From: Geiger, Richard (RGeiger@sfchronicle.com)
Date: Thu Feb 09 2006 - 09:58:52 PST
Subject: RE: SLA-SF: Thoughts on last night's program Date: Thu, 9 Feb 2006 09:58:52 -0800 Message-ID: <F171064754334B44A23DA92BC5F584A80483BFEE@sfc-is3.adsfchron.com> From: "Geiger, Richard" <RGeiger@sfchronicle.com>
Some comments:
- We subscribe to three papers too! But it is not unusual for my wife
and I to be sitting in bed or in our favorite chairs in the living room
with laptops, talking about what we are browsing.
- On the financial question: The website is growing at around 30% a year
but its gross revenues are quite small compared to the newspaper, which
is not growing in revenue. The gap between them will not close for a
number of years, so lean times in the coming years.
- Believe me when I say we've tried many, many things over the years to
increase circulation of the newspaper, but nothing has worked for us or
pretty much any other newspaper. Speaking of new things: did you see the
new Thursday entertainment tab we started today? It's mainly aimed at a
younger audience than our core subscriber base.
- I feel confident that the digital archives will be preserved for the
future. One new addition in 2004: we archive color PDFs of all the pages
we produce. This is a great improvement over B&W microfilm. And of
course now we are recording and preserving audio and video of newsmakers
and events.
________________________________________
Richard Geiger, Library Director
San Francisco Chronicle
415-777-6001
mailto:rgeiger@sfchronicle.com
SF Gate:http://www.sfgate.com
________________________________________
-----Original Message-----
From: SLA-SF@exploratorium.edu [mailto:SLA-SF@exploratorium.edu] On
Behalf Of Sandy Malloy
Sent: Thursday, February 09, 2006 9:32 AM
Subject: Re: SLA-SF: Thoughts on last night's program
Very interesting!
The "serendipity of browsing" is my #1 reason for wanting to read a
paper...we subscribe to 3. :-) I think that pleasure sometimes gets
lost in the rush to deliver targeted information.
Thanks, Beth; Sandy
Sandy Malloy
Senior Information Specialist, Business Wire
800/227-0845 (415/986-4422) ext. 512 sandy.malloy@businesswire.com
>>> beth.graham@doj.ca.gov 02/09/06 9:25 AM >>>
Josh Marshall at TPM Cafe www.tpmcafe.com has just redesigned the site
to a dual column, more newspaperish look. He explains here:
http://www.tpmcafe.com/node/26241 that he's always like the serendipity
of browsing an actual newspaper. (BTW, if you only open this latter
link you will not see the dual-column format; you will if you open the
first link.)
Beth Graham
>>> bayline_editor@yahoo.com 02/09/06 8:42 AM >>>
Interesting thoughts...
My feeling is format may not matter to us as
librarians (though we do have to educate those who say
books -- and thus libraries -- are on the brink of obsolescence), but
it's still an issue for newspapers.
As far as I know, newspapers are not planning to move
to a strictly electronic format anytime soon. And if
they did, they would certainly charge for access to
their content.
While the Chronicle and other papers may be driving
people to their Web sites with all of this new media,
that doesn't necessarily help circulation of the
regular print version. (I enjoy some of the SFGate
content, but I'm not inclined to subscribe because of
it.)
I don't recall much of the discussion Tuesday night
being about revenue, so I would be interested in
knowing if the new media is helping the Chronicle's
bottom line at this point -- or if they're just
shelling out cash for new media employees/content in
the hopes that this will drum up more business.
Heather Gamberg
SLA-SF Bulletin Editor and Webmaster
> Subject: Fw: SLA-SF: Thoughts on last night's
> program
> From: "Chris Orr" <christineorr@mindspring.com>
> Date: Wed, 8 Feb 2006 19:21:51 -0800 (GMT-08:00)
>
> Good points, Anne. Thanks for your comments. In
> short, my answer is format doesn't matter, analog or
> digital. The question, as always, is how are we
> going to save, share, protect this stuff? Not to
> mention search and deliver it. And the truth of it
> is, newspaper librarians are ideally suited to do
> all this and more. In fact, we librarians are all
> are facing great opportunities and (clearly)
> important content.
>
> Well, I promised to be short! Thanks again for
> starting a discussion. I thought the program was
> quite stimulating, too.
>
> -Chris Orr
> PS--I love that neither of these posts has the word "information" in
> it! (not that there's anything wrong with that...)
>
> -----Forwarded Message-----
> >From: Anne Barker <annenb@hillbillyhermit.com>
> >Sent: Feb 8, 2006 5:45 PM
> >To: SLA-SF@exploratorium.edu
> >Subject: SLA-SF: Thoughts on last night's program
> >
> >I've been thinking about last night's program at
> the Chronicle. I found it
> >especially interesting that the presentation began
> with the discussion that
> >the newspaper business is surviving in spite of
> naysayers who say it is
> >doomed, but everything the speakers talked about in
> terms of the Chronicle's
> >growth and revitalization is based in new media.
> This may simply be a
> >reflection of the specialization of the two
> speakers (SFGate and podcasts),
> >but I found this dichotomy fascinating.
> >
> >At what point does the Chronicle cease to be a
> newspaper and become a news
> >content provider? With the audio and video clips
> on their Web site, the
> >lines seem to be blurring. While the technological
> enhancements discussed
> >may improve the Chronicle's vitality as a news
> company, what about the
> >efforts is revitalizing them as a newspaper? And
> does the concept of format
> >even matter any more?
> >
> >Discuss among yourselves.
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