Johnny Carson would be proud

Unlike our friend Mike Leach, former coach of Texas Tech, Conan O'Brien knows how to handle a dispute with his bosses.

Earlier this afternoon, Conan issued a statement announcing that he would not be part of The Tonight Show if it was forced to move to 12:05 a.m. Eastern time.

In his address to the "People of Earth," he stated the change would be damaging to the more than 50-year-old franchise .

"But I cannot participate in what I honestly believe is its destruction," the statement said. "Some people will make the argument that with DVRs and the Internet a time slot doesn't matter. But with the Tonight Show, I believe nothing could matter more."

And the statement ended with a dash of humor: "Have a great day and, for the record, I am truly sorry about my hair; it's always been that way.
Yours,
Conan"

Not only is Conan correct, but it's also showing the challenge the all media face. Once able to dominate television, networks and their local affiliates are facing many challenges. More media niches mean more choices for all consumers.

But Conan is right for trying to preserve an American television icon. Only time will tell if he's successful.

Media Monday: Will you pay for online content?

Perhaps the biggest question being debated in the newspaper industry today is would people be willing to pay for content online.

The model for print newspapers has been that about 20 percent of the revenue comes from charging for the newspaper and 80 percent comes from advertising.

But the online model now depends nearly 100 percent on advertising revenue.

A recent study about the issue by an organization called ITZ/Belden Interactive indicates that paywalls are not a panacea.

Of the few newspapers who are charging for content, they have only 2.4% of the number of their print subscribers paying for online content.

And when you do the math, the revenue generated falls far short of the revenue made by advertising or even the print subscriptions generate by these newspapers, I imagine.

The Wall Street Journal does charge for some online content, but I wouldn't consider them the "normal" newspaper. Although they are expanding their coverage to compete more with USA Today and the national edition of the New York Times, I imagine most people are paying for access to financial information that only the Journal provides.

Unfortunately for those advocating charging for online content, the "genie," as they say has already been let out of the bottle.

This survey shows and the future will show that people are not willing to pay for online content.

Media Monday: Oprah's departure highlights broadcast challenges

Lost in last week's announcement of the end of Oprah Winfrey's show in 2011 was the impact that her departure will have on broadcast television channels.

It's going to be big, I'm afraid.

Just like newspapers have been facing challenges from new competition, so have our broadcast brethren in television and radio.

The advent of satellite radio and television is changing the landscape of broadcast just as Internet is impacting the newspaper industry.

But the announcement of the end of Oprah's ratings juggernaut is going to shake up local television, especially those stations that schedule her before the local news.

This includes mainly ABC network stations, including KVII.

A story in the New York Times really sums up the issues facing broadcast fairly well.

The mass audiences that used to flock to network television - remember just a few decades ago when there were just three or four stations - are now being fragmented.

It doesn't mean that we won't have local television stations - just like the issues facing newspapers will not put us out of business.

But the more important issue is that we need to continue to hope that all local sources of information continue to do well in this changing landscape.

First, competition makes us all better. And second, we need to have many sources for local information, not just a few. Let's just hope the economy can continue to fund all news gathering operations.

Local television stations have been merging their newsrooms together in cities large and small. Locally, the NBC affiliate and FOX affiliate share the same news resources.

The current economic issues along with the fragmenting of audiences is posing some challenges for all media outlets.

Washington Post story about the Panhandle: Is it good or bad?

When I worked at The Augusta Chronicle, the best time of the year was during the week of the Masters Tournament. It seemed like the entire world descended on the town, including a mass of media outlets.

One thing you could always count on - besides seeing a lot of green - is that one of the out of town writers would always do a story on what a crappy place Augusta was. My favorite one was from well-known writer Mitch Albom, who was a writer from a crappy town in its own right: Detroit.

He whined that there were more Waffle Houses than people in the town and there was nothing but wig shops and tattoo joints and so on ....

It seems that on regular occasions, writers come to the Panhandle and some of them do the same.

Here's a link to a recent travel story published in The Washington Post. I can't tell if it's positive or negative. Maybe you can help me.

Media Monday: Don't overreact to circulation report

The Audit Bureau of Circulation is releasing it's report on the latest circulation figures for the nation's newspapers and, at first glance, it may look like the numbers are falling off a cliff.

Today, you will see our brethren in the broadcast industry jump all over this story and talk about the demise of newspapers.

