JD Lasica Archives: March 2002
After the online meltdown
Now that we’ve hit bottom, where do we go from here?
This column appeared March 25, 2002, in the Online Journalism Review to kick off its new The Future of News section. Here’s the version on the OJR site.
By J.D. Lasica
Now that the online news industry has survived the cyberspace swoon and woken up to the Mother of All Hangovers, what’s next?
Opinion leaders in the online news business say they’re cautiously upbeat about the industry’s long-term prospects. While no one is saying that Web publishers have found the path to the promised land, many say the pervasive doom and gloom of 2001 — marked by cutbacks, closures and contortions — is being replaced by a sense that the worst is over.
“I think we’ve turned the corner,” says David D. Hiller, president of Tribune Interactive. “We actually grew through the nuclear winter. Our operating losses were cut by more than half, our revenues were up, and we’re looking for further growth this year.”
More realistic business expectations and improvements to the online news product add up to “a lot healthier” landscape today, says Scott B. Meyer, general manager of The New York Times on the Web.
“People are starting to figure out their business models, and they’re finding a way to do more with less,” he says. “Everyone’s learning that capital is not free and that profits are more important than eyeballs. It’s too early to declare that the industry is out of the woods yet, but it’s way too early to declare its demise.”
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Swift and deep
Outsourced sports solutions free up news sites to focus on the local
This column appeared March 19, 2002, in the Online Journalism Review. Here’s the version on the OJR site.
By J.D. Lasica
Do you know the No. 1 sports event for online sports fans? Nope, not the Super Bowl. Not the World Series.
March Madness — or, for the uninitiated, the NCAA college basketball tournament.
And that presents something of a challenge for thin-as-a-wafer online sports staffs. How do you cover 64 college teams with the depth and tenacity demanded by hoops-crazed Net denizens?
For more than 100 online newspapers, the solution has been to leverage the print paper’s sports staff, use the wire services — and sign up with The Sports Network, an outfit in Hatboro, Pennsylvania, that you’ve almost certainly never heard of.
Peek under the hood of an online news site and you’ll likely find a handful of third-party vendors. But few have as compelling a story as The Sports Network, founded 22 years ago as an audiotext service for newspapers. Somewhat remarkably, the Net — and the thirst of online users for instantaneous information — has helped transform this small company into a news service with a global reach.
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