Newspaper Managers Don't Understand New Media

Newspaper Managers don't understand New Media at all. It's the key reason why papers all over America are failing. As more media outlets - webs, blogs, video - have been established, there's less money to go around per outlet. That coupled with the credit crunch and newspaper manager's failure to understand New Media is what contributed to this problem, and it's a big one.

I remember 2006, when I approached my friend Oakland Tribune Columnist Monte Poole with an idea of something called "The Monte Poole Show" -- http://themontepooleshow.blogspot.com/ -- which combined the sports columnist's columns with video presentations and then took that video and used it for television. So Monte would be on TV, in print, and in online video, expanding sponsor exposure. But Tribune Editor Martin Reynolds was having none of the idea, even as the head of KOFY TV 20 San Francisco was interested in it. Martin claimed "Monte's under contract with the Tribune" which had nothing to do with the issue at hand.

That is but one example of how the Mainstream Media does not "get" New Media and is at a loss to work effectively in it. Newspapers will continue to fail if this happens again and again.