Next up: Chicago Tribune

Netflix is an interesting case study with the way they were basically willing to blow up their first business model -- which was a really good one for that moment in history -- and transition to a second....Would anyone in newspapers have had the courage to do something similar in, say, 1995? Probably not, because you're talking about a really cushy, decades-long monopoly for most newspaper owners, often with entrenched, unionized staff. They didn't have a lot of experience in being "nimble."

But who's to say it would have worked even if they had tried something radical? Maybe the best answer was simply to get out while the getting was good. And remember that there was a wave of family owners who did just that, selling to corporations for top dollar during the early 2000s. Maybe they're not as dumb as we think.

 

Some people are really good at running their (single) business.

Others can adapt on the fly and even --- to paraphrase Reggie White --- go from making televisions to watches.

Still others can actually invent new things, new products, new revenue streams.

And the rarest can even see what the next few years will bring and get a foot in the door before anyone else.

Newspaper execs by and large happen to belong to the first group --- which also happens to be by far the most populated group among business execs.

 

Knight-Ridder execs look like geniuses in hindsight.

 

They wouldn't have been able to do much around 1995 or so, because the Internet was still that weird thing that computer nerds could access if they typed in a bunch of codes until they heard a phone dial and buzz static (says I, a guy who started accessing it in 1994 and kicks myself for not having enough money from his early newspaper jobs to buy stock in Microsoft, Apple, etc.)

By 2005, though, there really wasn't much excuse. It was pretty obvious that the Internet was here to stay, yet, there were still executives who were either more worried about counting how many minorities were quoted in the paper (cough, Gannett, cough), or were blowing it off because papers will always remain because nobody could access the Internet while sitting on the toilet.

 

Not even seemingly forward-thinking, tech-savvy companies can always keep up.

When was the last time you saw a BlackBerry?

 

I'd love to go back to a time when everyone had a Blackberry.

 

I'm glad I no longer have to somehow find a way to open up the thing protecting the scrolling ball, carefully clean it out and then somehow put that piece back in place. And you think clearing out your charging port was bad...

 

My wife got me a retro keyboard. Only drawback is an occasional sticking key. I have to remove it, swab some rubbing alcohol around the connections, then put it back.

 

Remember when we worried about dirty mouse balls?

 

I use a track ball mouse, and I'm still dealing with regularly cleaning the ball.

 

How do you get their little legs apart?

 

Another kind of loss for the Tribune.