review is looking for a full-time reporter in Miami, Florida.
The reporter will cover the business, political and ethical issues of the state court, writing a mixture of enterprise, investigative and analytic articles.
Applicants should be skilled in cultivating sources, breaking new stories and finding and understanding legal documents.
Candidates will be expected to be comfortable with online/multimedia reporting and should have previous experience reporting for a daily publication or covering the law.
To learn more and apply online, visit here.

Innovate for the Web in an intimate newsroom

The Daily Record in Baltimore, Maryland is looking for a full-time journalist to join its 25-person newsroom and lead its Web team.
The journalist will:

• Select, edit and post content to the Record's site
  
• Supervise a multimedia reporter
• Coordinate the publication's bloggers
• Create a overreaching plan for the Record's Web operations
• Develop and implement the newspaper's online marketing strategy

To apply, e-mail your resume and cover letter with "Web Editor--JJC" as the subject line to Vice President and Executive Editor Tom Linthicum at TomLinthicum@mddailyrecord.com.

To learn more about the position, visit here.

Become the premier business blogger/columnist for The Florida Times-Union

The Florida Times-Union is looking for a business columnist and blogger in Jacksonville.
The newspaper's community offers a wide range of areas for the blogger/columnist to cover, including its major port, financial center, large commerce center and NFL team. In addition to blogging on business, the writer will be expected to interact with readers through the blog and Times-Union Web site and break new stories. The selected candidate will be Times-Union's premier business columnist.
Candidates should have a bachelor's degree and previous experience writing on finance or business.
To apply, send your clips and your resume in Microsoft Word to tujobs@jacksonville.com with "FL-TU" and the job position in the subject line. You can also fax your resume to 904-359-4076 or mail it to:

The Florida Times-Union
Attn: Human Resources
One Riverside Ave Jacksonville, FL 32202

View the job posting here.

IMAGE CREDIT: jacksonville.com

Cover personal finance in Abu Dhabi

The National is looking for a staff writer to help fill its broadsheet in Abu Dhabi.
The journalist will be the lead reporter of the paper's Personal Finance section, writing a diverse range of general finance stories, investigative pieces, columns and online content.
Applicants should have experience in covering personal finance. Candidates should also be familiar with finance, markets and economics. Familiarity with the UAE is a plus. To apply, e-mail your curriculum vitae, cover letter and clips to James Brock at jbrock@thenational.ae with "Personal Finance" in the subject line.
Learn more about the job and apply online here.

IMAGE CREDIT: thenational.ae

Write for MIT's news office

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology News Office is looking for a full-time reporter at its office in Cambridge.
The journalist will cover the business, humanities and arts beat. He or she will cover MIT research and teaching through spot news, profiles, trend stories and features. The reporter will be responsible for creating three story ideas and writing at least three stories a week, each around 600 words long. The writer will also propose multimedia to accompany stories.
Applicants should have a bachelor's degree and at least five years' experience in a news environment.

To apply, visit here and search for job number mit-00006477. A cover letter is required.

View the job listing here.

Google thought about buying a newspaper

In an interview with the Financial Times, Eric Schmidt, chairman and chief executive officer of Google said that the technology giant has considered purchasing a newspaper, www.ft.com reported today.
Schmidt elaborated that Google has since decided against an acquisition or charitable donation to avoid a conflict of interest.
From the article:

"'Clever ideas about sheltering newspapers in non-profit structures had been suggested to the Google.org foundation but they are unlikely to happen without some massive, massive set of corporate bankruptcies”, Mr Schmidt said.

View the full story here.

Tucson Citizen ceases its print publication Saturday

Arizona's oldest paper, the Tucson Citizen, will cease it's print publication after Saturday's edition.
The paper reports that the Citizen's Web site will continue, but will be modified as an opinion site, eliminating news and sports reporting.
Gannett, the company which owns the Citizen, searched for a buyer for the paper and for the last month employees waited for the results of negotiations.
Ultimately, no buyers were found.
Employees will be informed today if they will be laid off, kept on staff for a transitional basis or hired full time.
To read the full story click here.

