Comments on: Time travel: Google to Chronicle

By: Skip hire Bristol

Skip hire Bristol — Tue, 18 May 2010 17:32:27 +0000

This is an interesting site. This is the first time I have been here, but have bookmarked you guys for the future!

By: Jeff Jarvis

Jeff Jarvis — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 18:00:26 +0000

I don’t understand your point.

By: Bruce

Bruce — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 15:18:05 +0000

So, uh, Jeff, you endorse the sentiments in the Heart statement, but you write for the friggin’ Guardian?

Wow.

By: John Dowdell

John Dowdell — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 22:57:18 +0000

Thanks for the photo of Hearst’s 1938 statement, Jeff.

I stopped buying the Chron in the 80s precisely for the reasons he cited.

By: Wally Bock

Wally Bock — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 21:14:10 +0000

It seems to me that this isn’t a recent thing. The Journal-American, where I got my first publishing credit by winning a contest is gone, and it was the result of a merger of two papers. Tom Lehrer’s Christmas song lyrics are “Hark the Herald Tribune sings” but the only Herald Tribune left is the International one, owned by the Times.

There’s a lot going on here for a lot longer than the web. Part of the issue is that for the better part of the last century you could be dumber than a box of rocks and still make money if you owned the local paper. Papers got complacent. They never seemed to come up with a good way to mate entrepreneurial energy and journalistic standards.

By: Business Adaptation and the Biology of Failure | Cheeky Fresh

Business Adaptation and the Biology of Failure | Cheeky Fresh — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 14:46:20 +0000

[...] between a modern company like Google and a failing one like the San Francisco Chronicle in a blog post he aptly named “Time [...]

By: Out of print? « Business News

Out of print? « Business News — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 10:59:40 +0000

[...] Jeff Jarvis, BuzzMachine [...]

By: Geoffrey

Geoffrey — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 09:01:06 +0000

Well the problem is city-based newspapers to begin with. The UK market is dominated by nationals. Surely hearst can rationalise a lot of jobs and gain greater advertiser power if there was say a unified West Coast Chronicle – from Seattle to San Diego.

By: Andy Freeman

Andy Freeman — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 06:56:18 +0000

> there are going to be a heck of a lot of major cities with no news at all.

Surely you’re not asserting that newspapers have doing news?

> Do people care… or are we already beyond that?

Yes we care – that’s why we abandoned newspapers.

By: invitedmedia

invitedmedia — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 22:58:15 +0000

was watching a live stream of the denver post/rmn news conference. dean singleton seemed more concerned with his tv and radio bro’s. declining revenue (said so at least twice, the first time to some laughter from the tv and radio folks in the audience)than that which caused the rmn to fold.

leaves one to wonder.

By: Rosenblum

Rosenblum — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 21:27:11 +0000

And now the Rocky Mountain News.
What kind of society are we going to be without newspapers.
I don’t want to sound like a troglodyte but we still dont have a working online model to replace papers, and there are going to be a heck of a lot of major cities with no news at all.
Do people care… or are we already beyond that?

By: invitedmedia

invitedmedia — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 19:53:52 +0000

barring a temp. inj. (chances are i’d take that bet) the rocky mountain news is done as of friday’s issue.

no mention of web-only that i saw.

By: Andy Freeman

Andy Freeman — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 14:52:10 +0000

> It may be impossible for newspapers to re-invent themselves while burdened with so much debt during a recession. a re-invention will take a major investment, and that’s obviously not forthcoming.

That’s backwards. Investment happens AFTER successful re-invention. (Actually, investment happens after someone proves a successful biz model and the investee makes a plausible case of being able to pull it off.)

> at this point would anybody be willing to make a serious attempt to create a replacement for the san fran chronicle? and by that, i mean hiring a significant number of professional reporters,

“hire a significant number of professional reporters” is an odd goal. More important, it’s not a goal that is likely to get funded. Okay. I lied. It’s a goal will probably discourage funders. (There’s a relevant saying in engineering; “customers don’t care how hard it is”.)

