This in from The Huffington Post, according to a survey from the Associated Press Managing Editors, young staff at newspapers are being the first to get cut in this downturn for the industry. The findings also support recent surveys that state that the newspaper industry is maintaining a diverse edge in newsrooms. But, the cutting of young staff seems antithetical to the efforts of trying to liven up papers around the country. With so many young people entering newsrooms that are plugged into the social scope of the internet, it would seem as though newspapers are shooting themselves in the proverbial foot, all for the sake of lineage and tradition. It is not to say that that tradition hasn’t wrought some amazing moments, but to forsake the future for the even growing past just seems to provoke demise.

The full article goes more deeply into what young reporters are doing in the wake of these firings, which it hints at being jobs in new media. With the closing of August we can expect to hear more stories in the news and about the news, so stay tuned.

NPR posted a piece about the new book by Alex Jones titled Losing the News: The Future of the News That Feeds Democracy. Jones, the host of the PBS program Media Matters and the NPR program On The Media, has an interesting take on where news comes from, referring to it as a “core” that drives almost all industries:

This iron core does not include Paris Hilton’s latest escapade or an account of the Yankees game or the U.S. Open. It has no comics or crossword puzzle. No ads. It has no stories of puppies or weekend getaways or recipes for cooking great chili. Nor does it include advice on buying real estate, investing in an IRA, movie reviews, or diet advice. There is nothing wrong with any of these things. Indeed, pleasant and diverting stories are far more appealing to most people than the contents of the core, which some find grim, boring, or riddled with bias.

The full excerpt from his book can be found here.

Thanks to Aimee Gauthier for the scoop.

Three stories rolling in today from the gold standard of aggregate news sites, The Huffington Post, on the current state of the newspaper. First, this video from NPR CEO Vivian Schiller, who once ran the New York Times website. Schiller states her sentiments that newspapers need to be free, stating that the loss of subscriptions will free up a paper for more ad revenue.

Then, this story seen on the Financial Times website, wherein the discussion is about making the content worthy of being paid for. Seems like these two arguments are at odds with one another, with Schiller saying the content is there, let’s just make it free and the Financial Times saying the content isn’t good enough as a consumer good. Very interesting takes.

Lastly, Michael Liedtke of Huff Post brings this story of 28% of newspaper executives weighing subscription or online news fees to save the paper. The models are based on The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette and Idaho’s Post Register, both of which use a model of subscription to the daily paper gives the audience access to all the news content on the site. Interesting again to link to Schiller due in large part to the New York Times dropping this model years ago to allow free news to all, a service that has been beneficial to those who stay informed, but bad for business.

Jon Fine of Business Week reports on American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) survey that finds newspapers have lower customer satisfaction than the airline industry. Again, this calls into question the need for quality of content, design and editorial practice to save the dwindling industry.

Steve Pearlstein, business columnist for the Washington Post, wrote an open letter / opinion piece based on the recent remarks from Warren Buffet about purchasing newspapers from around the country that are struggling. This letter is filled with interesting (if not somewhat shrewd) quotes, such as this one, “Virtually every big city daily has been losing money, advertisers and readers at an alarming rate because of a disruptive new technology — the Internet — and the current recession.” Now, the problem that I think many see with that statement is the overtone that the internet is somehow a platform that the newspaper industry views as a detriment, not an opportunity, which has been their poor thinking all along. Read the full post

David Geffen, billionaire and entrepreneur has recently been in the news primarily regarding his interest in purchasing a large share of The New York Times. According to this Newsweek article, it appears as though Geffen is mulling the idea of turning the flagship paper of the U.S. into a non-profit. The article details the logistics, and it is definitely worth a read.

Howard Kurtz, columnist for The Washington Post, released an op-ed on the industry of newspapers today that is a pretty interesting read. Primarily, it calls into question the actions — or lack there of — in the industry during the boom of the internet in he mid-to-late 90s. Of some note is this quote, pulled from the column which all should read in full:

“The people who run such companies bear a considerable share of the blame. In 1993, just before the Internet became a consumer force, I argued in a book that newspapers had become too cautious, too incremental and too dull, tailored largely for insiders. The rise of hugely profitable monopoly papers in most cities made them increasingly bland, seemingly allergic to controversy.”

Thanks again to The Media Is Dying for their unending efforts to pull in this information.

This is an interesting story coming from the Huffington Post. The article is titled “John Kerry: Newspaper “Endangered Species”, but that doesn’t seem to do justice to the issues being discussed, primarily a bill presented by Senator Ben Cardin wherein newspapers would become non-profits, thus becoming similar to PBS and NPR, along with hospitals, churches, and schools. An interesting though, especially considering how necessary a daily newspaper is to small communities, but also a seemingly desperate act that needs more deliberation. That’s where David Simon (formerly of the Baltimor Sun and most recently creator of The Wire) and Ariana Huffington (of the Huffington Post) come in. Read the full post

Mark Cuban, the sometimes fiery owner of the Dallas Mavericks, posted on his blog in late April about payment methods and new ways for the newspaper industry to approach its consumers. Really interesting is the comparison to Amazon, which is of course one of the hold overs and greatest survivors of the dot com bust of the late 90’s. Cuban of course is speaking candidly here, but it still has an air of new thinking to it that I think could be very beneficial to the industry. Seen via the wonderful The Media Is Dying.

A brief article from The Wall Street Journal has some insight into the current state of newspapers wherein Warren Buffet discusses the “unending losses” in the newspaper industry.

Interesting little article on the Online Journalism Blog about the readability of newspaper websites. A conundrum considering the blog’s own use of smaller text type. Of course, this was found from the purveyor of all things interesting on the internet, Erik Brandt.

Professor Philip Meyer, from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, has been a big influence on The Revival Network. Meyer wrote a book in 2004 titled The Vanishing Newspaper: Saving Journalism in the Information Age, where in he discusses the problems that face the industry moving forward into new media. What’s most interesting is his Quality Project hypothesis, in which he perceived these greater problems arising before the more recent collapse. Read the full post

Peter Kirwan of WIRED UK has written a piece discussing the struggles of the UK newspaper industry, but in the body of the article there is a large bit on American newspapers, giving and explanation as to how and why they are struggling currently. A very good read. Seen via The Media is Dying.

The Media is Dying is a Twitter that seems to be on every major news piece about any media outlet going through tough times. Worth a look and follow.

Jacek Utko, a designer from Poland who specializes in newspaper design, recorded a TED talk in February of this year, where in he discusses how design can save the newspaper. Read more for video. Read the full post