BoSacks Readers Speak Out: On Brain Drains, Time Inc, Media and More

BoSacks Readers Speak Out: On Brain Drains, Time Inc, Media and More
www.bosacks.com


Re: The Brain Drain
oh how true. the problem with old media is that the people who work there are old, and their experience tells them that the new media won't make it.
the problem with new media is that the people who work there have no experience, so they have no clue what can't be done, so they go ahead and do it.
ah to be young and unbald again
(Submitted by an Industry Pundit)


Re: The Brain Drain
This post hits close to home for me. I won't go into details, but recently when I went to management with ideas to make our company web site more user-friendly (and as the Circulation Manager getting readers to LIKE our web site is important to me!) I was thanked for my time and told that management "knew what they were doing" . . . a management team whose median age is 55 and who frequently ask my help to do "difficult" things like attach multiple files to an email or print a document as a PDF file. When I mentioned a new-fangled technology called "RSS" none of them had a clue. Ironically when I talked to our web master about it he had received the same reaction to most of his suggestions. Like the first person quoted in Alan's post, I feel like I'm wasting my time here. . . . Thanks for letting me rant a little.
(Submitted by a Circulator) and a smart young woman whose company will no doubt be a victim of the Brain Drain Syndrome.


Re: The Brain Drain
Bob, The young man has a good idea, but with at least one big problem; veracity. One of the most valuable assets of most news organizations is the integrity of their published words. At least, it needs to be. The problem with individual bloggers is that unless they are sued for being legally inaccurate, which may be reported in MSM, there is little way of telling whether they write fact or opinion, truth or fiction. I guess the same goes for our politicians.
(Submitted by a Publisher/Printer)


Re: Media Remix
Bo, this goes along with what P&G said several years ago that "there is no such thing as mass media anymore and new approaches have to be found to connect with customers on a more direct basis" Glad the beer guys are getting around to the approach.
(Submitted by a Paper Person)


RE: Uh-oh, here comes Media 3.0
media 3.0
the mets 0
(Submitted by a Senior Dir of Mfg & Dst)


Re: Time Inc. Gives In to Issue-Specific Guarantees
Oh thank the stars above. Time Inc. took one for the team. I was worried that if we didn't feed the ABC buyers committee and the MPA something soon - that they would demand something ELSE at the ABC November meeting in Chicago. Ooooh - maybe I spoke too soon . . . these guys have short term memory. They changed the sponsor rule 4 times in three years...and the rumor is that they still aren't satisfied.. . . Could we be in for the 5th time? . . . oh joy . . .

Hey circulators!, this is very important to remember: The ad buyers are hiding a very painful secret: They haven't a clue where their audience really is! It's thinned out and cloaked itself. Not entirely tangible these days - and not all that engaged. Don't let them fool you. Ad buyers want more 'transparency' out of magazine circ - because they are hoping to "see" something that they can't find themselves.

I think it's funny how Ad Buyers (and the MPA) point the finger at the circulators - like were the dirty ones. Like we're hiding something, cooking numbers and looking for loop holes. Fact is - we're as real as we possible can be because the stakes are way to high. Anyone fell like losing their job? Not me. Here's a nightmare: I could never imagine switching careers . . . putting a media plan together and selling it to a big client. Can you image all the fancy words they come up with and the junk they spin to their clients? Talk about a dirty job . . . yuck.
(Submitted by a Senior Circulator)


Re: Stora Enso sells its North American paper operations to NewPage
Wow! I am not surprised but rather awed. The number of mills and the supply of coated paper continues to shrink. I think the mills want to take the market supply of coated paper down to or below the market demand. I believe the Internet has hurt the paper business more than some mills want to admit.
(Submitted by a Senior Paper Person) (This guy called on BoSacks in the mid-1970s and taught him a lot about the business)


Re: The Cheap Revolution
So the geeks are learning now what has been clear to printers for some time. Somewhere along the way, customers go from wanting to get more for less to expecting to get everything for nothing. They have my empathy if not my sympathy. It will be interesting to see how well they cope.
(Submitted by a Printer)


Re: U.S. Marketers Are Sewing Seeds of Their Own DestructionBo,The headline should be:
U.S. Marketers are Sowing Seeds of Their Own Destruction.
Sorry, I was an English major.
(Submitted by a Senior Production Director)



Re: In Defense of Media Cross-Ownership
This question comes down to this: Who should determine ownership of means of communication, or anything else for that matter, the government or the market?

