Time Inc. cuts 6% of workforce

By:Chris Mars

http://tinyurl.com/yjokugm

The magazine industry seems to continue to fall as Time Inc. announced it will cut 6% of its workforce in a recent New York Times article. Cutting 6% of its workforce calculates to about 600 people. As recent as 2007 the company which produces magazines like Time Sports Illustrated and People was doing as much as $5 million. This year they're down to about $3.7 million and have cut $800 million in costs.

This is obviously bad news for a major company in the business and the future doesn't look much brighter. Recently, they have shut down magazines like Cottage Living and Southern Accents and Life, two very repectable magazines.

Will the magazine undustry bounce back or are we seeing the decline of a major medium?

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Forbes Magazine Plans More Layoffs

By Laura Reid

Forbes Magazine is laying off employees, mainly editorial and business staff members, from the company due to decreased advertising revenue.

Steve Forbes, the chief executive and editor-in-chief of the magazine, announced that because of the recession, more jobs had to be cut from his company. 100 employees lost their jobs last year, and many others had to take five days of unpaid leave and their 401(k) program would not be matched by their company. It is not the magazine readership that is suffering, however, those numbers have stayed the same, but its the number of ad pages that are down 32.5 percent in the third quarter.

This is just another news source that is taking a major hit in its company because of the economy and slowed advertising sales. But I don't think these lack of newspaper and magazine sales should constantly be targeted. While they are big newspaper companies that are losing business, I don't think we hear a lot about advertising agencies, who are the main culprit. Where are ads making their money? They can't make it through newspapers because not many people read them. Magazines are more promising because people do still read them for entertainment, but TiVo-like TV systems are allowing for more people to skip through the commercials. Should we stop worrying about the news and magazines for a minute and start focusing our attentions on ad agencies?

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First Readers, Now Advertisers

By Tessa Leone

Today at 11:25 the Wall Street Journal closed it's Boston Bureau. After an advertising slump that has newspapers reeling, Wall Streets editor Robert Thomson announced to employees that "The economic background for the closure is painfully obvious to us all".

Low numbers regarding advertising are the main contributor for the closure. With less readers, many advertisers are seeking other forms of communication. Although the paper was the only one of the top 25 U.S. newspapers to increase its weekly circulation, those numbers werent enough to counter balance the lack of advertisements.

The Boston coverage will now switch to the papers Money and Investing division in New York. Although there are no plans to close any other Wall Street bureaus at this time the forecast for print media in general does not look good, but this is not new news.

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Women in Sports Journalism

By Zach Jevne

The world of organized athletics and sports journalism is still dominated by men, but there are a number of women that have reached the top of the profession.

In the early 1970s, The Associated Press estimated that only 25 women worked in the sports department of U.S. newspapers and only five worked in sports broadcasting. Today, around 10 percent of the sports media industry is women.

Christine Brennen graduated from Northwestern's Medill School of Journalism in 1980. She has been a pioneer for women in the industry, paving a way for women to be accepted in the press box.

After earning her master's, she became the first female sports writer at The Miami Herald, covering the Miami Hurricanes football team during its championship season in 1984.

Brennen has twice been named one of the nation's top 10 sports columnists by the Associated Press. She currently has a weekly column in USA Today, an accomplishment that many would consider the pinnacle of the profession.

Brennen said her career in journalism has been the "world's greatest adventure." She stresses that sports journalism is a people business and women have to work twice as hard to get on the good side of those around them.

It's noted that although equal treatment of women in sports is not evolving as rapidly as the rest of the journalism world, change is happening. One thing needed in the future is to remove the label of "female" from sports reporter.

People will still have stereotypes and assumptions about women in sports journalism, but hard work and professional behavior can overcome others misperceptions.

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Reshaping the Business Model

By Ryan Franker

The San Fransisco Chronicle has figured out a way in making a profit with the newspaper. The Chronicle believes that changing their business model is what helped their change. They had such a horrible decline in daily subscription last year, but with the changes that were made they were able to make up for it.