As I have said before: Not so fast my friend.

There are many reasons for this other than just some dramatic decline in readership.

First, many newspapers, including the Amarillo Globe-News, have increased the subscription prices. Others have increased their single copy prices.

Also, many newspapers are pulling back their circulation from outlying areas because of increased distribution costs. We've done the same.

Other newspapers are decreasing the amount of newspapers that allow a company to purchase and then send to customers who may not be receiving the newspaper. This is called a "third-party" transaction and newspapers have been decreasing this over the years.

Some newspapers are decreasing the amount of newspapers they sell through their Newspaper in Education program because of the cost of doing the program. Some now do it electronically, as we do here at the Globe-News.

Our most recent reports show our Sunday circulation at 49,084 and our daily circulation at 38,179. While both are down slightly, our figures are much better than the industry averages.

If you figure the average copy is read by at least two people, we reach almost 100,000 every Sunday and more than 70,000 daily.

Our montly reach on our web site, amarillo.com, is aboout 360,000 unique visitors, with about 80 percent of those not subscribing to the newspaper.

So in any given month, the combination of our web site and Sunday newspaper reaches an unduplicated audience of about 388,000.

Newspapers have more readers than ever before (but you won't here that today on the broadcast news).

What the national broadcast news reports won't show today is that audiences for their shows have been plummeting for years, often with decreases larger than the ones the newspapers are showing.

I'm sure Bill O'Reilly will blame the New York Time's decrease on their liberal bias, which has very little to do with how many people subscribe to the newspaper.

You think newspapers have it bad? Try magazines

If you keep up with the media landscape, you would think that newspapers are the only media group with problems these days.

As ESPN's college football personality Lee Corso would say: "Not so fast, my friend."

The economy has affected all media companies - from television stations to networks to radio stations and, in some cases, even companies with strong Internet revenue.

Especially hard hit are magazine titles. In the last two years, more than 1,200 magazine titles have ceased publication. That's equivalent to the number of American daily newspapers.

According to recent reports, the good news is only 383 have shut down this year, including several publications from Conde Nast such as Modern Bride.

While a few newspapers have gone out of business, the larger names - Rocky Mountain News and Seattle Post-Intelligencer - were in markets with two newspapers. For decades, it's been obvious that even large markets can't support two newspapers.

But no U.S. city of any size is without a newspaper nor will it be.

Media depend almost exclusively on advertising for revenue and the current economic recession is the driving force behind lagging revenue. And as the economy recovers, so will advertising.

In the meantime, don't believe everything you hear in the media about newspapers. It usually needs a little perspective.

Media Monday: Atlanta Journal-Constitution will no longer endorse political candidates

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution announced last week that the newspaper will no longer be endorsing candidates in political elections.

Growing up in Georgia, the Atlanta newspaper has always been my hometown newspaper. One of its former owners, Henry Grady, was well known for attempting to get Southerners to deal progressively with racial issues in the late 1800s.

There have been a lot of changes at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution lately. Major metro newspapers, like the AJC, have been much harder hit with advertising revenue declines so the newspaper has had to eliminate many positions.

Earlier, this year, the AJC underwent a redesign that drastically changed the look and format of the newspaper.

And just today, longtime sports columnist Furman Bisher announced he was retiring.

I can handle most of those changes, but what I can't handle is a newspaper that is refusing to endorse candidates. For years - for better or for worse - newspapers have endorsed candidates.

While in the end, it's hard to tell whether it helps or hurts a candidate, it does provide some perspective.

When the Amarillo Globe-News endorses candidates, we don't expect everyone to go vote for the newspaper's candidates. But we do feel there is a responsibility to help shape public discourse and opinion.

What's next? No more movie reviews that might hurt someone's feelings because they don't agree with what's published?

For a newspaper that once helped lead change in the region to abdicate its role is a sad commentary indeed.

Media Monday: Making money on content

The Internet has rapidly become a "game-changer" for many businesses. From travel agents to book publishing companies to real estate and auto sales, it's provided a new set of challenges and opportunities.

The same can be said for the information business, of which newspapers have been and are still a vital part.

Making money off information on the Internet is a challenge. Many of the successful online businesses are not selling information, but actual products. Ebay, Amazon, I Tunes and other companies are selling products to generate revenue.

Only one company selling information, Google, has really seen that much success., and mainly in the search category. They became the largest search engine and capitalized on their audience.

