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Another Media Business Model Broken – Free Newspapers --- Philip M. Stone February 18, 2009
Metro International’s announcement that it is calling a special shareholders meeting for Feb.24 to authorize a $65 million rights issue because it has basically run out of working cash is just one very visible sign that free newspapers even with their very low advertising rates are not immune from today’s economic gloom.

Reporter To Tribune Publisher Sam Zell: “How Is The Ad Market Going To Hold Up This Year?” Zell: “What Ad Market?” --- Philip M. Stone July 1, 2008
“What ad market?” just about sums it up on both sides of the Atlantic. And with all the downsizing in the editorial news hole the way forward seems to be “What can we afford to publish every day?” It’s just getting tougher than ever to get out “The Daily Miracle” as publisher Terry Egger of The Cleveland Plain Dealer called it in a letter to subscribers Sunday explaining why their paper was changing so much this week.

Here’s More Examples Of What ‘New Business Plans’ Are Doing to Newspapers --- Philip M. Stone June 26, 2008
The popular line from newspaper publishers these days is that employees must come to terms with 'new business plans' necessary for print’s survival. So, in what is fast becoming practically a weekly ftm feature we highlight below what publishers have been up to recently.

The Economic Reality that Free Newspapers Are Not Free To Produce Finally Takes Roost As Metro International Accepts Minority Partners For Two Of Its Successful Nordic Papers --- Philip M. Stone May 23, 2008
The strategy was simple – if you want to attract the young reader then publish a free newspaper catering to their specific needs and wants, and if someone else in your market has the same idea then just throw more and more money at it. Now after millions of whatever currency you care to name has been lost on such ventures, a wiser business model is gaining some traction -- consolidation.

End of The Line For The Capital Times Broadsheet --- Philip M. Stone April 28, 2008
Can a daily broadsheet newspaper transform itself into two 48-page weekly tabloids -- one concentrating on news and opinion weekly and the other emphasizing entertainment and culture, and transform its web site to be the daily carrier of news?

Time Magazine’s 2007 Business Model Changes Were a Great Financial Success But There Was a Serious Blip – Subscription and Newsstand Sales Took A Dive. --- Philip M. Stone February 14, 2008
Time Magazine Editor Richard Stengel boasted to the Direct Marketing Association (DMA) this week that 2007 was the second most profitable year in the magazine’s history, not something you hear too often from a media executive these days, and it must have been especially pleasing to employees who the year before were going through continuous culls.

Here’s Another New Newspaper Business Model: Close The Daily PM Tabloid On Monday With No Warning, Fire The 90 Staff, And On Thursday Start Publishing a Free Metro With Most Of Editorial Based Outside Your City --- Philip M. Stone February 13, 2008
Here’s how they closed the Halifax Daily News: “I have worked for this paper for 18 years through various owners, and you don’t expect when you are coming in on a Monday morning that there will be strange guys you haven’t seen before with their hands folded and looking very stern and telling you to go into the executive boardroom. Then you know it’s done.”

A New Newspaper Business Model: Switch From Being A Six Times Weekly PM Paid Broadsheet To A Twice Weekly Free Tabloid And Put The Real Daily News Effort, With Fewer Journalists, Onto The Web Site --- Philip M. Stone February 12, 2008
As newsrooms continue to shrink their editorial staff as part of their “new business models”, some of the new ways of doing things are becoming clearer. Like paid-for daily newspapers no longer being daily, nor paid-for, and their use of paper lessens.

Publishers Around The World Should Study Closely The Tampa Tribune’s New Business Plan – It’s Making All Of The Cost Adjustments Metropolitan Newspapers Must Fulfill In The New Media Age While Positioning Itself As Tomorrow’s Leading Multiplatform Hyper-Local News Force --- Philip Stone April 12, 2007
Too often newspapers announce various cost cuts coupled with some idol talk about increasing digital revenues, but not with much of an implementation plan. Which is why publishers everywhere need to take a look at the Tampa (Florida) Tribune’s announcement this week of combining “Out With The Old” with a solid plan “To Bring In the New?” It may just be the recipe to save metropolitan newspapers.

Digital Media Still About Business Models --- Michael Hedges February 21, 2011 Follow on Twitter
Digital development within media organizations seems to pass through four stages. The first response was to ignore it and maybe it would go away. The second was to loath it and maybe it would die. The third, now present, is to challenge it and maybe it can be controlled.

Is There Any Such Thing Any More As The Newspaper Business? --- Philip M. Stone October 7, 2010 Follow on Twitter
Today’s column is dedicated to all of you who are sick and tired of pundits pontificating that newspapers are dead. It is required reading for those still trying to figure out how newspapers will survive. And it comes from a publisher who has worked and schemed through the hell of the newspaper downturn.

The Profitable Newspaper Business Model -- Less Readers Paying More --- Philip M. Stone July 28, 2010 Follow on Twitter
Tucked away in the Q2 results from A.H. Belo was that circulation revenue now accounts for 29% of the newspaper company’s total revenue. And management is eyeing even more price increases with the goal of getting circulation and advertising revenues near equal.

Has Solving The Newspaper Crisis Really Come Down To This: “If I Could Do Anything, Literally Anything, To Reverse It – I’d Saw Off My Right Forearm – I Would” – UK National Newspaper Editor --- Philip M. Stone Novermber 26, 2008
The editor of the UK’s Independent national newspaper describes market conditions as “horrific” because “the combination of free newspapers, free content on the Internet, coupled with this most astounding recession, makes it a very, very inhospitable time for newspapers.”

What If Newspaper Executives Have It Wrong And What Ails The Industry Is Not Just Cyclical But A Sure Sign The Business Model Needs Changing --- Philip M. Stone Novermber 19, 2008
A common thought among senior newspaper executives is that most of the financial problems affecting the newspaper industry today are cyclical – the economy gets better and most of what financially ails newspapers will get better, too. But what if they are wrong?

Baseball May Be ‘America’s Pastime But To US Newspapers These Days It’s Just A Cost Center --- Philip M. Stone April 16, 2009 Follow on Twitter
Newspaper readers are not stupid; they recognize editorial cutbacks when they see them – they may not always complain but they know what is going on -- which is why the Washington Post has had to come clean on its baseball coverage cutbacks.

The Front Page – Does Survival Overtake Editorial Policies? --- Philip Stone April 14, 2009 Follow on Twitter
There was a hue and cry from the Los Angeles Times’ newsroom last week because the newspaper sold, for six figures, a L-shaped front page ad in which half looked like editorial copy, and the other half a display ad. The journalists said what the publisher did was sacrilegious to the newspaper’s traditions. The publisher says the newspaper needed the cash. Who’s right?