What makes you think we are not thinking about all the issues you are bringing up, and working on the future models. What makes you think that we are not aware of the issues involved in the business. We are, and we are doing something about it. Unlike the newspapers.

When this blog first started the posts provided a fresh take of all variety of tech related topics..but honestly since Microsoft backed off Yahoo 90 percent of the post on this network have the feel of “post for the sake of posting ”
The shark was first spotted when you allowed your “reporters” to pose with Bill Gates ..Then we saw a fin when The DR. Dre Found Read post. But Fonzie OM went over the shark with the Apple / Taj Mahal post. Which is prehaps the single worst post in the history of the blogospere. And you call papers lazy. …Since you wont do it I will give you the answer to the news business problem …..find a source of revenue that is not as dependent on advertising ..or slowly cut to the bone as your real customers ( plumbers, auto dealers, chain stores, and employers) die off during the current depression.

Each day as I took the truck to make a delivery — either a distribution center, a post office, or private merchant mostly — I noticed the edifice rise and fill out until they crowned the completed bldg. with the “Press-Enterprise” logo. Finally, the landscapers and gardeners moved in to plant vegetation. Finished.

I waited for the old structure to be demolished as planned; The old front entrance began to look badly. No one watered the planters and the white paint began to turn color and peel. Oh oh, I thought. Steve Woodard, a fellow trucker said, “They must not have enough money.” This was about two years ago.

Then about one year ago, Class A, big rig truck drivers, my friends, Steve Woodard, Steve Juarez, Tommy Ramirez and I were told that we, along with the rest of the full time staff in the other departments would be offered a voluntary buyout in order for management to cut operational costs. If it got enough volunteers, leading to enough cost savings, management would not need to make any further staff reductions. If it did not, then management would make involuntary staff reductions. It was made clear that the truckers cost the newspaper more than their jobs were worth to the bottom line; They’s better prepare to be laid off.

Indeed, all three were laid off. Each was given a fairly generous separation package, I believe one month pay for every year at the job. Steve Woodard lined up another Class A job while he was still there and, as soon as he was separated, he simply and easily moved in that direction. I don’t know what Juarez is doing, but Tommy Ramirez found a job in Arizona, I heard, where he would be near his young son and former wife.

In the meantime, Joe Baldwin, a benefited full-timer, and my direct supervisor, was gone one day. His desk was cleaned out. A part time, unbenefited driver from the night trucking crew was given the desk. She became my new supervisor. Another night-time driver was transfered, I later learned, to take my place. It makes sense as I had only a Class C lisence, meaning that I was not authorized to drive big rig trucks. Then Joe’s supervisor, Steve Prermann (yeah, there were three Steves), left before any of the staff reduction, obviously knowing his future at the P-E. With a connection, he got hired to supervise the transportation department at the Blood Bank in San Bernardino, CA where, I heard, he is doing well.

I remained…for a time, but was reassigned to mail delivery, a rinkidink job, driving a pickup truck. I mostly picked up and delivered inter-departmental mail as well mail to and from the downtown post office. Big clue about my future; It told me that I as being phased out, but I stayed, hoping against all hope that the tentacles of the bad Bush economy would not reach down to me.

But about six months ago I became part of the involuntary because the worsening Bush economy continued to put pressure on the newspaper business. As part of the separation package, I was given two weeks of pay for every month that I was employed at the newspaper, which was for two years. I was also given a complete refund for all sick days and vacation days accrued.

I then got a Class B license, allowing me to drive bigger trucks and, shortly after, I got a Class A, allowing me to drive big rigs, i.e., 18 wheelers. But with even over the road trucking companies either freezing or laying off 18 wheel truck drivers, I have not found such a job in the six months, but now my unemployment benefits ran out, having received the last installment yesterday. I will apply for an extension because jobs in the Inland Empire and Riverside, CA are still few.

Getting back to the topic of who is to blame, yes I blame management. When a worker does bad work, the management blames the worker, but, when management does bad work, it blames the system, in the same way that Bush blame everyone but himself for the bad economy and for failing to find any WMDs. So, while I blame the Press-Enterprise’s management for not doing their job to increase income, I have to also blame Bush for allowing America’s wealth to be transferred to foreign entities, thus weakening the domestic economy.

Here’s what I’d say to that.

First, newspapers should have stayed private. They should never have become public companies. Newspapers are cutting jobs and “doing more with less” while delivering quarter after quarter of profits to make shareholders happy. But it’s very hard to please shareholders and serve a community, which is really what a newspaper is there to do. Many newspapers were privately owned for decades by owners who understood this. Someone above asked why newspapers took on so much debt, and I think this is why – to sustain otherwise unsustainable profit growth.

Second, they should never have talked down to their readers. Except for New York, the cities I’ve lived in have always done this, and the San Francisco Chronicle has always been the worst. I know reporters there who tore our their hair as they watched their good work watered down and dumbed down by a team of five or more editors, supposedly to make it more palatable to readers who are actually quite smart.

Third, newspapers did use the Internet, but they didn’t embrace the Internet. Blogs embraced it totally because they really had no other choice. For journalism, the Internet is simply a new platform for news. But it takes years to really understand how it works. Writing for blogs is very different from writing for newspapers, just as writing for magazines is different from either. But many newspapers simply ported their print stories over to their Web sites. Or they tinkered with what the Web can do, but in a half-hearted way.

This is changing, of course. The NYT, the LAT, the WSJ and more have very good journalists writing blogs. And the NYT is doing some interesting experiments with new apis. So the bloggers vs. newspapers distinction (cited most often by newspaper executives) is more and more a false one.

Finally, newspapers can solve the conundrum that no one seems to want to talk about – why are ads so much cheaper on the Web when the content is the same? Advertisers pay less to reach consumers online, even though online ads are supposed to target users much more efficiently. So they should in theory cost more than print ads. I can’t answer this, and I’ve never heard a good answer to it. But until this is addressed, the business model for journalism is going to have a hard time of things.

I have to add that I’m amused that there is even any controversy to Om’s assertion that newspaper execs are dumb, fat and lazy. Journalists have been saying this about publishing executives for as long as they’ve been drawing paychecks from them. Most of the time it’s true, and the Internet hasn’t changed that one bit.

What people need to recognize that the distruptive effect of the Internet is still in its infancy. We will continue to see meltdowns, but in the end new business models will rise above the ashes and a new level of prosperity will be achieved and will be more pervasive than before.

And Om, the problem is most working journalists are dumb, follow the crowd, and don’t have the time and/or expertise to write really great stories. Blame management all you want. And that is true of online journalists as well. Most of them are lazy and just reposting what they find on wiki. Sure the top 10% is great, but the product is mostly crap.