editor on the verge

Subject: Special Announcement on behalf of Ryan Davis…..

I am pleased to announce the promotion of Yoni Greenbaum to Vice President, Product Development.  This move is reflective of Philly.com’s commitment to build and maintain a strong and dynamic management team.

Yoni is an outstanding team member, totally dedicated to the growth and success of our company.  Since the inception of the product team last year, Yoni has demonstrated an ability to scan the outside market for ideas, bring new concepts to Philly.com and quickly implement change while building consensus.

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Philly.com Sports is looking for an intern to start immediately.

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All too often when I ask a colleague at another media company what their monetization strategy is (in general or regarding a specific product) the response I’m given is akin to “that’s not my station.” To me, that answer epitomizes the problems we’re seeing at too many media companies – too many people passing the proverbial buck.

Now, for those of you who have previously read my blog, you know that I’m a proponent of transparency and when it comes to an issue like monetization, I think companies need to increase transparency to lessen the impact of employees who believe that making money isn’t their problem.

Years ago, I worked for a company that had a gainsharing program.  The idea was that when the company was successful and earned revenue above a certain target, the results were share with employees. When business didn’t go well, those results were also shared with employees who wound up referred to the program as “painsharing.” More then anything, the program made it clear to all employees that everything had a cost and that if there was an expense, there needed to be revenue.

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PAID and ACADEMIC sports  internships available for the fall at Philly.com. Whether your interested in writing, video production, web design, online marketing or mobile applications this is your opportunity to get top-quality experience working with the proven Philly.com Sports team. Our internships are not about opening mail, fetching coffee or answering phones. You’ll be in the driver’s seat right along side our full-time team developing a portfolio that will make your friends jealous and that you’ll be able to leverage for that full-time job. We’re flexible with scheduling — heck, we’re already working around the clock — and will make sure that you have the equipment you need to be successful; no circa 1985 computers. Our Center City, Philadelphia  office is easy to get to and great to work in. So if you’re a sports fan and interested in spending the fall semester having fun while earning money or school credit then send me your best pitch about why you’re right for our team.  Email me y greenbaum @ philly (dot) com. More general internship info can be found here.

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I spent part of my Sunday morning visiting dozens of newspaper websites and by the time I was done I found myself wanting to scream. WAKE UP! LOOK AT WHAT YOU ARE DOING!

Too many of the sites I visited looked as if they’re frozen in time or, at the very least, not working with any sense of urgency. When I tweeted my observation:

“Where’s the innovation? Where’s the experimentation? Don’t see most newspaper sites doing anything different or new. What happened?”

Steve Yelvington came back with this on-point response:

“Biggest risk of organizational (i.e., newsroom) convergence is a loss of imagination and innovative spirit.”

While I agree with his comment, I just don’t feel like any of these sites can afford to rest on their laurels or to be stuck in neutral. With marketing budgets at many newspapers shrinking or disappearing altogether, for the most part, it’s up to the individual web staffs to increase metrics such as page views, time or site and return visitors (for example).

What concerns me even more is that I’m not sure the people at any of these sites realize that they have a problem. On too many occasions I’ve heard the cliché “if it ain’t broke, why fix it?”.

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