Just a last-minute reminder: The deadline for ReinventingClassifieds.com’s Best Idea for Reinventing Classifieds competitions (one for media/advertising pros, one for students, each with a $500 cash prize) is the end of the day on Dec. 31, 2008. We’re not looking for lengthy proposals (though it’s possible one might win). We’ll judge on the merits of [...]

The latest trend in the beleaguered newspaper industry is cutting print editions from some days of the week. In recent weeks we’ve seen the Christian Science Monitor decide to publish only one print edition a week on Sundays, with the rest of the week covered online only; a number of newspapers have cut back on [...]

As we end 2008, we media people can only hope that 2009 will be an improvement. Of course, all signs indicate that it’ll be even worse. Well, whatever happens (ad sales and circulation for newspapers plummet even more; some media companies follow over-leveraged Tribune Co. into bankruptcy; some newspapers, in big towns and small, shut [...]

I’d like to point my classifieds readers over to an Editor & Publisher Online column that I wrote this week: “My ‘Crisis’ Advice to Newspaper Company CEOs: 11 Points to Ponder.” While it’s a prescription for what ails the newspaper industry overall, I think it’s worth reading through a classifieds lens. Of the 11 points, [...]