by Daria Steigman on April 22, 2010
The Washington Post just announced that it is getting back into the business of reporting on business. So far, so good. After all, this is the paper that eliminated its standalone business section last year, prompting me to relinquish my print subscription.
But then I looked at the model:
- The new business coverage will take the form of a weekly print publication
- You have to be a current Washington Post subscriber to subscribe
- It’s going to cost somewhere around $50 per year (well, maybe non-Post-subscribers will be able to subscribe, but pay more)
Does anyone else think something is wrong with this model?
It’s not enough to have a business model, it needs to be a good model. Here are three problems I see with this one:
- Competition (including the Washington Business Journal)
- Timeliness (seriously, in a 24/7 news cycle, a newspaper company is proposing a new weekly?)
- Cost (if you’re an existing Washington Post subscriber, don’t you think the paper should already be providing business coverage?)
What’s your take?
Photo by Eddie Welker (Flickr).
Tagged as:
Business,
Washington Business Journal,
Washington Post
by Daria Steigman on May 6, 2009
It’s never a good idea to get too caught up in our great ideas, inventions, and innovations. Ask Tropicana, the most recent brand to get wrapped up in its righteousness without stopping to take the pulse of its community.
Businesses need fresh voices and outside perspectives. And not just from outside, but from the inside out. Including the membership of their boards.
As I talked about here, there are some really good reasons why solopreneurs and small business owners should consider serving on boards. But there’s also a reason why corporate boards should be looking at entrepreneurs and small business people. We’ve typically done it all, from strategic direction to sales to marketing to finance and so on.
I’ve always wanted to serve on a corporate board. But how to get noticed? I haven’t cracked that code yet, but here’s a great post on the Washington Post Leadership Blog that talks about financial fluency and other skills you need to bring to the table.
Any suggestions?
Tagged as:
Business,
Entrepreneurship,
Leadership,
Tropicana,
Washington Post
by Daria Steigman on March 27, 2009
I’m a huge fan of newspapers, and I love the physical act of reading the newspaper. And yet I cancelled my subscription to The Washington Post today.
Newspapers are in a vicious cycle: they are losing readership (and subscribers), so they’re cutting back. In recent weeks The Washington Post has eliminated its book review section; scaled back delivery of the weekly TV Guide; effectively gutted the Sunday Outlook Section; announced plans to end its stand-alone business section; and announced plans to cut back its style section. Then, yesterday, they announced another round of buyouts.
The end result: I’ve been paying for less and less. The business section was really the last straw for me. It’s gone at week’s end, and so am I.
But where does the slow death of newspapers leave investigative journalism? From Watergate to conditions at Walter Reed, The Washington Post has played an important oversight role. Other major newspapers have similarly tracked down and exposed stories of national importance.
Please don’t tell me Fox News or MSNBC will do this. Television is primarily an aggregator of the news. And network news budgets are being cut too, so it is unlikely that the networks will step up and fill the investigative journalism void.
Will investigative journalism die with the newspapers? And what does that mean for our democracy? I’d love to have you weigh in on this topic.
Tagged as:
Business,
investigative journalism,
newspapers,
Washington Post
by Daria Steigman on June 20, 2008
The Washington Post just announced that it is getting back into the business of reporting on business. So far, so good. After all, this is the paper that eliminated its standalone business section last year, prompting me to relinquish my print subscription.