But most information providers aren't finding the Internet to be the panacea they expected.

Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and other similar sites have found a true Internet principle: It's easy to generate a sizable online audience. It's not so easy to monetize that audience. Especially when you're dealing with information as your main product.

No one really wants to pay for information - unless its pornography.

And much of the information - at least, much of the credible information - on the Internet comes from media outlets, especially newspapers.

This poses challenges for newspapers, but despite the conventional wisdom, we are not going out of business.

The current newspaper issues don't arise from a necessarily flawed business model. In most markets, including Amarillo, newspapers are still the top single advertising revenue business.

The problem is that too many newspaper companies have too much debt. And like nearly all businesses, we've been impacted by the economy - which is really our main problem.

A recent interview with Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google, addresses some of the issues that are faced by information providers. His take on the demise of newspapers is a bit over dramatic, but it is an interesting interview on how we all - including newspapers - will have to face the challenges of monetizing information.

For if we don't figure it out, there may not be as much credible information on the Internet for you to enjoy for free.

Media Monday: Bias of the mainstream media

With topics like ACORN and health care in the news constantly these days, the discussion of bias in the "mainstream" media is reaching a fever pitch.

I'm still not sure what the definition of the "mainstream" is, but I'm getting the feeling that the mainstream media is any media outlet that doesn't hold the same views as the person criticizing the mainstream media.

Some say Fox News is the only place to get the truth. Others say CNN. Some say the New York Times is biased while others claim it would be the Washington Times. Some swear by Keith Olbermann, others by Sean Hannity.

On television, claiming everyone else is the mainstream media has become a cottage industry.

As someone who has been part of the media for 22 years, I hate to tell you truth seekers out there, but: All media is biased.

Heck, even the Amarillo Globe-News is "biased."

The truth is we're all biased.

We tell our stories from our perspective and with our knowledge. Two people can write a book on the same topic and tell the same story two different ways.

Even in the Bible, Mark doesn't tell the Gospel story the same way that Matthew does. Does that mean Mark is part of the "mainstream media" but Matthew isn't? No, they just tell it from two different perspectives.

But what about bias in the Globe-News, you ask? How could I admit to such heresy?

Well, we have to be.

When a reporter goes to a city commission meeting or an accident scene, they have to look for what is most important to report first. There may be a dozen items on a commission agenda, but we can't write about all 12 of them first. One has to be chosen.

At an accident or crime scene, there are lots of facts to consider, but a reporter has to determine what's most important. If someone dies, it's in the first paragraph, not the last.

There are thousands of stories available to newspapers every day and most choose a few dozen to publish on any given day. You have to have a bias to make that determination.

For the Amarillo Globe-News, our bias needs to be local. There are too many places for people to get national and international news other than our paper. It's not always been like that and I realize that not everyone has access to the Internet and other sources of information, but most do.

Our only monopoly is local news.

I don't get a lot of heartburn from people who complain about a lack of ACORN stories in our paper (although, we have run many of them in the paper and on our web site). That's not our franchise and no, we're not covering for the Obama Administration or the Republicans.

When people ask me about media bias, I assure them that I've been around media people a long time and we're not smart enough to pull off a conspiracy.

The truth is bias in the media is based as much on the view of the consumer as it is on the media outlet.

How do I know this?

In 22 years, I have never gotten a call from a parent of a high school athlete who says: "My child plays football at Smith High School, but I really wish you should cover Jones High School more. I know Jones is our arch rival, but you really have been biased against them and they need more coverage."

There have been times where I have received an e-mail at 8:30 in the morning saying: "You are so far right of Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity, it's sickening." Only to be followed up lat 10 a.m. with a phone call from someone who wants to know how I can live with being the publisher of such "a liberal rag."

It's all a matter of perspective.

Some people think we are guilty of bias when we omit something. The problem is that those in the media are not all knowing.

Many times, I've received a call demanding to know why the newspaper hasn't covered something. When I ask: "Did you tell us about it in advance," the answer is often no.

We don't know about everything. We have to be told and informed.

Likewise, we have a limited amount of staff. We can't go cover everything every day. We have to make choices as well.

Do we make the wrong choices some times, absolutely. I wish we were perfect, but we're not

So what should consumers of media who want to know the "truth" do?

We are all human and we all have our biases. You need to get a lot of perspectives and realize that not one is absolutely correct. As they say, the truth lies somewhere in between.