I want to relate a story from two years ago about a missed opportunity at a 25,000-circulation daily newspaper.
I was talking with the top editors at this newspaper about my Web experience and some of my thoughts on what newspapers needed to do to make themselves more competitive on the Web. The question of money always arises, however.
How do we pay for this? Who funds research and development? How do we convince the publisher and owner to loosen the purse strings?
The editor in chief had an idea how to pay for some innovation at her paper. The problem was the owner. He didn’t see a need to spend money on the Web.
Contrary to popular belief, working for a family-owned newspaper is not always better than working for a corporate one. The owner, an older gentlemen, had decided his paper needed a new printing press — a $20 million facility.
The editor in chief suggested that he make some sacrifices with the printing press and instead divert some of that money to R&D for the Web site. She reasoned that even $500,000 — 1/40th of the money — would make a big difference at their modest newspaper.
She was unable to persuade the owner to spend some money on R&D for new media. That was in 2006, when the industry was in considerably better shape.
I bet the owner really regrets that decision now. And I’m sure the editor in chief realizes what a massive missed opportunity that was.
In 2006, the housing market was booming in the Cleveland area, but since then the housing market has collapsed and the economy has been hit hard. Now that paper — like papers all over the country — are forced with hard decisions on what to cut to bring expenses down.
It’s tough to justify spending money on R&D when many papers have to make drastic cuts, especially in an area like the Web, where newspapers traditionally have not made much money, if any at all. The economy will get better, and ad revenue will climb again.
The best time to invest in the future is when things are going well. Don’t expect the good times to last forever. Many newspapers did nothing until things got really bad.
Things will get better. And when profit margins are their fatest, we should invest the most in the future. Let’s learn from the past to make the future better.
We have to learn from our mistakes, or else we’re doomed to repeat them.