USA Today Setting Itself Up For Failure
It is odd that the best-read print newspaper in the
country would walk away from that pre-eminence and
embrace technologies in which it lags the field,
says John K. Hartman, the journalism professor who
authored two books about USA Today.
By: John K. Hartman
POWELL, Ohio (August 31, 2010) --
Two months ago I suggested that USA Today embark
on a flight to quality by hiring five of the top
news columnists in the country as a way of regaining
traction as a major news source in this country.
I further suggested that hard times would cause it
to reduce significantly the size of its staff and
rely more on the Associated Press and the
journalists at other Gannett Co. newspapers and
television stations.
A few days ago publisher David Hunke announced that
9% of the paper's employees would be let go,
including an undetermined number of journalists.
He outlined a news staff reorganization in some
indecipherable marketing mumbo-jumbo. He announced a
de-emphasis of the print newspaper and the embrace
of online and mobile technologies to deliver news.
It is odd that the best-read print newspaper in the
country would walk away from that pre-eminence and
embrace technologies in which it lags the field.
Currently, according to eBizMBA, USA Today ranked
No. 13 among the most popular new websites with 19
million unique visitors in July 2010. It was fourth
among newspaper websites, trailing New York Times,
No. 6 with 38 million; Washington Post, No. 9 with
22 million; and Los Angeles Times, No. 10 with 21.9
million.
The leading news website was Yahoo! With 70 million
unique visitors, followed by CNN with 48 million,
msnbc with 47 million and Google with 46 million.
With a smaller news staff and a shrinking
distribution of its print newspaper, it stretches
the imagination to conceive how USA Today's new
digital strategy is going to overcome competitors
already tripling and doubling its unique visitors.
Some of us remember when USA Today was THE national
daily newspaper for sports fans. In the early years
up to half of the news content of the newspaper was
sports.
Then along came ESPN and its companion site
espn.com.
USA Today's print product lost its sports magic and
began to cut its sports content to 50% of what it
used to be. Sports readers did not migrate to
usatoday.com.
According to topsitesblog.com, the 11 most popular
web sites online do not include usatoday.com or any
other newspaper's web site. No. 1 is guess who?
Espn.com. The only print publication's website to
make the list is si.com, offspring of the once
mighty magazine, Sports Illustrated.
Hunke's plans for a website called USA Today Sports
that might recapture sports prominence seem
unrealistic, too.
The publisher's best move so far, in my opinion, was
to sell a four-page ad section that wrapped around
the news section of USA Today in July.
his offended journalistic purists inside and outside
the paper and was condemned by USA Today founder Al
Neuharth, according to the New York Times.
Neuharth, now 86 and a weekly columnist for the
paper, reportedly said he would have led a walkout
if he had been a journalist working for the paper.
When Neuharth was CEO of Gannett he regularly fired
and exiled those who dissented over his "journalism
of hope," his raiding other Gannett newspapers to
staff the mothership, and his looting other Gannett
properties treasuries to keep it afloat.
The only dignified thing to do would be to quit your
column, eh, Al?
As in fire yourself.
USA Today and other newspapers are going to have to
sell wrap-arounds, and front page ads, and sponsored
articles and lots of other marketing ploys that
offend purists in order to maintain a going business
and provide the news and public service that people
need and on which our free society depends.
Hunke's digital strategy appears flawed.
Ironically, his print ad strategy appears smart.
John K. Hartman is a professor of journalism at
Central Michigan University and the Al-Jazirah chair
of international journalism at King Saud University.
He is the author of two books about USA Today. Send
comments to John.Hartman@dacor.net. (Copyright, 2010.
John K. Hartman. All Rights Reserved.)
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