1978 Called. It Wants Its Newspaper Back
Tierney refuses to talk — the public relations wizard is hiding under his desk. But how did this happen? How did the cigar in his mouth come to seem less a symbol of prestige than of hubris, not even three years after he walked up Broad Street?
There are a host of reasons. Hubris, certainly, is one. The newspaper industry’s general tanking is another, and then there’s the economy’s downward spiral. Worse, though — and most threatening — is that the brain trust behind the Inquirer and Daily News doesn’t even seem to realize that a new day, in the way Americans get their news, has dawned.
USUALLY, WHEN WE read about the death of newspapers, the story is written from the point of view of the ever-shrinking newsroom. But the advertising department might be the most important story of all: In the not-so-old days of, say, 1998, the phone rang all the time, and the people on the other end of the line wanted to advertise.
Kurt Heine, a longtime editor at the Daily News and Inquirer, remembers watching a national sales rep for the papers stroll in late each morning. This was a guy who did his work in the office, by phone, who dressed in fancy suits and lingered in the newsroom, self-satisfied as he poured himself a cup of the editorial department’s coffee. “I remember he’d leave around 2:30 or 3 in the afternoon,” says Heine. “And I used to think, ‘Man, that must be nice.’”
Must have been. And in the ’70s and ’80s and most of the ’90s, everyone reaped the rewards. As one current classified salesperson puts it, “I remember going home and telling my husband: ‘I’m not sure I can keep up with all the phone calls coming in.’”
These days, the paper’s ad reps need to work the phones like telemarketers and knock on doors like encyclopedia salesmen. What they find is a client base with more modern options: Electronic elevator signs, ads atop urinals and in bathroom stalls, and, oh yeah, the Internet, are all cheaper and better at targeting particular demographics. “The business model of print journalism is dying,” says Ken Doctor, one of the industry’s leading analysts. Ad reps also say there’s a kind of spiraling effect. Prospective clients feel the diminution of the newspaper simply by picking it up. And they understand that fewer pages mean fewer other businesses are advertising. The numbers are awful. In 2007, U.S. newspapers lost 10 percent of revenue. Classified advertising declined more than 25 percent in the first half of 2008 — before the recession.
Tierney came in tough. Sales reps who missed their goals for even a month were given letters documenting their failure. Three such letters could result in termination. This is considered a really quick hook in the ad-sales business. Former and current employees say they felt as if new management was always watching them, monitoring their trips to the bathroom and even the cups of coffee they imbibed.
