Another good one to Yahoo

What do you think The Record will do? Do they have anyone to promote from within?

 

My exec. editor predicted today that our newspaper chain will be primarily a digital media company in five years.

 

Hadn't read him much. I like the feel of newsprint in my hands when I'm in New York, and the Record isn't in the pile. Been missing out, judging from the 4-5 more recent pieces I just read.

He is gifted. Uses words beautifully without overdoing it like some of those "effin studs" out there who spend a little too much time showing off their vocabularies, and makes his point without going in circles. If he's ripping someone, he has logic to back him up. Good luck to him. I'll definitely look for more.

 

Hmmmmm ... not sure you're reading me right here. I don't think the print product should be eliminated. I just don't think they are mutually exclusive like some of the oldsters in the business like to make them. I have worked with guys who roll their eyes when they're told that "We need to get this on the Web."

I guess I just wish that instead of dismissing their Web competition (Rivals.com, Yahoo! now, etc., etc.), more people in power would try to learn from them - we always said newspapers were safe because people can't take a computer in the bathroom. Well now you can. And - this is something we didn't think of, I guess - you can't read a newspaper all day at work without anybody knowing.

 

I heard Yahoo pays a big sum, no benefits. Is that true?

 

Wojnarowski's takes on big national events were always good. He's one of the few sports writers I look forward to reading.

 

The turnaround for newspapers comes online, and it comes when online managers and editors are in charge and the old-guard print managers and editors adapt before their shells are cast aside.

 

of course it's a different environment. yahoo! makes tons of money. fox sports and cnn/si were bleeding money. you can be pretty sure that the guys yahoo hired checked this stuff out, too since it's not like they were unaware of what happened five years ago.

 

I hear that Woj's deal is for very nice bucks, but no bennies...and a 4-year contract.

 

A contract is an interesting concept for a sports writer. It probably comes standard with a buyout or a company termination clause, in case the Web site dies. Many newspaper folks nowadays would love such an assurance.

But I don't understand the absence of a benefits package. Is this a practice common among online positions? I suppose I don't get why, if they throw gobs of money at candidates, that something as simple as benefits would not be part of the deal.

 

Amen.

And why don't we layoff advertising lazy-asses who sit on the phone and do nothing but maintain a news hole to ad balance, and in doing so, limit the entire product?

 

That's rather ignorant. My dad was a newspaper ad man. I grew up with his ad colleagues coming over to play cards. I heard them talk shop, I heard how they love newspapers, I heard them argue over the paper's content, I heard them express admiration for the nearby newspapers that were better than theirs and disdain for the nearby newspapers that were worse. They fully understood our role. We'd go on vacation and my dad would buy every paper available. It's how I developed my love for newspapers in the first place. Seriously, man, we are in this together. It is necessary to understand that sometimes our interests will conflict, but you do yourself no good by stereotyping people that way.