Newspapers may be an attractive investment again

[Don Denton]

 From the Columbia Journalism Review:

On one hand, a merger wave would mean that professional investors see a future for newspapers at least for the medium term and are willing to put some money behind that belief. That’s a good thing. Of course, they could be wrong, as Fortress was in 2005, but it seems unlikely that the industry will again see two epic shocks at once as it did with the rise of internet followed by the financial crisis. What’s more, there’s the possibility that new investors will actually invest in the product. New Media/GateHouse, for instance, says it is targeting papers “that have undermanaged the online opportunity,” and there are plenty of those. And it has a big unit that sells online marketing services to small businesses, one of the more promising sidelines newspapers have come up with in recent years. - See more at: http://www.cjr.org/the_audit/uh_oh_newspapers_are_looking_l.php?page=all

[Ken Gigliotti]

Newspapers biggest asset is information . It can only be gathered in one way .Our business has also come down to “fair value” in  their eyes . Others feel they can do a better job selling . Why shouldn't they? Information, and intentional , on demand , unique information  is of high value in new media . The biggest problem is old media is effected by new media . One diminishes the other . TV and newspapers are the perfect example . When parent media manages new media it does so with this in mind. Yes , new media should have separate  management . New media should develop independently of old media . It should reflect the values and diversity of it's audience what ever that may be. New media should look different and take a different path. It seem like the Toronto Star is going that way.
  Can old media take new media to a profitable level fast enough , can it be strong enough if it  is run as a hobby by a parent company's management that also manages the  heritage brand. “Under managed” is an under statement , but I think , even ownership is turning the corner on that one . There are changes coming to the smart ones .  
   New media by definition should be different .The biggest problem for me is how various online products appear similar , flat small .
It is hard for the bigness of newspapers to project power in the way a Saturday paper looks and weighs . It is done big , and that does not translate well on a smartphone.
   Epic shocks are not out of the question , and it doesn’t take a genius to see where they might come from . Information gathering is still the thing we do best , it is grass roots and personal . I don't think our industry sees that as clearly as it should .  Connections are being broken within the information  and renewal framework , they cannot  continue to degrade . All of our markets agree we have one product a week that is still strong . There are archaic ,systemic attitudes  inside the newspaper product that are not part of the online product .
  The first being and open product , the line up of stories are not segmented to sections . Also the idea of demographics are out dated .
If the divide the readership like  political parties we would be better off . I am not thinking along the lines of , liberal centre , liberal left and conservative centre . I am thinking , for , against , and undecided . The demographics of thirds . In fact  circulation is about one third of what it was at peak newspaper . Online newspapers may very well only be capturing the parts of the two thirds lost , not new people. In fact it may just be the same old demographic . If the online product became more independent and aggressive we would see a better picture of sustainability .