Tags

Columbia Journalism Review content tagged John Paton

1. September 12, 2012 06:50 AM

   Journal Register opens the kimono a bit

   CEO John Paton gives us some hard numbers

   By Ryan Chittum

   One of my biggest criticisms of Journal Register Company and Digital First Media has been how it has cherry-picked financial figures to show its transformation is succeeding, and how the press covered those incomplete numbers. Journal Register, as a closely held company owned by a secretive hedge fund, doesn't have to report its results. So it's been near impossible for...

   Continue reading
2. September 6, 2012 12:05 PM

   Journal Register, future-of-news star, is bankrupt again

   Takeaways for the newspaper business

   By Ryan Chittum

   Yesterday, John Paton announced that Journal Register Company is filing for bankruptcy for the second time in three years. That’s something of a surprise to people who've read his announcements of soaring digital revenues and profits credulously. JRC’s (latest) bankruptcy declaration is not good news to an already demoralized news business. But it’s an occasion to rethink old assumptions about...

   Continue reading
3. September 12, 2012 06:50 AM

   Open letter to John Paton, CEO of Digital First Media

   In the wake of the Journal Register's second Chapter 11 filing, Bill Grueskin writes a "Dear John" letter about its failed digital strategy

   By Bill Grueskin

   Dear John, You and I have never met, but we have corresponded—a bit testily at times (more on that later). In light of last week’s news, I wanted to follow up with another round of correspondence, and this time I’m doing it publicly, via the Columbia Journalism Review. I hope you’ll respond, because I know you are a believer in...

   Continue reading
4. September 14, 2012 07:22 AM

   The hamster wheel vs. the quality imperative

   The real problem with JRC/Advance free model and the unappreciated benefit of a paywall

   By Dean Starkman

   …The great is rare; the dull quite common. But — and this is the genius of the online format — that doesn’t matter, not any more, and certainly not half as much as it used to. When you’re working online, more is more. If you have the cojones to throw up everything, more or less regardless of quality, you’ll...

   Continue reading