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I feel that NYTimes is the only news organization that has been able to transition to the Digital Era. Does anyone else know of any other old-school news organi

I feel that NYTimes is the only news organization that has been able to transition to the Digital Era. Does anyone else know of any other old-school news organization that nicely transitioned to the Digital Era?

richev 10y ago
Financial Times - http://ft.com http://ft.com
- dredmorbius 10y ago
  The Financial Times and The Economist have a shared history, though common ownership interest in the two publications ended in August of 2015. The fact that both papers are very high quality and have done well in the online era strikes me as not unrelated. Though separate now (FT is owned by Nikkei of Japan, The Economist is now principally held by the Agnelli family, who founded Fiat, along with several other families including Cadbury, Layton, Rothschild, and Schroder. https://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/aug/15/economist-becomes-a-family-affair-agnellis https://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/aug/15/economist-beco...
knz 10y ago
NPR (http://www.npr.org/ http://www.npr.org/) seems to be doing ok - they have a good mix of online reporting, audio from radio reporting, special features for events such as the election, and a number of successful podcasts associated with their various shows.
- chakalakasp 10y ago
  "Alexa, tell me the news" Cue well-polished NPR briefing
- Others 10y ago
  NPR is a non-profit that offers all of it's reporting for free. (Their income mostly comes from donors.) Their a bit of a special case since they're happy to lose money on their online offerings.
  - bitJericho 10y ago
    That's the thing. I don't think they're losing money on the online offerings. I think people pay by becoming donors and then use the online offerings.
    - 1wheel 10y ago
      Most of their donors are older and primarily use the radio.
      - bitJericho 10y ago
        Most, but not all.
  - snowwrestler 10y ago
    NPR is actually in a scary position. Yes most of their money comes from donors, but they are not direct donations. Most of the donations go to the individual radio stations, who then pay NPR for their content. This means that NPR cannot go around their stations directly to their audience. They simply don't have the infrastructure and resources to raise an equivalent amount of donations directly. And as a matter of preference they don't want to hurt the local stations. They like the local stations. It puts major restrictions on their product strategy. Everything they do has to have a way to tie back to a local station, and drive donations to local stations. If they just send everyone to NPR.org, they will go out of business. In this respect, the NYTimes is in a better position for digital. They directly own all their reader and customer relationships, so they have more freedom to innovate.
- xherberta 10y ago
  Is anyone else annoyed by NPR's ads for itself? Do all NPR stations run these things, claiming, "We're the only news source you need," and "We'll tell you everything you need to know."?
  - heartbreak 10y ago
    I'm unsure which NPR promotions you're referring to, but yes, every news organization promotes itself. Local news stations, cable news stations, traditional media, etc. all do it. Why would you expect them to not self-promote?
    - xherberta 10y ago
      Even sugar cereals have to self-promote as "a part of this nutritious breakfast." Do you not feel patronized when one news outlet claims to be the ONLY one you need? Part of being a responsible citizen these days is seeking out a range of sources.
  - Gaelan 10y ago
    Is this during pledge drives or just all the time?
    - briandear 10y ago
      I do find it interesting that they advertise in a backhanded way: "This was brought to you because of a generous donation from XYX Corp."
      - ssully 10y ago
        Can I ask what you find interesting about that? That has to be one of the oldest forms of radio/TV ads. "This program is brought to you by -insert brand name, followed by slogan of the brand-".
    - xherberta 10y ago
      These are short ads that run every day promoting drive time programming. I hope this is unique to my local station.
- ascagnel_ 10y ago