Let me suggest an alternative that is a lot more likely to get funded – “a profitable journalism biz”.

I find it odd that “professionals” have so little understanding of biz. “Professional” isn’t just “extremely skilled” or “trained” – there’s a “in ways that others will pay for” component.

By: Scott

Scott — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 09:11:33 +0000

It may be impossible for newspapers to re-invent themselves while burdened with so much debt during a recession. a re-invention will take a major investment, and that’s obviously not forthcoming.

at this point would anybody be willing to make a serious attempt to create a replacement for the san fran chronicle? and by that, i mean hiring a significant number of professional reporters, instead of one of the various attempts to build a site focused primarily around citizen journalism?

By: Mike G

Mike G — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 22:27:36 +0000

That the whole grandiose self-important business was built on classified ads for used cars and garage sales, and when that went away, it collapsed.

By: E.Hodgson

E.Hodgson — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 15:45:24 +0000

Hi JSI – just wondering where you see the problem lies?

By: It’s not just individuals who need to reinvent themselves | Reinventing Yourself...

Wed, 25 Feb 2009 14:40:24 +0000

[...] Time Travel: Google to Chronicle [...]

By: Dennis

Dennis — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 13:32:02 +0000

One of the aspects of this dying industry is that the consumers of ink and paper are dying off. They are being replaced by people more interested in sound bites and bullet points … not one of the features of paper news. That’s not to say that newspapers aren’t valuable commodities, they are. It’s simply that they MUST reinvent themselves … or should we say, re-invigorate themselves with “stuff” that today’s society really want. I can say that from an “insider’s” point of view because in just a few minutes I’ll be getting ready to go work for my local paper here in Gwinnett County, Georgia. I think about this every day … and believe me, the “what to do” is as important a question we face as any I can remember.

By: Just stop it

Just stop it — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 11:06:34 +0000

To portray what’s happening to newspapers at the moment as an editorial or audience problem is deeply disingenuous.

By: Skip Uldriks

Skip Uldriks — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 10:49:17 +0000

Mr. Jarvis,
The local information void is being filled by many thousands of digital pioneers, as we sit here pecking away at our keyboards. Your book, WWGD, is a how-to-manual for doing just. Oh, and I need to mention that a computer, curiosity and passion are key elements as well. The writing comes with practice.

Look at yourself, Mr. Jarvis. From a TV gossip castaway, to joining visionaries like Seth Godin, Tom Friedman, Chris Anderson and Kevin Kelly (and a NY professor to boot). Not bad for an average-looking skinny guy.

Built on the backs of (George) Gilder’s Law, (Bob) Metcalfe’s Law and the vast network (tool’s) from Google, you and your famous friends have given hope to many hundreds of not-so-good-looking fat guy’s in the mid-west.

Metcalfe’s law of network’s, value = n x n. The new Midwestern version is Annual Income = Computer, Broadband, curiosity and passion x Google.

Thank you for the road map into the near future.

By: Digidave

Digidave — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 05:26:25 +0000

I’m doing some link-journalism right now about the Chronicle situation. I’m not sure if the Bay is ready for it – but there is a movement afoot to figure out what comes next.

By: jane stevens

jane stevens — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 04:57:34 +0000

Here’s an idea — http://rejurno.com/2009/02/24/a-modest-proposal-for-the-seattle-times/ — that I put together (complete with goofy graphics) for the Seattle Times. Another Hearst paper, the Seattle P-I is due to stop publishing in a couple of weeks, and the Times has the freedom to take a radical approach. The same could happen in S.F.
We could round up the old gang and make it happen!

By: Menlo Bob

Menlo Bob — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 04:46:57 +0000

It died years ago. Funeral services have been dragging on far too long. That stinky sucker needs to have dirt shoveled on it NOW.

By: Mike P

Mike P — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 04:26:19 +0000

Jeff,
Good post. I am already kind of wondering what will fill the void should the Chron go under. Not good times for my adopted home.