After radically downsizing the editorial department of the Mercury News and its once high-flying digital media empire, MediaNews Group CEO Dean Singleton now wants to charge for online access to its content. A May 8 memo from Singleton and MediaNews exec Jody Lodovic outlined the company’s interactive strategy, noting “not only does [free online news distribution] erode our print circulation, it devalues the core of our business — the great local journalism we (and only we) produce on a daily basis.”
The memorandum, which has been widely republished on the net, goes on to explain, “our interactive revenue growth has slowed because it has been too closely tied to our print classified business, which has suffered with the advent of Craigslist and other free online classified opportunities.”
“An additional problem is that “our online products too closely resemble the newspaper, and thus fail to meaningfully reach the next generation of readers.”
The answer to this? “We cannot continue to give all of our content away for free,” Singleton and Lodovic conclude.
In addition to the Merc, Media News publishes just about every other daily in the Bay Area, including the Monterey Herald, Santa Cruz Sentinel, Oakland Tribune and Contra Costa Times, as well as the Silicon Valley Community Newspapers group of weeklies.
MediaNews plans to “offer a compelling new experience for a younger (non-newspaper buying) demographic” by creating a “regional news site that is actively managed to present breaking news” as well as local portals that contain “an ecosystem of local information, resources, user content, shopping guides, and marketplaces.”
“This site will be focused on a younger audience,” they add, and “will be the ultimate site for people to find stuff, do stuff, and get stuff done in their local market.”
According to Editor and Publisher, web traffic at MercuryNews.com fell by 15 percent to 1,438,000 uniques in April 2009 compared with the same month a year ago. Once one of the top news sites on the net, MercuryNews.com’s traffic now lags behind newspaper sites in smaller markets like Baltimore, Seattle, Detroit, Orlando and Tampa Bay.
Top 30 Markets | April ‘09 uniques | YoY % change
NYTimes.com | 16,546,000 | (-8%)
Wall Street Journal Online | 12,398,000 | 160%
USATODAY.com | 11,987,000 | 12%
washingtonpost.com | 10,232,000 | 8%
LA Times | 8,418,000 | 18%
Boston.com | 5,888,000 | 33%
Daily News Online Edition | 5,033,000 | 73%
New York Post | 4,403,000 | 27%
Chicago Tribune | 4,342,000 | 30%
SFGate.com/San Francisco Chronicle | 3,489,000 | (-9%)
Newsday | 3,380,000 | 32%
Politico | 3,208,000 | 83%
The Washington Times | 2,772,000 | 70%
Atlanta Journal-Constitution | 2,677,000 | (-3%)
The Houston Chronicle | 2,659,000 | 9%
NJ.com | 2,658,000 | 106%
Chicago Sun-Times | 2,495,000 | (-7%)
The Seattle Times | 2,318,000 | 39%
MiamiHerald.com | 2,192,000 | 104%
DallasNews.com - The Dallas Morning News | 2,166,000 | (-12%)
Baltimore Sun | 2,030,000 | 23%
Star Tribune | 1,991,000 | 40%
Azcentral.com | 1,779,000 | 9%
Orlando Sentinel | 1,634,000 | 42%
Detroit Free Press | 1,572,000 | 74%
Philly.com | 1,547,000 | (-2%)
Boston Herald | 1,516,000 | 63%
tampabay.com | 1,467,000 | 27%
Seattle Post-Intelligencer | 1,454,000 | (-17%)
MercuryNews.com | 1,438,000 | (-15%)
Source: Nielsen Online
The Merc stinks that is why I don’t buy it any more. I read it on line because it is free. No way I’ll ever pay the Merc to read its crummy articles written by bias self-serving reporters.
Ditto what Kathleen said although I like a couple of the sportswriters. The other news articles read more like editorials than objective reporting.
Kathleen,
Me either. I won’t even go to the bother of registering. I stop reading when the “sign in” page appears. I’m sure not going to give money to such a corrosive, leftist institution.
There’s hardly any content in the print edition and less in the website. It’s hard to imagine that the Merc was once a reputable newspaper.
I can’t believe that this outfit could come up with something people will pay for when they are failing at giving it away for free.
The question that must be asked is, “what is the real value (in dollars, to readers) of the Mercury’s local journalism?”
The answer, of course, depends on whether what one wants from the newspaper is thorough, objective journalism, or the slanted, distorted muckraking that the Mercury has been providing the public for decades? For me, the Mercury ceased to have value many years ago, not because I lack interest in local issues, but because I refuse to pay to access its misrepresentative coverage. I won’t pay the Mercury for my local news for the same reason I won’t pay the Weekly World News for my science news: I don’t pay for crap.
