The newsonomics of Anton Chekhov

Ken Doctor reporting: 
The newsonomics of Anton Chekhov

Glorying in the past, hating the present, and fearing the future: Why are newspaper companies’ attitudes the inverse of Silicon Valley’s?

“Three Sisters,” like most of Anton Chekhov’s plays, smells of decline. His works, set in the decaying Russia of the late 19th century, offer an odd resonance to our time, a time of doubt, loss, and pessimism. Watching “Three Sisters,” performed locally last weekend, inevitably invited thoughts of the struggling news industry — as too many things do.
I was first struck by this Chekhov quotation in the theater program: “Russians glory in the past, hate the present, and fear the future.” It’s not easy to find that exact quote on the web, but it certainly sums up much of the playwright’s work and his assessment of the national character into which he was born in 1860.
That thought also seems to say too something about news industry today. Those halcyon days of monopoly dailies weren’t as wonderful as the rose-colored rearview memories recall. The present is an unending struggle — the near future, at least, looking as bad or worse than today.
2012 budgeting, still in full swing at many newspaper companies, is too much like a medical examiner’s exercise. What I hear: Dailies are budgeting down from mid-single digits to as high as low double-digits in print advertising for 2012, compared to 2011. That would compare to how much they’ve already lost this year, compared to last year. Those are brutal numbers.
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For those with their heads down, focused on the 2012 budget, it requires a short-term imagination of making it through the next year. Recent results make that 2012 process even more nervous-making. They force the renewed question: How many more jobs, newsroom and others, will be cut soon, anticipating the year ahead?
The Washington Post, with great penetration of its local market and above-average digital products, just reported a third-quarter loss. Its newspaper publishing division reported an operating loss of $9.9 million in the third quarter of 2011, compared to $1.7 million last year.
Lee’s operating income totaled just $5 million for its just-completed fiscal year, compared with $22.6 million a year ago. Operating income margin was 2.7 percent in the current year quarter.
McClatchy’s net income is $12 million for the first nine months of the year, due to rigorous cost-cutting.
Media General is at just $5.7 million in net income for the third quarter...
http://www.niemanlab.org/2011/11/the-newsonomics-of-anton-chekhov/