The changes the Chronicle did, were offering fewer discounts on subscriptions, and stopped delivering the newspapers to homes that made no economic sense in delivering it to that house. Their subscription rate jumped from $4.75 to $7.75 within 18 months. The Chronicle has the largest circulation in the Bay Area.

With the Chronicle's subscription rate up, the newspaper was able to make changes that would benefit them in the long run. The Chronicle is planning on switching the normal newspaper paper to the glossy magazine type paper, it will be the first newspaper to switch to that kind of paper in the country. The paper is also making a new section in the paper called Ovations, it will be for arts and culture.

It is hard to tell which path to take, because each city is different and will take a different approach to it. The Chronicle was lucky that the approach they took, the people liked and were able to give them money back to enhance the readers papers.

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Free News for Younger Readers

By Taylor Finch

Newspapers today have been on the decline for a while, and are desperate to find an answer to put them back on the map as soon as possible.

France is trying out a new plan by giving away free papers to young readers in attempts to turn them into customers. The government named the project "My Free Newspaper," in which 18-to-24-year-olds would be given a free year's subscription to a newspaper of their choice.

This project is just one of many other projects that the government is doing, including financial subsidies to newspapers, to help cure the problems of the newspaper industry.

These problems, such as advertising slumps and the Internet being the primary hub for news today, are especially bad in France. According to the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers in Paris, only half as many papers are sold in comparison to Britain or Germany.

France is particularly lacking young readers, so this project is offering about 60 publications that they can choose from, including the Paris-based International Herald Tribune, the global edition of The New York Times.

Costs of the project are being split by the participating newspapers and the state, with the government giving $22.5 million over the course of three years.

Some believe that this is a bad time for newspapers to not be receiving revenue from readers, but maybe this could influence the younger readers who already read and buy newspapers to influence others to do the same.

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Protests arise after special on Latinos

By Brianna Carlson

This week CNN showed a four-hour documentary about Latinos. Activist groups are now trying to get Lou Dobbs fired because they think Dobbs has been lying for years about this issue.

Dobbs is a veteran anchor on the 7 p.m. show for the news channel. He has strong views against immigration.

"Latino in America" had it's first show Wednesday night. Protestors were saying Dobbs has been lying about immigration.

Isabel Garcia, a civil rights lawyer, and a randomly picked activist were interviewed for the documentary, but both of their comments about Dobbs were edited out of the show.

Garcia commented that by showing Dobbs show CNN was “promoting lies and hate about our community." This comment did not make the documentary.

A CNN spokeswoman said "Latino in America" was just trying to show both the successes and challanges Latinos are going through. One of the issues did include illegal immigration.

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New Strategy for NBC

By: Amy Johnson

NBC's Universal Television Entertainment chairman Jeff Gaspin recently announced that the network would not be producing programs to profit margins.

The network is trying something different than most networks have done. Their new idea is that a network does not have to spend a hefty profit on a show; by producing a show that is really cheap and easy to make, a big profit can still be made in their time slots.

While NBC is producing cheap shows, competing networks are soaking up the ratings but is paying for expensive sitcoms. Those sitcoms may be getting stellar numbers, but they are also affecting the network's profit margin negatively.

An example of NBC's new idea was when they moved “Jay Leno” to nine o' clock. NBC has yet to see if this plan has worked as Leno hasn't discovered its ratings resting point quite yet; baseball playoff programming on Fox and TBS have taken away some of his viewers.

This move may prove to be very smart on NBC's part; by lowering the costs of producing shows, NBC's budget will not see as big of a blow. The question is how will viewers take to these changes? Most well-liked sitcoms are ones that have been around for a few years and cost more to produce. If more networks go to this idea, many viewer's favorite shows could be canceled.

