Advance execs share outlook on TV

The AnnArbor.com team isn't the only Advance Publications group reaching out to the public as the company's 26 newspapers under go changes.

Bob DeMay, who talks about newspaper economics over on the Ohio News Photographers Association's blog, led me to the first video - Cleveland Plain Dealer editor Susan Golberg talking about the newspaper's future in an interview with WKYC-TV anchors Carole Sullivan and Eric Mansfield.

Some optimism in Ohio must come from the northeast Ohio region ranking number 2 for newspaper readership.

Talking in Alabama

Mobile, Ala., Press-Register Publisher Howard Bronson also talked with a local TV station about the future of newspapers.

Although the newspaper, like the Advance-owned Birmingham News and Huntsville Times recently announced 10-day furloughs and pension changes, I suspect the interview was spurred by this:

Press-Register signs deal to print Pensacola newspaper

The Pensacola News Journal announced April 3 that it would end 84 jobs in its printing operation and outsource the print production of the newspaper to the Mobile, Ala. Press Register. That job starts in about 60 days.

Fox10 reported that Bronson said his newspaper had a "monopoly on local news", and expressed the belief that young people, who increasingly get their news from the Internet, would eventually become newspaper subscribers despite predictions to the contrary.

Bronson also discussed what he believed would be the business model that would allow newspapers to survive in the twenty-first century.

Huntsville changing

Things are in the works for the nearby Huntsville Times, one of 10 newspapers in the United States that reported a circulation increase in September's Audit Bureau of Circulations report.
The newspaper also had more then 60 employees accept a voluntary buyout in February, according to published reports.

Publisher Bob Ludwig said that the newspaper was "working toward an evolution of The Times that will make it better in the Internet era. We're developing a more Web-savvy newsroom, we're selling advertising across multiple platforms, and we're going to focus the print edition even more toward local news."