(Cincinnati) Enquirer to shrink paper size, close local printing plant (Dinosaur Media DeathWatch™)

Cincinnati Business Courier ^ | August 16, 2011 | Staff

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Cincinnati Enquirer parent Gannett Co. Inc. has signed a letter of intent under which the Columbus Dispatch will print a much smaller version of the newspaper. The move, if finalized, will result in the closure of the company's local printing operations by the fourth quarter of 2012.

In a statement, the company said the new format would be 10 1/2 inches by 14 1/2 inches. The paper is now 11 inches by 22 1/2 inches.

"We are committed to serving the greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky communities – and providing consumers with the best news and information anywhere, anytime. We are also committed to listening to our customers and responding to their ever changing needs," said Enquirer Publisher Margaret Buchanan in a press release.

Buchanan said the new format will retain all of the current content in the Enquirer's Cincinnati and Kentucky editions.

It was not immediately clear how many employees would be affected by the closure of the company's production operations. The Enquirer employs about 750 in Greater Cincinnati.

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Wednesday good news.

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ping

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http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20110816/BIZ/108170325/Enquirer-parent-signs-printing-letter-intent-Dispatch?odyssey=nav|head
Enquirer studies compact format in 2012

http://www.newsandtech.com/dateline/article_37a8937c-c856-11e0-abff-001cc4c03286.html
Columbus Dispatch converting to 3-around; to print Cincy paper

[TSgt]

Great News!

I stopped getting this rag several years ago when they couldn’t deliver it to my house dry.

Their website is about a day behind on news and any politically sensitive articles are restricted from commentary.

Oh, and they run regular hit pieces on John Kasich.

[GOPJ]

Here's the scam - newspapers charge by the column inch - not the square inch. So if a column is narrower it doesn't change the price charged to advertisers.

Notice how papers get narrower, but not shorter? There's a reason for that call.. Over the years, columns have gotten narrower. Kind of like when manufacturers change the bottle size to make it look larger but it holds less... Unfortunately there isn't a press to report on the press...

[abb]

http://www.nypost.com/p/pagesix/jane_divorcing_jann_at_last_CRMqViejJ7JJKY8j5Es1QN
Jane divorcing Jann at last

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-et-onthemedia-20110817,0,632518.column
Social media crackdown? It’d be more than unsociable

http://www.kansascity.com/2011/08/16/3079746/johnson-county-sun-shuts-down.html
Staff let go as Johnson County Sun shuts down

Read more: http://www.kansascity.com/2011/08/16/3079746/johnson-county-sun-shuts-down.html#ixzz1VIjnMShB

http://gannettblog.blogspot.com/2011/08/with-cincy-quickening-in-pace-of-change.html
With Cincy, a quickening in GCI’s pace of change; more to come amid shifting economic landscape

http://newsosaur.blogspot.com/2011/08/newspapers-need-jolt-of-silicon-valley.html#comments
Newspapers need a jolt of Silicon Valley DNA

http://newspaperdeathwatch.com/paywall-free-for-all/
Paywall Free-for-All

http://techcrunch.com/2011/08/16/youtubes-director-of-engineering-explains-how-60-of-videos-are-processed-in-under-a-minute/
YouTube’s Director of Engineering Explains How 60% Of Videos Are Processed In Under A Minute

http://www.dankennedy.net/2011/08/17/intimidation-free-speech-and-barstool-sports/
Intimidation, free speech and Barstool Sports

[ken5050]

Every time we have another of these aticles about a paper shrinking, or changing its business model..I wish someone would finally do an honest study of the newspaper business, explaining two key facts:

1.During the so called "glory days" of newspapers, from post WW II until the late 80's, newspapees thrived simply because they were monopolies. Some 85% of US cities and towns only had ONE paper. Advertising rates were very high..but there was no choice..you had no other place to go. Obviously the internet changed all that.

2. The newspaper we know today will not long exist. Those who produce ( write) the product will reorganize themselves, either individually or in groups...and SELL their output to those who will aggregate and disseminate it...through a multitude of platforms. If they produce work of value, they will be successful..if not they will die. The wire services may or may not survive, but they will have to reprice their product accordingly...

[abb]

And just imagine what this type technology is doing to TV news.

http://techcrunch.com/2011/08/16/youtubes-director-of-engineering-explains-how-60-of-videos-are-processed-in-under-a-minute/

YouTube’s Director of Engineering Explains How 60% Of Videos Are Processed In Under A Minute

Given YouTube’s massive scale it isn’t a surprise that the company has plenty of custom tools running in the backend to transcode video as quickly as possible (this transcoding system is called Viper). Kaiser says that one key speed improvement that was recently introduced has to do with the order in which videos are processed — the steps used to happen in sequence and are now being run in parallel, which has led to a “huge improvement’ in the time in takes to get a video live.

How big? Today, 60% of all videos go live in under one minute — a year ago, no videos were being processed that quickly.

To close out our brief interview, I asked Kaiser if he thought we still had yet to reach the ‘turning point’, when people are going to start using online services rather than cable as their primary way to consume video content. Kaiser says that we’re already seeing a little bit of this — especially with services like Hulu and Netflix taking off. But he’s not sure there’s going to be a steep inflection point in the switch from cable to IP. Instead, he thinks it may be more gradual (and is already happening).

[martin_fierro]

[Dilbert San Diego]

And the monopolies came about due to previous changes in the newspaper business.

Before the advent of television, most cities had an afternoon paper, as well as a morning paper. In most cities, the afternoon papers went out of business when TV came along. And those cities with more than one morning paper saw the weaker morning papers shut down, till they were left with one morning paper.

And this happened because the afternoon paper circulation dropped steeply when TV came along, combined with ad dollars which used to go to the newspapers now going to TV advertising.

The monopolies which many papers had in many cities was a good business model for them for many decades. But now the newspaper world has shifted again. Just as it shifted when TV came along, and hastened the death of afternoon papers and additional morning papers, now the very existence of the printed newspaper is threatened by the internet and 24/7 cable news channels.

I don’t think papers have hit rock bottom yet. We’ll see how this all plays out. I’ve heard that some papers will eventually publish a paper edition only on Sundays, or will just be available on the internet. We’ll see.

[ken5050]

The few cities that had multiple papers were divied into morning, afternoon, and evening papers..but most one paper cities ( the vast majority) had several editions..*, **, final, Bulldog...

When we sold the house a few years ago, I finally went through boxes, trunks, of stuff, some decades old.. I was 9 when Sputnik was launched, and I was fascinated, like many. At the time we lived in NYC, and we had 13 ( count 'em..THIRTEEN) papers..( may dad read the DAILY MIRROR) but I prevailed on my dad to take me out and buy a copy of ALL the papers, to read everything about Sputnik. I clipped the articles, ended up stuffing them in an envelope...and of course my mom saved everything of mine..yeras later, when married and after buying the house, she had me take all my stuff, and I just stick it in my attic...it was amazing to look back at those names, the MIRROR, THE WORLD, THE JOURNAL-AMERICAN, THE TRIBUNE..

[jmaroneps37]

Strike it up Nelson: “HA ha!”

[Buckeye McFrog]

I think my local edition of the Pennysaver is larger than that

[Halfmanhalfamazing]

Time savers? :-)

http://newspaperlayoffs.com/tag/newspaper-layoffs/

http://newspaperdeathwatch.com/

http://journalistopia.com/2008/06/19/newspaper-layoff-ma/