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Teens continue to fein for Facebook and misinterpret Twitter

By Michelle Zimmerman

Web 2.0 Summit questioned 5 teens last week on their views of the Internet. The teens' ages ranged from 15 to 18. The teens were questioned on what they found important on the Internet and things that would change the efficiency as they used it.

The majority of the teens felt that Facebook was the most exciting thing they did on the Internet. It is an easy way to connect with friends and reduces the use of Skype and iChat because they can now use the messenger feature Facebook offers.

When asked about Twitter they replied they did not see the point in posting what seemed to them as irrelevant information. It is thought that teens do not understand the use of Twitter because instead of using it as a social networking device, people are using it as another way to expedite news as fast as they can.

Though Facebook was a favorite of the teens when asked if there was a small cost to use the website all of the teens replied that they would not use the it anymore because there would be other options on the Internet that would allow them to do it for free.

Another questioned asked was what search engine the teens used. As usual the teens replied with Google aside from one teen who said Yahoo gave them the answers they were always looking for. When using Google multiple websites that match your search appear where as the Yahoo search engine is more technical and allows for users to post websites and answers that may best fit someone's question.

It is not surprising that these 5 teens answered the way they did. As the Internets' popularity continues to grow across the world, we will continue to see a rise in the media shown on websites. Teens are the most current with this trend because it has been occurring throughout their entire generation. Teens will continue to use Facebook as long as it remains free because it is the easiest and cheapest way to stay socially connected with their friends.

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NBC wants change

By: Mallory Tandy

Jeff Gaspin the NBC Universal Television Entertainment chairman shocked hollywood on Thursday when he announced that the network wouldn't be showing programs to profit margins. This means shows such as Jay Leno.

NBC wants to become number one again and not be at number four. They plan on doing this by bringing back scripted programs that will top the charts. Some have doubts that NBC will be able to do this when the famous Jay Leno is at number ten on the charts right now. Some say it will take the network years to work their way back up.

I think the network is trying to figure out what will work for them in the end to help them succeed. Is what they are doing a good idea?

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Private Pages, Not So Private?

By Keri Waterhouse

The Net neutrality supporters may celebrate the Federal Communications Commission’s vote on Thursday to start open internet regulations. The regulations aren’t written yet, but already having Congressional opposition and they’re probably going to be challenged in court.

The voters at the FCC for proposing getting the new rules protected to an open internet wasn’t anything when John McCain introduced legislation last Thursday morning. He wanted to block the agency from regulation the internet. He thought it would hurt the job market.

McCain said, "Today I'm pleased to introduce the Internet Freedom Act of 2009 that will keep the Internet free from government control and regulation.” He thought that it would allow for continued innovation that might in turn create more high-paying jobs for Americans who are out of work or looking for new employment. Maybe even keeping businesses free from oppressive regulations, and that it’s the best stimulus for the current economy.

The FCC voted on proposing the start for creating regulations that will keep the internet open. It will forbid any operators from restricting access to lawful internet contents, services, and applications. Networks also wouldn’t be able to discriminate other internet content or applications.

I think that by having open internet would make some people feel like their private lives would be open to the public. Being able to block people, share certain information with people, or even just selecting who can and can’t see things on Facebook makes the network more appealing and safe.

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News media challenging sealed filings in Utah case

By Laura Reid

The News media is fighting to open files sealed by the courts so that the press could not access them. These files deal with the mental competency of Brian David Mitchell, the abductor in the Elizabeth Smart case.

The courts sealed these documents, some of them without telling the press that they would be sealed, so that it would prevent the press from gathering more information on the case.

Michael O'Brien, the attorney in this case, believes that these files are in the public interest, and should not be sealed to the press. The press, he says, is the middle man for court proceedings for the public because not everyone is able to make it inside the court rooms.

This is definitely a violation of the press's right, and the public's right, to access what would be considered public information. If it is on file, it is fair game. The News media has a right to these files, and the public has a right to know more about the case.

