Big Changes ahead at the DMN?

[ericthegardener]

If we can just get them to live by the words engraved on the Morning News' building, I'll be happy.


http://img185.imageshack.us/img185/1801/dmn3au6.jpg

[dfwcre8tive]

The DMN is redesigning the paper layout:

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/graphics/0308/redesign.html

[tamtagon]

I really really really hope the Belo's Broadcast & Print split benefit both media. While I doubt BeloTV has aspiration to evolve production capabilities like Turner or Paramount or like Fox did, I cannot help but imagine the Belo print folks have the goal to expand reporting territory, influence and depth -- make the DMN into a more popular news reporting media source for people in Houston, Austin, San Antonio, El Paso, Oklahoma, Kansas, New Mexico, Arkansas and Louisana. Well, I'm hoping for something like that.

[RobertB]

The Observer, predictably, sees the redesign as yet another opportunity to ridicule Dallas' Only Daily, in a blog post titled "The New-Look News: Bright Colors! Big Type! Fewer Words! (http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/unfairpark/2008/03/the_newlook_news_bright_colors.php)":

So much to say about the new-look Dallas Morning News, which has apparently been redesigned for old people (bigger type!) and 7-year-olds ("We've added color"!). But not to leave out the big-screen owner, in the, ah, "reader's guide" found on Page 10A of the paper there's this note concerning the allegedly "brighter, bolder type": "Think of it as your newspaper in HD." Sure, if you're an idiot. Is this what a Chief Innovation Officer gets you?
The comments are as good as the blog entry: "The new look reminds me of college, when I had to turn in a five-page, double-spaced term paper. To fill up space, I'd use 13 pt. font instead of 12, make the margins 1.1" instead of 1, etc."

[dfwcre8tive]

'eEdition' a replica of printed Dallas Morning News
12:00 AM CDT on Sunday, October 11, 2009
From Staff Reports Brendan Case
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/bus/stories/DN-eEdition_11bus.ART.State.Edition1.3cf649e.html

Raising the price of The Dallas Morning News is a critical part of the newspaper's strategy, but the newspaper continues to seek online business as well.

The latest example is a new "eEdition," a digital replica of the print product.

Current subscribers to the printed version can access the eEdition free as a complement to the physical newspaper. Digital-only subscriptions are also available for $12.95 a month.

...

[tamtagon]

Former DMN uber-reporter David Levinthal said on facebook that The DMN is laying off more people. I didn't see anything yet mentioned by the DMN, Observer, DMag or Pegasus, too early for that I suppose.

It's been long enough that maybe the DMN can give us a peek at how the pay wall is doing.

[cowboyeagle05]

Former DMN uber-reporter David Levinthal said on facebook that The DMN is laying off more people. I didn't see anything yet mentioned by the DMN, Observer, DMag or Pegasus, too early for that I suppose.

It's been long enough that maybe the DMN can give us a peek at how the pay wall is doing.

I've heard how many and what part of the DMN they are gonna layoff but I dare not say in case I'm wrong I don't want for anyone to get worked up over a "rumor". I've also heard the paywall is still not proving to be fruitful yet. They are still trying to reorganize the DMN as a digital marketing/advertising company that subsidizes digital journalism efforts that covers the wide DFW area. So far they haven't figured out how to run a digital news agency they've just figured out how to sink an old newspaper business model.

[cowboyeagle05]

Looks the news is already breaking over at the Dallas Observer.

http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/unfairpark/2011/09/the_dallas_mourning_news.php


All day long the emails have come in, each wondering when we'll note the layoffs currently taking place at The Dallas Morning News. Says here that 38 employees have been given their pink slips and this severance agreement intended to fend off age discrimination lawsuits like the one filed following the '04 layoffs. From what I've been told throughout the day, many of them are revered veterans and recognizable names, even to non-media types, from throughout the newsroom. And some are old friends. I will not name them here.

Early this morning I asked Jim Moroney, the paper's publisher, if he'd have a moment to talk about this latest round of cuts. So far, there has been no word from 508 Young. When I broached the subject in July, upon the shuttering of Quick, he said, "We are continuing to find new ways to line up our expenses with where our revenues are." Of course, this has happened before: In '04, then again in '06, then again in '08, then again in '09, when layoffs were announced in a press release. This afternoon, on FrontBurner, someone posting under the name "One of the victims" wrote that "this isn't about managers or executives trying to fatten their wallets at the expense of the employees. It's about executives in a failing industry trying to hang on as long as they can."

The rest of that comment on the Front Burner blog:

I got the axe today. I wish I hadn’t. I don’t blame anyone. This isn’t about managers or executives trying to fatten their wallets at the expense of the employees. It’s about executives in a failing industry trying to hang on as long as they can. They’re just trying to slow the fall. None of these layoffs and restructurings will fix the fundamental problem that people just don’t want the newspaper anymore.

I disagree people want the newspaper they just don't want the Dallas Morning News version of the old newspaper model. People want the News and thats what the DMN could be good at but so far they are more worried about locking it all up in the ivory tower.

[cowboyeagle05]

One of the Victims did add another comment I thought added to his arguement.


I appreciate the offer, jrp. And I’m sorry you disagree with me, but I just don’t understand your argument. Are you saying it’s the content that’s keeping younger readers away from the newspaper? Because, if you are, I think you’re wrong.
It’s not about the content, it’s about conditioning. Younger readers were never conditioned to make the newspaper part of their daily life. I’m somewhere between the 20-somethings and 60-somethings you mentioned. I’d wager to bet that most of the people I know outside of journalism don’t subscribe to the newspaper. And these are people who are concerned with what’s happening in the world. They want to be informed, they just have other ways of getting that information.

[tamtagon]

It's too bad people who like to hold paper in their hands while they read the day's news do not want to pay a fair price. A dollar a day seems too low for all that paper and transportation, and I hate to see online options seemingly sequestered behind a subscription barrier to subsidize the cost of home delivery.

Belo needs to expand local reporting coverage to include Oklahoma, Ark-La-Tex, Piney Woods, and the entire I-35 corridor to be more than a going business concern. The opportunity to make money reporting unbiased news is staring all these decision makers in the face, but they are even more unwilling to adapt. The consumer desire for an honest, just the facts, local information reporting agency is so pent up it's ridiculous. The news-entertainment business is a trend which has caused damage to factual news reporting entities, but that trend is approaching its expiration date.

[cowboyeagle05]

I know their sales people have been hounding my parents to try to get them to buy the paper for every day of the week they can print the thing. We don't really use the home phone anymore cause we all have iPhones in my family so this weekend when my mom went to the closet where my parents have hidden the home phone, so we dont have to listen to it ring all the time casue all that calls home phones any more is tele-marketers, and low and behold there was numerous messages from the DMN about talking about upgrading their subscription. They clean out the machine about once a month and when you have at least 4 messages in one month they must be pushing the sales guys to convince people they need the DMN to know whats going on in the world.

I have to admit Tamtagon you do have a point there is no reason why the DMN shouldn't try to cover a little wider scope since they do such a terrible job covering the neighborhoods in Dallas County. They might as well just widen the net and attract more DFW region readers and try to be that boundless paper that's simply based in Dallas. It certainly sounds like a news media organization that realizes DFW is major draw for some large section of the southern US. I mean I personally might find it more palatable to subscribe to a wider region paper if they did it right. Right now it seems like they either try to cover stuff in our back yard or they just paste in news wire stories about international or nationwide subjects and it just seems like they are trying to be a nationwide paper and local paper at the same time in a way that doesn't work.