For example, this past week the Mercury, in its opening of a police shooting story, reported that the family of a man gone berserk—a young man who was insane, on drugs, had stabbed his brother, and from whom the entire family was fleeing—was, as the police arrived, collectively thinking about a high-profile police shooting from six years ago. Really! On the believability scale I put that right up there with last week’s Weekly World News report on “How To Tell If You’re Possessed.”
Here is how this was alleged:
“But lodged in this Vietnamese-born family’s memories was the high-profile police shooting of Bich Cau Thi Tran.”
When you consider the impact this statement has on readers, some of whom might mistakenly assume that the Vietnamese population here lives in fear of the police, and then realize that nowhere in the “news report” was there anything to support it, let alone justify its prominence in the lengthy piece, the intent to prejudice becomes undeniable. And, as is often the case with the Mercury, the closer you look the uglier things get: according to the report, on two previous occasions SJ police have been to the home to deal with this deranged young man when his family couldn’t, and both times things were worked out peaceably. Lisa Fernandez and Sean Webby, the hacks responsible for this story, expect readers to believe that in the midst of a personal crisis, with their safety at risk, this family was unaffected by their previous experiences in their home with the police, but were instead captivated by something that happened six years ago, half-way across town, to a stranger in a case they knew about only through hearsay.
The two young officers who answered this most recent call weren’t even on the police department six years ago, yet the Merc’s reporters couldn’t wait to prejudice the readership against them, to put images of vegetable peelers in their heads and ready them to reach conclusions the facts alone would never justify. The entire report was slanted; a clear case of reporters using their position—their privilege, really—to mislead the public and bring harm to two public servants and the entire police department.
The two officers put themselves at risk, intentionally made themselves the focus of this armed man’s attention in the hopes of making safe every family member or neighbor who might have otherwise been assaulted. The danger this young man represented is beyond dispute, and was before the cops even arrived. Without even getting into the question of tactics, policy, or the law, I can say with absolute confidence that these officers did not deserve such ill treatment from the press, and I will never pay good money to read the work of lying scum.
Does Mr. Singleton seriously believe lots of folks would pay to access his seriously shitty web news site? Dream on, dude!
A great CEO would have seen this ten years ago and reacted accordingly.
I’d be embarrassed to ‘discover’ and publish such obvious conclusions years after it was feasible to do something about it. Welcome to your new reality, Mr. Singleton: the consumer price expectation for your product is $0.
#5 Finfan: Could it be that after giving San Jose the Little Saigon fiasco, the Merc now wants to inflame the Vietnamese community with another highly emotional but ultimately irrelevant non-issue?
Its a case of the fix making the problem worse. The paper survived quite well on real estate ads for years, so well in fact that its margins made it and the rest of Knight Ridder an attractive take over target. The corporate ownership started the spiral when they set outrageous profit goals and achieved these through compromised investment in journalism.
Now the paper is a shell of its former self, the real estate and car ads are drying up and the current chumps who own the paper are wondering how they can squeeze more bucks out of their fire sale purchase. Reminds me of selling the Encarta for $1000 per CD-ROM at the same time the internet was kicking off thinking it would be a killer app that would take out World Book and Britannica only to discover that no one wanted it at that price point. They did make tons of sales at $99 a pop, but recently closed the whole thing down because the internet came along and killed the market (best horse and buggy came to market just as Freeway systems being finished and car sales skyrocketing.)
Anyway…the ownership of the Merc is probably just a bunch of small minded cretins trying to squeeze money out of a dying institution. I still say community ownership with a non-profit is a better way to preserve and enhance journalism over the corporate shenanigans that have destroyed the fourth estate in America more than the internet ever could.
I wonder if the drop in web traffic to the Mercury News is due to the extremely slow and buggy web site. The web site has serious design flaws that have not been addressed for a very long time. I cannot imagine anybody paying for such a terrible web experience.
Reader,
Imagine that, instead of a crazed family member, this story had been about a liquor store owner who, after being beaten and robbed, told the police and the press that he’d become afraid the moment the two black robbers came into his store, as the mere sight of them caused him to flashback to the horror of a previous robbery.
There is simply no way such a statement, even if recorded on video, would make it into the story. Today’s “journalists” will not, even when reporting the experiences of a truly innocent victim, allow anything to get into a story that might be prejudicial towards any of their favored groups. The last thing a Sean Webby or Lisa Fernandez would want is to give the public reason to think that a link exists between race and violent crime. But whenever something prejudicial about a government employee, corporate executive, or someone sporting the wrong politics, can be quoted, inferred, or even invented out of thin air, it is sure to be prominently featured, even if its inclusion requires, as it did in the police shooting case, the reporter to surrender believability.
The newspaper is desperate to establish its relevance as a local watchdog, and since its political allegiance prevents it from targeting the real problems in this community it wages its war against those easy to target, none being easier than the police department. The Mercury would love to see a large, unruly crowd of Vietnamese citizens protesting this shooting at city hall—a crowd from whom they might cull even more stories of questionable police behavior and produce a fresh batch of yellow journalism.
