Ken Doctor

It’s generated controversy over its fundraising, its paywall, and its staffing. But it’s also about as close as a major American city has gotten to a digital news site that can go toe-to-toe with the local daily newspaper.

The coronavirus pandemic is proving the value of local news to millions of readers, driving up subscriptions. But the advertising collapse is knee-buckling. “If it’s a couple of months, we’ll make it through. If it’s six months, all bets are off.”

The multi-trillion-dollar CARES Act should extend a lifeline to many small local publishers. But for bigger companies and chains, the help they’ll receive is still up in the air — “It’s very unformed.”

By gutting local advertising overnight, COVID-19 has accelerated strategies — like cutting print days, corporate consolidation, or even closing down offices — that publishers had hoped could wait a while longer.

The company’s stock can’t fall much lower, but the questions surrounding America’s largest newspaper chain are beginning to multiply.

A new round of consolidation could kill off half of what were the major U.S. newspaper chains just a few months ago. But the possibility of platform cash is sparking hope.

“You want to move your business and your model to the place on the media chessboard where the dollars are going to be going” — the TV money that will follow audiences to streaming.

Tribune and McClatchy are both approaching critical deadlines that could lead to mergers, divisions — or even the first big nonprofit newspaper chain in the United States.

A giant potential audience isn’t good enough on its own anymore: “It’s time to re-examine all of our relationships with the big platforms.”

But Alden Global Capital would be happy to lend a hand. Plus: When a standstill isn’t really a standstill.

The hedge fund Chatham Asset Management reeled in its prize, as expected. But now what does it want to do with it?

“Engineering now is the second largest functional area at the New York Times, only behind journalism, and the largest function by far on the business side.”

We don’t wake up each morning to compete with a print daily, but rather to run our own local news and community model. That’s the key.

“It’s simple, fast, and gloriously free of baggage. It’s not what we’re not, it’s simply what we are. And anyone is free to use it.”

“The term ‘news desert’ has been a shorthand, but the real problem here and elsewhere is that this region lacked the number of journalists it needed to thoroughly inform the public.”

Eleven takeaways as Lookout Santa Cruz enters its third year.

“You need Google to stay in this. Otherwise, it devastates the entire industry.”

What’s important to watch, in this gnarly legislation filled with acronyms, are two simple things: Money In and Money Out.

Here's my perspective on what sense we can now make of a settlement, one that may act as a template for other states.

Here's my perspective on what sense we can now make of a settlement, one that may act as a template for other states.