  Also, since it's radio (vs print or video), they can capture the driving to work market, which is gigantic in the United States (the US Census [1] has it at 85.8 million). The others would largely require your undivided attention. [1] http://blogs.census.gov/2015/08/13/majority-of-americans-drive-to-work-but-less-so-for-urban-millennials/ http://blogs.census.gov/2015/08/13/majority-of-americans-dri...
  - knz 10y ago
    Good point. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most-listened-to_radio_programs https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most-listened-to_radio... reflects how significant that it. 1. All Things Considered - 13M weekly listeners 3. Morning Edition - 13M 6. Marketplace - 9M
- javiramos 10y ago
  Great point! I love NPR podcasts. In particular (and relevant to the HN community), I like From Scratch and How I Built This.
johnnyb9 10y ago
WSJ?
- blahi 10y ago
  Although the WSJ has been firing people lately, I think they are doing OK, at least from a product quality standpoint. Perhaps letting go of some people is just the way to transition.
- dredmorbius 10y ago
  Suffering at least somewhat financially. Its reputation was completely tarnished for me when Murdoch / NewsCorp bought it.
freshyill 10y ago
The Washington Post is definitely rivaling them. They're doing very well now and they've got some really big digital initiatives going on inside.
4684499 10y ago
Bloomberg
prawn 10y ago
The Guardian?
- dredmorbius 10y ago
  Somewhat mixed, financially. The Guardian have a massive endowment (£842 million), but have also been failing to meet costs based on advertising and subscriptions revenues. FT have an article (search headline via Google in Incognito mode to read): Guardian launches paid membership scheme https://www.ft.com/content/39ad0574-390d-11e4-9526-00144feabdc0 https://www.ft.com/content/39ad0574-390d-11e4-9526-00144feab... The Guardian has launched a paid membership scheme, as it seeks to narrow operating losses that reached £33.8m last year. Given the size of the endowment, that's a 24 year burn-rate.
schuke 10y ago
The Economist is doing pretty well. I've been a subscriber for more than ten years. Now I still get my copy delivered on Friday, but for a little less money (no more print copy), to my iPhone and iPad, with audio for every article.
- clydethefrog 10y ago
  Their Espresso app, a daily update of world developments, is also a great concept. For me it's a better way to get the news, than to have a constantly changing news feed app.
- nogbit 10y ago
  Loved it when I had a sub, may have to pick it back up.
intopieces 10y ago
Not sure if it fits what you consider 'old school' but The Economist has a very nice digital edition with non-intrusive ads and professional audio for all of their articles.
bradleyjg 10y ago
I don't think they've really gotten their footing financially yet in the post-print world. They have large, high quality operations, including digitally, but they haven't figured out how to pay for it all in a steady state. The latest in a long series of articles: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/28/business/media/buyouts-wall-street-journal-bad-news-for-newspapers.html http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/28/business/media/buyouts-wal... I hope the traditional newspaper with deep, broad, daily coverage can survive, but I'm not sure they can. We may be left with state news organizations (BBC), donation supported news organizations (NPR), news organizations that do newsgathering for the purpose of informing investments (Bloomberg), and organizations with less ambitious coverage goals (any of the online news magazines). The wire services may end up being the last to go or they may carve out a niche even if the national papers of record can't.
tim333 10y ago
The Times (London) is doing ok financially recently. It was one of the few to have a hard to avoid pay wall >The Times and The Sunday Times, reported an operating profit of £21m for the year ending June 2015, up from £1.7m in 2014. Previously, the company had suffered a run of losses covering every year since 2002.
dominotw 10y ago
How about massive losses? I am not quite sure what you mean by 'nicely transitioned'. Their graphics are overrated. Packaging same old propaganda into lame graphics is not 'nicely transitioned ' .