#12-Frustrated finfan said, “But whenever something prejudicial about a government employee, corporate executive, or someone sporting the wrong politics, can be quoted, inferred, or even invented out of thin air, it is sure to be prominently featured, even if its inclusion requires, as it did in the police shooting case, the reporter to surrender believability.”
That my friend is a gross understatement! The Merc seems to love inciting groups to go after SJPD, and one another. In every article they post regarding the supposed disproportionate arrests of Latinos in SJ, they pat themselves on the back by saying the Merc was the first to bring this issue to light. What a bunch of BS. Their stats are bogus, and their misrepresentation of the facts is not only dangerous, it is irresponsible. To mislead the public in an effort to sell papers is just sickening.
Latino groups involved in the Task Force, and in this issue at all, have been so prejudiced by what they read in the Murky News, that they walked into Council Meetings, and Task Force Meetings with their minds made up. They have already convicted SJPD without any real facts on which to do so. They have the word of the Murky News and I guess they take what they read as gospel! Really sad~
Gee, if all you conspiracy fans took a breath for a moment, maybe you could answer an question—if your statements are accurate, then why haven’t the police done a better job of making their own case? Are their records so messed up they can’t prove their point? Criticizing certain police conduct does not make one anti-police. In fact, I would say those who criticize are more concerned about having an excellent police force than those you who are police apologists and attack those who have concerns.
I don’t really expect you to answer other to accuse me of being anti-police, which I am not, but I realize that won’t stop you.
May Bee said, “I don’t really expect you to answer other to accuse me of being anti-police, which I am not, but I realize that won’t stop you.”
Well, since you’ve made up your mind about who we are and how we’ll respond, then there is no need to answer your questions.
May Bee #14- If I were to accuse you of being a racist, how would you prove that you are not?
15 – Nice duck.
16 – And your point is???
A reader just sent in this link:
http://blogs.westword.com/latestword/2009/05/qa_with_dean_singleton_mediane.php
Interview with Dean Singleton
#17-May Bee,
Nice Duck?
Your first statement clearly reflects your prejudice view of all of us, so why did you bother to ask us a question in the first place? You have your mind made up as to how we’ll respond, so what is the point of answering you? Unless we agree with you, we’ll be wrong in your view any way. I’d say your post is a “nice trap.”
There’s a lot of criticism above about specific points of incompetence, but underlying the “buggy” web site is a cascading collection of political and social notions that the Merc has been jamming down our throats for at least the last 20 years.
Until the newspaper & web site are about the facts, and only the facts, the inexorable slide of the Merc & its web site will continue.
Demographic shifts have changed the fan base of the Merc in ways that I don’t think the editorial board really understands. Its whole point of view is that of the “tax & spend” variety with all the accompanying “bells & whistles” that accompany the New York Times commitment to one-eye-blind journalism.
Well, always eager to help, here’s the message the Merc doesn’t get—the readership that would revel in your twisted world view has moved away. The newcomers are just puzzled at the irrelevance of your paper & web site to their lives.
May Bee,
Conspiracy fans? Has someone suggested a conspiracy? A newspaper, or any other for-profit organization, breaks no law by merely choosing to publish information of a certain slant in order to increase profits. When a tobacco company ad makes smoking appear sophisticated, the harm it might cause the public is not in and of itself a crime, and it is much the same when a newspaper cherry-picks statistics in order to create disharmony in a community. Hoodwinking the public is not a crime in America… indeed, it might be better understood as a way of life in journalism, commerce, and politics.
I wonder what case you think the police department is obligated to make? Is it the case that the one disproportionate statistic promoted by the Mercury is factually incorrect, or is it the case that the statistic is accurate, but can be mitigated by other factors? It really doesn’t matter, because the police department can neither disprove the statistic nor unravel the numerous and complex factors responsible for the disproportionate misconduct of Hispanics.
Disproportion in lawbreaking of almost all kinds is the norm for Hispanics. They commit more robberies, rapes, murders, assaults, and gang crimes than do whites or Asians, a situation that makes it very hard for a police department to explain away the disproportionate rate of Hispanic arrests for any one crime (in this case, disorderly conduct). Think of it this way: since males are disproportionately arrested for serious crimes, how would a given department go about explaining why more males than females are arrested for the crime of murder? It simply can’t be done without exposing the statistics in their entirety, something a police department is not going to do in the case of a group, like Hispanics, that is politically protected from the truth.
As for your belief that those who criticize the police department do so in the hopes of improving the department, all I can say is that you’ve got yourself quite a belief there, one that you will, should you ever be so bold, have a hell of time justifying.
I neglected to mention one other factor in the Mercury News’ uphill battle for relevance in online news:
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