Blog Business Summit on media future

Blog Business Summit: "In the article Why Newspapers Aren’t Dead And How Print Needs to Evolve, the Wall Street Journal interviewed Gary B. Pruitt who is CEO of McClatchy Co. which owns 12 daily and 17 nondaily newspapers. Here is what was said about the challenges they are facing, and how they plan to deal with them.

Listed in the piece are these market facts:

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The average daily circulation for newspapers reporting slumped 1.9% for the six-month period ended March, 31.
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Newspapers face increasing competition from news outlets that weren’t around 20 years ago, including 24-hour cable news channels and the Internet.
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Restrictions such as do-not-call lists are making it harder for newspapers to sell subscriptions.
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The barriers to entry for competitors are less, and there are many more classified companies that can compete.

What is Pruitt’s plan for success? Here is what he says (emphasis mine):

“In many ways tailored niche products will be the key to newspapers success online, because more targeted online offerings can supplement the mass reach of the print product. As we learn more about our online users through registration, we are able to tailor content to their interests and sell more targeted advertising to them. And of course advertisers are willing to pay a higher rate, if they know their advertising message is going to an audience already interested in their product or service… we are blogging everything from pop music to politics on our sites. We are expanding into community-based services and grassroots journalism. As a result of this multifaceted innovation in our Internet operations, we would expect that there would be successful business models to support niche products.”

Niche, targeted, advertising, grassroots… Blogs."