E.W. Scripps profit falls 88% in quarter

E.W. Scripps released first quarter results Monday which showed an 88% year-over-year decline in its newspaper division profits, according to Editor & Publisher.
Like most other publishers in the country, Scripps' overall newspaper ad revenue was down significantly. However, the company also posted a loss in online ad revenue:

Online revenue plummeted 26.5% to $7.3 million because of the weakness in print classified advertising, which accounts for 55% of online advertising revenue. Stripping out online ads tied to print, Scripps reported that online revenue from "pure-play" advertisers was up 30% to $3.4 million.

Much of the operating losses the company reported were one-time losses such as those related to the closing of the Rocky Mountain News. However, president and CEO Richard Boehne said that the second quarter looks like it will have results similar to those of the first quarter.
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.

McClatchy hit hard by 1st quarter ad revenue

McClatchy Co. announced its first quarter results Thursday, and reported a drop in advertising revenue of just under 30 percent, according to Editor & Publisher.
Overall losses also exceeded analysts' expectations:

McClatchy reported a loss of $37.7 million, or 45 cents a share, from a loss of $993,000, or 1 cent a share, in the first quarter of 2008. Adjusted for certain items, such as severance payments from a wave of layoffs, the loss from continuing operations was $22.9 million, or 28 cents a share. The consensus of analysts had been for an 11-cent loss per share.

In more positive news, print revenue increased slightly, and when employment advertising is excluded, digital advertising was up 28.7 percent.
Click here to read more.

Crain launches its first business newspaper outside of the states

Crain Communication Inc. launched its first city business newspaper outside of the United States today, according to How-Do, a site that covers the media industry in the North West of England.

The weekly paper is called, Crain’s Manchester, a new venture that adds to the company's business publications in New York, Chicago, Detroit and Cleveland. Crain’s claims the publication will be the first city business weekly of its kind in Western Europe, according to the story.

The paper's Web site, http://www.crainsmanchesterbusiness.co.uk/, was also launched today.

To read the report click here.

Tribune's revenue down

The Tribune Company is reporting a drop in revenues for November. Publishing revenues were down 3.5 percent. Advertising revenues also took a hit, with much of the newspaper division hit by a 26.2 percent drop in classified advertising revenues.
According to the release, "Real estate fell 39.8 percent with the most significant declines in Chicago, the Florida markets, and Los Angeles. Help wanted declined 28.4 percent and automotive decreased 7.6 percent."
On a positive note: publishing operating expenses decreased in large part because of lower newsprint, compensation and marketing cash expenses.
For the full breakdown and short-term plans/projections, click here.

Approval likely for Wall Street Journal sale

The Wall Street Journal reports that a count of proxy votes indicates Dow Jones shareholders will approve a News Corp. takeover tomorrow.
Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. has offered to buy the company for more than $5 billion, which would end the Bancroft family long ownership of the newspaper.
For the full report click here.

SFGate launches new online business page

The San Francisco Chronicle launched a new business page on its site SFGate.com.
Packed with blogs, breaking news and a section focused on small business, the paper said it also plans to increase its business news posts throughout the day.
The page's design make it easier for visitors to find content on topics like Real Estate and inside the paper's five business columns.
To check out the new site click here.

Partners: International Herald Tribune and Reuters

The International Herald Tribune's financial section will have a updated feel next month, changes that stem from a new partnership with Reuters.
The daily business section of IHT.com and the print editions will be renamed Business with Reuters and will publish news from both organizations, according to reports from the International Herald Tribune.
The agreement replaced the papers' partnership with Bloomberg, which since 2002 has worked with the International Herald Tribune's financial sections.
Executive Editor Michael Oreskes said the project could spark even broader cooperation in the future.
To read the full story click here.