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Columbia Journalism Review content tagged Journal Register

1. September 24, 2012 10:51 AM

   Audit Notes: Digital First takedown, here comes the WSJ, debt and taxes

   The Awl roughs up Journal Register's flagship paper

   By Ryan Chittum

   Brett Sokol, writes one of the most brutal piece of media criticism I've read in a long time. He examines the promise of Digital First Media by looking at its flagship newspaper, the New Haven Register—and its website—and comparing it (very unfavorably) to the upstart New Haven Independent. It’s hard to imagine a worse-designed, more downright ugly newspaper website than...

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2. September 7, 2012 06:50 AM

   Audit Notes: Journal Register, Clinton and ‘can’t find workers,’ AP flop

   The bankrupt company's owner isn't doing well itself

   By Ryan Chittum

   Read Martin Langeveld's super-sharp take for the Nieman Lab on what the Journal Register bankruptcy means and what might be behind it: But it’s now clear that the “stacking of digital dimes” to replace digital dollars hasn’t happened fast enough. And if there actually was an Alden-led strategy at Digital First to truly capitalize on the combination’s clout through new...

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3. September 8, 2011 08:58 PM

   Audit Notes: Social Security and Ponzi, Regulation, Hamster Wheel

   By Ryan Chittum

   The Wall Street Journal's Laura Meckler has a nice rebuttal to Rick Perry's false claim in last night's Republican debate that Social Security is a "Ponzi scheme." Strictly speaking, the metaphor is misleading. A Ponzi scheme, named after Boston conman Charles Ponzi, is a fraudulent investment operation. In its essential design it’s a con. Investors don’t earn interest and instead...

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4. 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...

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5. 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...

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6. April 18, 2011 04:24 PM

   Newspaper Turnaround Stories

   Give credit to the creditors and the courts before the CEOs

   By Ryan Chittum

   David Carr takes a look today at the fortunes of the Minneapolis Star Tribune, which have stopped plummeting at least temporarily. It's nice to read some good news for a change about newspapers, especially ones that have bumped circulation, returned to profitability, and even sent profit-sharing checks to the newsroom. But I'm skeptical that much has changed and especially doubt...

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7. 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...

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