The secret API meeting: Do we laugh or cry?
Good evening,
The secret API meeting of newspaper CEOs was held late in the week. The Editor & Publisher story covered the brief executive summary, noting that API maintained to the end its stance that the meeting itself be secret.
The E&P story can be found here:
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003891430
The API summary can be read in full here:
http://www.americanpressinstitute.org/pages/resources/2008/11/ceo_summit_on_saving_an_indust/
The summary quotes by name only the meeting’s business consultant/facilitators. The few CEO views referenced in the report are anonymous. So, sadly, we don’t know who made this suggestion:
“…there were a few calls for radical rethinking of newsrooms. One (participant) suggested hiring experts, such as a scientist or a bank regulator, in place of some reporters, to highlight expertise.”
Would the author of that suggestion please step forward.
The business turnaround specialists made the following recommendations to the CEOs, according to the summary.
*Act like an entrepreneur
*Create a portfolio of initiatives and kill those that fail quickly
*Don’t wait for every data point before taking action
*Use downsizing as a tool when necessary not simply as a cost cutting goal
*Leverage core competencies
*Be honest with employees
*Don’t sit and cower and weep about your problems. Inspire.
*Collaborate with outside entities
*Leverage the brand
Duh!
Can someone point out to me a single new or original thought in those recommendations? Corporate newsmeisters who didn’t know or understand any of this already are in deeper poop than any of us realized, and it already seemed deep enough.
Sadly, these too obvious recommendations seem to be the best that came out of this meeting, unless API is holding back the real important stuff.
With few exceptions, those involved have failed to act on similar recommendations for years. Their panicked response to the economic collapse has been to downsize, rushing to cut costs, but with very little strategic thinking evident.
If this is all they have got, they deserve their fate.
steve
Tags: API, downsizing, editors, newspaper CEOs, newspapers
November 17th, 2008 at 11:01 pm
The future’s so bright, I can’t bear to look.
(Apologies to Tom Tomorrow)
November 17th, 2008 at 11:20 pm
Every one of these confabs (and I’ve been to a lot of them) serves up the same pu pu platter of axioms, bromides, platitudes, banalities and a dipping sauce of obviousness. People leave the room feeling like they’ve been fed but the ones who feel satisfied are the speakers and organizers. I’m intrigued by Malcolm Gladwell’s new book, Outliers, and agree with most of his premises. Consultants try to recreate what’s irreproducible. Breakthroughs depend mostly on force of personality, luck and serendipity. Somebody has “The Idea” of what comes next for or replaces newspapers, but it will spring to life from luck, fortunate timing and an obsessive mind.
November 25th, 2008 at 9:01 am
[...] Still A Newspaperman » Blog Archive » The secret API meeting: Do we laugh or cry? "API;s summary quotes by name only the meeting’s business consultant/facilitators. The few CEO views referenced in the report are anonymous. So, sadly, we don’t know who made this suggestion: [...]