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This weblog was developed and is supported by the Bernard L. Schwartz Communication Institute, Baruch College, CUNY
Apr
11
A museum for news
Posted by Vera Haller on Apr 11, 2008 under: economy, newspapers | Leave a Comment
I’m not the first person to point out the incongruity between the loads of money spent on the glitzy Newseum, opening today in Washington, and the money that continues to drain from the newspaper industry.
The Newseum, whose slogan is “The Interactive Museum of News,” is funded mainly by the Freedom Foundation, a non-partisan group devoted to furthering the freedom of press, so it isn’t totally fair to compare the investment in the museum to what’s happening in the real world. But it is an interesting observation.
I haven’t seen the museum personally, but the write-ups paint an impressive picture - a brand new building on Pennsylvania Avenue, a news helicopter hanging from the ceiling, dozens of interactive computer exhibits, 15 theaters, and the list goes on.
I was struck by the juxtaposition of the article I read about the museum in today’s The New York Times and an article published earlier in the week about the financial difficulties faced by Sam Zell, who recently took over ownership of the Tribune Corp., my former employer.
Here are some numbers from both articles.
According to the museum story, the Newseum cost $450 million to build. That’s about half of Tribune’s $1 billion debt service bill for this year and close to the amount of money needed to buy Newsday, which Tribune is considering selling to offset its huge debt, according to figures in the Zell story.
Again, taking numbers from these two articles — the museum’s operating budget for this year is $50 million, not an insignificant sum when compared to Tribune’s reported net income last year of $87 million.
The figure that struck me most was in a Washington Post article, which reported that rooms can be rented for events at the Newseum for $500 to $30,000. That $30,000 figure is within range of some starting annual salaries for reporters breaking into the business.
Jan
23
Big business
Posted by Vera Haller on Jan 23, 2008 under: business, economy, online news | 1 Comment
The economic turmoil of late created an opportunity to see how some business news sites handled the onslaught of developments. A brief survey found they were all agressively updating, even outlets such as Forbes and BusinessWeek that used to enjoy the luxury of weekly deadlines. No more.
Both sites offered a mix of breaking news stories and analysis for investors. BusinessWeek today posted an interesting story about what financial blogs are reporting while Forbes offered an expert’s view on why a stock market crash may be necessary. Clearly, the editors were seeking to put information out there — and quickly — that would set their sites apart from the competitors.
One observation: Business news sites are relying heavily on video reports — perhaps even more heavily than general news sites. Take for instance Forbes.com which has its own video network with market updates and business stories. The video viewer launches automatically when a reader goes to the homepage.
Thestreet.com has a video network that produces numerous clips every day, and CNBC and Fox Business also have video links directly off their home pages. While the videos may not be all that visually interesting, they must be garnering clicks because they are prevelant on all the business news Web sites.