richev 10y ago

Financial Times - http://ft.com http://ft.com

dredmorbius 10y ago
The Financial Times and The Economist have a shared history, though common ownership interest in the two publications ended in August of 2015. The fact that both papers are very high quality and have done well in the online era strikes me as not unrelated. Though separate now (FT is owned by Nikkei of Japan, The Economist is now principally held by the Agnelli family, who founded Fiat, along with several other families including Cadbury, Layton, Rothschild, and Schroder. https://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/aug/15/economist-becomes-a-family-affair-agnellis https://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/aug/15/economist-beco...

knz 10y ago

NPR (http://www.npr.org/ http://www.npr.org/) seems to be doing ok - they have a good mix of online reporting, audio from radio reporting, special features for events such as the election, and a number of successful podcasts associated with their various shows.

chakalakasp 10y ago
"Alexa, tell me the news" Cue well-polished NPR briefing
Others 10y ago
NPR is a non-profit that offers all of it's reporting for free. (Their income mostly comes from donors.) Their a bit of a special case since they're happy to lose money on their online offerings.
- bitJericho 10y ago
  That's the thing. I don't think they're losing money on the online offerings. I think people pay by becoming donors and then use the online offerings.
  - 1wheel 10y ago
    Most of their donors are older and primarily use the radio.
    - bitJericho 10y ago
      Most, but not all.
- snowwrestler 10y ago
  NPR is actually in a scary position. Yes most of their money comes from donors, but they are not direct donations. Most of the donations go to the individual radio stations, who then pay NPR for their content. This means that NPR cannot go around their stations directly to their audience. They simply don't have the infrastructure and resources to raise an equivalent amount of donations directly. And as a matter of preference they don't want to hurt the local stations. They like the local stations. It puts major restrictions on their product strategy. Everything they do has to have a way to tie back to a local station, and drive donations to local stations. If they just send everyone to NPR.org, they will go out of business. In this respect, the NYTimes is in a better position for digital. They directly own all their reader and customer relationships, so they have more freedom to innovate.
xherberta 10y ago
Is anyone else annoyed by NPR's ads for itself? Do all NPR stations run these things, claiming, "We're the only news source you need," and "We'll tell you everything you need to know."?
- heartbreak 10y ago
  I'm unsure which NPR promotions you're referring to, but yes, every news organization promotes itself. Local news stations, cable news stations, traditional media, etc. all do it. Why would you expect them to not self-promote?
  - xherberta 10y ago
    Even sugar cereals have to self-promote as "a part of this nutritious breakfast." Do you not feel patronized when one news outlet claims to be the ONLY one you need? Part of being a responsible citizen these days is seeking out a range of sources.
- Gaelan 10y ago
  Is this during pledge drives or just all the time?
  - briandear 10y ago
    I do find it interesting that they advertise in a backhanded way: "This was brought to you because of a generous donation from XYX Corp."
    - ssully 10y ago
      Can I ask what you find interesting about that? That has to be one of the oldest forms of radio/TV ads. "This program is brought to you by -insert brand name, followed by slogan of the brand-".
  - xherberta 10y ago
    These are short ads that run every day promoting drive time programming. I hope this is unique to my local station.
ascagnel_ 10y ago
Also, since it's radio (vs print or video), they can capture the driving to work market, which is gigantic in the United States (the US Census [1] has it at 85.8 million). The others would largely require your undivided attention. [1] http://blogs.census.gov/2015/08/13/majority-of-americans-drive-to-work-but-less-so-for-urban-millennials/ http://blogs.census.gov/2015/08/13/majority-of-americans-dri...
- knz 10y ago
  Good point. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most-listened-to_radio_programs https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most-listened-to_radio... reflects how significant that it. 1. All Things Considered - 13M weekly listeners 3. Morning Edition - 13M 6. Marketplace - 9M
javiramos 10y ago
Great point! I love NPR podcasts. In particular (and relevant to the HN community), I like From Scratch and How I Built This.

johnnyb9 10y ago

WSJ?

blahi 10y ago
Although the WSJ has been firing people lately, I think they are doing OK, at least from a product quality standpoint. Perhaps letting go of some people is just the way to transition.
dredmorbius 10y ago
Suffering at least somewhat financially. Its reputation was completely tarnished for me when Murdoch / NewsCorp bought it.

freshyill 10y ago

The Washington Post is definitely rivaling them. They're doing very well now and they've got some really big digital initiatives going on inside.

4684499 10y ago

Bloomberg

prawn 10y ago

The Guardian?

dredmorbius 10y ago
Somewhat mixed, financially. The Guardian have a massive endowment (£842 million), but have also been failing to meet costs based on advertising and subscriptions revenues. FT have an article (search headline via Google in Incognito mode to read): Guardian launches paid membership scheme https://www.ft.com/content/39ad0574-390d-11e4-9526-00144feabdc0 https://www.ft.com/content/39ad0574-390d-11e4-9526-00144feab... The Guardian has launched a paid membership scheme, as it seeks to narrow operating losses that reached £33.8m last year. Given the size of the endowment, that's a 24 year burn-rate.

schuke 10y ago

The Economist is doing pretty well. I've been a subscriber for more than ten years. Now I still get my copy delivered on Friday, but for a little less money (no more print copy), to my iPhone and iPad, with audio for every article.

clydethefrog 10y ago
Their Espresso app, a daily update of world developments, is also a great concept. For me it's a better way to get the news, than to have a constantly changing news feed app.
nogbit 10y ago
Loved it when I had a sub, may have to pick it back up.

intopieces 10y ago

Not sure if it fits what you consider 'old school' but The Economist has a very nice digital edition with non-intrusive ads and professional audio for all of their articles.

bradleyjg 10y ago

I don't think they've really gotten their footing financially yet in the post-print world. They have large, high quality operations, including digitally, but they haven't figured out how to pay for it all in a steady state. The latest in a long series of articles: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/28/business/media/buyouts-wall-street-journal-bad-news-for-newspapers.html http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/28/business/media/buyouts-wal... I hope the traditional newspaper with deep, broad, daily coverage can survive, but I'm not sure they can. We may be left with state news organizations (BBC), donation supported news organizations (NPR), news organizations that do newsgathering for the purpose of informing investments (Bloomberg), and organizations with less ambitious coverage goals (any of the online news magazines). The wire services may end up being the last to go or they may carve out a niche even if the national papers of record can't.

tim333 10y ago

The Times (London) is doing ok financially recently. It was one of the few to have a hard to avoid pay wall >The Times and The Sunday Times, reported an operating profit of £21m for the year ending June 2015, up from £1.7m in 2014. Previously, the company had suffered a run of losses covering every year since 2002.

dominotw 10y ago

How about massive losses? I am not quite sure what you mean by 'nicely transitioned'. Their graphics are overrated. Packaging same old propaganda into lame graphics is not 'nicely transitioned ' .