Being a government official and a large D Democrat, that the regulatory approach looks good to you is unsurprising. Knowing you as I do, I am sure this is inspired by your innate idealism, and a belief that government intervention will guard the public interest in the name of the common good. Being a taxpaying consumer and a large C Curmudgeon, and as imperfect as the market is, I choose it over government regulation every time.

Companies and their ownership act in their own best interest, i.e. in the way that will maximize their profits. Making the most money means pleasing the greatest number of customers - us - because the customers can always choose the services of a competitor in the same medium or move to another medium or turn off the media. The government also acts in its own interest, i.e. collecting taxes, staying in power and getting more of both. But since the only monopoly the government allows is its own and they run the courts and own the jails, we are not free to ignore their mandates. You can refuse a subscription offer. Try it with a subpoena.

So, we are given the choice between dealing with a commercial enterprise that would like to be a monopoly and a coercive enterprise that is already a monopoly. I'll take Door #1, Monty.
(Submitted by a Printer)

RE: Americans have Skewed View of Ad Industry
Bob, I doubt that American consumers have ever valued advertising as an industry. We like to think of ourselves as independent-minded and naturally curious, so who needs an advertising industry to inform us and recommend products to us? At best, consumers knowledgeable about how the media industries work look at advertising as a necessary evil, a way of funding the media they enjoy. In don't think JWT or the ad industry should be surprised by these survey results.
(Submitted by a Publisher)



RE: BoSacks Speaks Out: New Research and Advisory Service for our Industry
Definitely a great idea, filling a real need for help and direction in the publishing industry. The challenge will be to get the attention and support of the industry ostriches - the ones who need it most probably already don't "get it". Just had an image of Paul Revere riding through the Boston suburbs, sounding the alarm. It is the publishers who roust from their sleep and pay attention to the warnings that will survive, with your capable help.
(Submitted by a Senior Director of Mfg & Dst)


MSM, MSN, and other thoughts
Your note to me about MainStreamMedia got me to thinking. I nowadays spend enought time reading news- and newsletters on my computer screen, that I suppose it has become MSM to me. We still subscribe to the CLARKSVILLE LEAF-CHRONICLE, which is probably 50% smaller in page volume than two years ago, but mostly turn to the editorial pages for columnists, and the comics, to see what Dilbert is up to.

We watch the TV news at 6:18, when the weather comes on, to get their idea of our forecast. The local (Nashville) TV news is hardly an unbiased look at events, local or national. There is ALWAYS a spin in their stories. The implication is: "Here's how your should see this.", and not "So, what do you think?"
I do listen to NPR, and watch a moderate amount of NPT. They often have something to say, or show, that I find interesting or stimulating.

I am pleased that NYTimes has lifted the premium pay-per-peek for columnists, such as Paul Krugman. Read his blog today about Is this our Wylie E. Coyote Moment?
Having been a magazine printer (and sometimes working for the publishers) for nearly 40 years, I still love 'em, but I am trying to reduce our subscription count from 12 pubs to a number about half that. Part of it is dollar economics, and the other part is time management economics. There is more to read and learn than I seem to have hours in a day for. And, that doesn't count the other required activities of daily living!

So, Bob, it looks as though I have somehow taken a tributary of MSM, and swim it on my LCD. This river is wide enough to have trouble seeing both shores at the same time. I believe I may be going with the flow.

Oh, and I ALWAYS read your 3 messages a day. Why? Because it could be useful and interesting. Couldn't do that if you were in MSM, and Bob XXXX hadn't forwarded one of your blogs a couple of years ago.

A thought starter for you might be to invite your readers to describe their own relationships to media, Print, Broadcast, or Electronic; is their practice matching their doctrine? Does that need reconciliation?
(Submitted by a Printer/Publisher)