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Fox Ignores the Left Wing Side of the News

By Tessa Leone

The National Equality March, which was held on October 10-11 (last weekend), was a highly televised event. Tens of thousands of protesters stormed the capital waving flags and yielding signs demanding equality and equal rights concerning bisexual couples.

All of the major networks covered the story, all of the networks except Fox News. Fox, a widely speculated 'Right Wing' broadcast spent little time on the story and used ABC's footage of the event.

The main focus of the rally was to appeal for gay marriage and abolish the 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' policy. The turnout alone was newsworthy by the very definition of the word.

Comedic newscaster, John Stewart was also offeneded by Fox. He covered the fact that Fox News didn't cover the rally on his program, The Daily Show.

"You didn't even send your own camera crew?" exclaimed Stewart. "You have a Washington bureau! Tell them to go to the window and point the camera down!"

A good reporter must remain biast and tell the news like it is. Omitting a story on the grounds of personal opinion is very unprofessional for a reporter and defienitely a major faux pa for a network news station.

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Malcolm Gladwell Talks With TIME

By Zach Jevne

Best-selling author Malcolm Gladwell has written some of the most thought-provoking books in recent years and shared his interesting takes in an interview with TIME.

The author of the best-sellers Blink, The Tipping Point and Outliers, said he likes the notion that two mildly good stories put together can equal one really good story.

"I'm interested in placing things in a larger context and in making lateral connections," Gladwell said.

When it comes to the educational system, Gladwell believes that experimentation with schools could possibly improve things.

"There's precious little experimentation in education," Gladwell said. "I think we need to try 100 different things. I don't know if it will work, but it's certainly worth a shot, and we could learn something really useful.

As someone who enjoys and studies statistics, Gladwell had an interesting take on making predictions for people and their careers based on test scores and other measuring tools.

"If you want to find out if someone can do the job, you have to let them do the job," Gladwell said. "If you want to find the best teachers, you let everybody into the profession, monitor them for two years, and then pick the 10 percent that are the best. That's how you do it, and that's completely the opposite of the way we do it now."

The former staff writer for the New Yorker also shared some advice to young journalists.

"The issue is not writing," Gladwell said. "It's what you write about. Aspiring journalists should stop going to journalism programs and go to some other kind of grad school. If I was studying today, I would go get a master's in statistics....and then write from that perspective. The role of the generalist is diminishing. Journalism has to get smarter."

(Photo Credit: Brooke Williams)

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Magazines Doing Better in 2009

By Ryan Franker

Out of the 249 magazines the Magazine Publishers of America keep tabs on, only 22 magazines actually saw their ad revenue increase. The other 227 lost ad revenue compared to the figures in 2008.

Meredith Corporation is one of the companies that has a magazine will an increase in the ad revenue, Meredith actually has five different magazines that saw an increase in their ad revenue.

It is a small miracle that Meredith was able to get the revenue of five magazines up, since the company had to lay off 7 percent of their workers in 2008.

An employee for Meredith believes the company's success was with Meredith building a brand for the magazines and the internet, said Patrick Taylor. Making the website really user friendly helped give the magazine more exposure, which also helped the ad revenue go up too.

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With All of the Other Popular News Headlines, Iraq Seems to Be the "Forgotten War"

By Taylor Finch

Now that news is starting to pay attention to the war in Iraq again, many wonder, now that it is fresh in our minds, why there has been barely any coverage on the war for the past couple years.

In early 2007, the Iraq War dominated headlines. Mark Jurkowitz, PEJ's associate director, believes this was merely due to the battle going on between former President George Bush and the Democratic Congress about persecution of the war.

Although the war was perceived to be covered fairly well in 2007, the coverage of the war still only added up to be about one percent of the total news hole.

2008 was about the same, with the Beijing Olympics overshadowing any hope for a headline featuring Afghanistan or the war.

A small turn around from the preceding years happened in 2009 though, with a spike in coverage of the war, ironically beginning the week of the Aug. 20th elections. Coverage reached 10 percent for that week, which was much higher than the last two years.

