Bruce Benidt
Jon Austin
tcarideo
Ellen Mrja
Mike Keliher
Joe Loveland
Bob Collins at MPR’s NewsCut blog has an interesting story from this weekend. Apparently, the folks at the St. Paul Pioneer Press felt compelled to give their across-the-river competitors at the Minneapolis Star Tribune a nice big hug after the Strib clawed its way out of Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
Click on the image to see a larger version in which you can read the entire text of the ad.
My favorite part? The comments on Collins’ story, which included this gem of a back-and-forth:
Here we are online discussing the apparent fate of 19th century dead tree edition media (ok it was high tech in those days)
Anybody else see the irony?
Posted by MNguy | October 4, 2009 9:58 PM
Yes, we are on an online site. One managed by a radio network, the same guys who were supposed to kill the newspapers in the 1920’s and 1930’s, and who were supposed to be killed along with the newspapers by television in the 1950’s and 1960’s. It is indeed ironic.
Posted by Gardoglee | October 5, 2009 12:51 PM
Filed under: Journalism | Tagged: bankruptcy, competition, Pioneer Press, Star Tribune
[...] PiPress gives the Strib a big, wet kiss: [link to post] (hat tip to [...]
[...] RT @mjkeliher: PiPress gives the Strib a big, wet kiss: [link to post] (via @bcollinsmn) Me: "Big wet kiss"? Interesting word [...]
Through the years the Pioneer Press missed a golden opportunity to differentiate itself from the Strib.
Instead it emerged as a Strib Lite. How sad.
Feels a little like Diane Sawyer and Katie Couric embracing and pledging to do great evening network news while their viewers die off and turn to cable and the web.
The Pioneer Press is exactly right — competition among two aggressive newspapers is good for the public. But both newspapers are going to have to find ways to be modern news organizations, not just papers, if we are going to continue to benefit from their work.
A story in Monday’s NY Times about the private investment groups that have ruined the Simmons mattress company of Wisconsin with their rabid, speculative greedy capitalists-gone-wild ponzi schemes is another example of the added burden the Strib has had to carry as it struggles to evolve. As if they ain’t got enough problems.
Maybe this is naive, but if antitrust laws allow it, I don’t understand why the two metro daily papers aren’t sharing carriers, printing facilities, and other non-strategically oriented infrastructure. It would help the competitive position of newspapers vis a vis other news media (by lowering costs), and not diminish the healthy content-related competition between the two papers.
I’ve been a subscriber to both papers for years. Hard to break the habit I guess. Curiously, the thirteen week renewal rate on the “Star/Trib” is sticking to a promotional price of about $34.00, while the “Pioneer Press” despite noticeably diminishing content and the dismissal of some nice writers won’t budge from $58.00. Being cost competitive doesn’t appear to be a concern. I re-upped anyway.
Trash the private equity investors if you must, but both papers were going down in flames long before the PE firms got involved.
A lesson for liberal arts minds: PE firms lose money when their investments don’t appreciate in value. To say otherwise is pure naivete.
Newt:
have you seen this article? Apparently, this case proves your assertion wrong. PE firms involved with the Simmons Mattress company made lots of $$ while the company that they owned failed–because they paid themselves fees and bonuses, and the bond holders and smaller investors where the ones who lost the $$.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/05/business/economy/05simmons.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=Simmons&st=cse
Now, I am not saying that is what happened with the Strib, but it is clear that PE firms can indeed make money when their investments do not appreciate in value.