This spike can mostly be contributed to President Obama's U.S. Domestic Policy Debate, which is the exact reason 2007 was also a better year for coverage on the war.

The Iraq War is obviously seen as being neglected in the news, but many factors, such as the distance from Iraq and the fact that the president must deal with other pressing issues at this time, can be the answers to the lack of coverage.

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Cracking Down On Social Networks

by: Amy Johnson

Sometimes, the world of Twitter and Facebook aren't all they're supposed to be. It is a great way to keep in touch with family and friends, but what happens when updating status' puts you at risk with your job?

Professional sports leagues such as the NFL to media outlets like the Washington Post are all struggling with how to make sure their employees don't expose the inner workings of their transactions. The goal is to plug the leaks of confidential information about potential productions such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.

Contracts with clauses about the use of Facebook and Twitter are not out of the ordinary for many newspapers. Some journalists have gone as far to create two different accounts, one for family and friends and one for co-workers.

Seeing a crackdown by many different companies is not out of the ordinary, especially when the employee is in the public eye. It can cause backlash to a story the company is working on and get the word our before all the facts are there.

The problem with social networking sites is that it is hard to tell when people are being serious or when they are being sarcastic when updating a status. In the world of big business and Hollywood, anything someone says is under scrutiny. The idea of two Facebook accounts for business and family isn't a bad idea; nor is it a bad idea for companies to put clauses in their contracts for confidentiality.

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New York Times Cut Jobs

By Brianna Carlson

The New York Times will be cutting 100 jobs within the end of this year. The Times is trying to recover from the loss in advertisement money.

Earlier this year, the Times reduced it's salaries by 5%. This is also the second time in a little over a year that the Times has had to cut it's staff. In 2008, 100 jobs were also cut.

Many other publishers are also in this situation so The New York Times does not stand alone. The Times is cutting the jobs either by buyouts or layoffs. They are trying to do the best they can for their employees.

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Always Read the Fine Print

By Michelle Zimmerman

If something seems to good to be true, read the fine print. Over the past few years as the popularity of Internet, cell phones, and cable broadcast has grown so have the prices. While companies associated with these products many pretend through advertising that they are the cheapest option, more then likely this is false.

Through advertising in television and radio commercials as well as magazines, companies are able to disguise they're products to be cheap. Using asterisks on prices to refer to the actual prices listed in size 9 point font at the bottom on the television screen isn't being exactly honest. It isn't fair that these companies are allowed to falsely advertise their products for prices when they are actually going to receive more from the consumers.

By using this false advertisement, consumers are signing under false pretenses. Consumers are expecting they will pay what was advertised when in truth they're are many charges not listed on the advertisements. Charges such as a one-time activation fee, price increase after so many months, as well as the price to break a contract.

Not only are companies misleading their consumers with prices but as well as their products. Internet companies are known for advertising their highest speed when in contrast that is only a possibility rather than an average.

As a reaction from the consumers of these acts, cases have been filed in attempt to put an end to the entrapment of these companies. The plaintiffs are in pursuit of a law for advertising that protects consumers from being mislead.

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Is social media harmful for journalists?

By: Mallory Tandy

Are Myspace, Twitter, and Facebook causing stress on journalists? Social Networks such as these, used to be used as a way of getting information, but as time has went on it has become more personal information and not news worthy.

It seems to be causing trouble in some newspapers. At the New York Times, staff members tweeted about information about an internal meeting going on at the paper. They did not mean any harm by doing so but what if critical information could have been leaked out for their competitors to see, it would have been bad for the Times.

Some have solved the issues of mixing business with pleasure by having two Facebook pages, one for personal use and one for busniess and co-workers. But does this solve the issue at hand? Is social media harmful to journalists or helpful?

I can see it from both sides, I can see how it can be harmful but I can also see how it can be helpful. They can find good stories on social media sites, but also can be destructive in how they use their own sites.

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