@JXPaton on the future of newspapers at the #CJFForum

Digital First. Print Last. The Gospel According to John Paton Meet the Canadian media mogul who just might have the best strategy for saving the newspaper industry. The CEO of New York based Digital First , Paton is transforming his chain of 150 papers… http://cjfpaton.eventbrite.com

  1. Audience members look on as Bob Lewis, chairman of the Canadian Journalism Foundation (right), introduces moderator Douglas Knight, president of St. Joseph Communications  (middle), who is to introduce the night's speaker, John Paton (left), CEO of Digital First Media, at the TMX Broadcast Centre in Toronto on February 16, 2012.
  2. Our liveblog of #cjfforum with @jxpaton is live! Have any questions for John Paton? Tag them with that hashtag. scrbliv.me/39172
  3. Douglas Knight, president of St. Joseph Communications, takes the podium to introduce the evening's speaker, John Paton [ @jxpaton on Twitter | http://twitter.com/jxpaton ], CEO of Digital First Media. 
  4. Paton and Knight listen as the CJF's Bob Lewis makes an intro speech. #cjfforum t.co/so50XPrP
  5. Doug Knight introduces @jxpaton as "either the flavour of the month or the second coming." #cjfforum img.ly/e25O
  6. John Paton takes the stage and starts to explain his approach to newspapers.

    The "he-said-last-night" approach to reporting is out of touch with the way in which people consume news today —  "digital first, print last," Paton says.

    The traditional approach to newspapers favoured by old-school newspaper executives — who don't understand digital media — is at the root of the industry's problems, Paton says.
  7. #cjfforum you're going to miss us when we're gone isn't a business model says @jxpaton
  8. #cjfforum @jxpaton "Crappy newspaper execs are more of a danger to journalism than any changes that have happened."
  9. "Crappy newspaper executives" have more to do with decline of news biz than Internet: John Paton at #cjfforum
  10. Paton outlines some of the hard facts of today's news business.
  11. 1919ET #JXpaton: We print folks are taking a knife to a gunfight. #CJFForum
  12. Since 2005 US newspaper industry has lost 60% of its ad revenue and countless jobs says @jxpaton #cjfforum


  13. Paton says that in Canada, plans by some in the newspaper industry to wrap the print product in glossy stock — "It rhymes with 'Mobe'" — are wrong-headed. If consumption habits stagnated, even at peak growth levels of 2.7 per cent a year that preceded the decline, it would take decades to return to 2005 levels, Paton says.


  14. #cjfforum Zing. Paton just called out the Globe on its "glossy" paper 'strategy'


  15. Coming to grip with reality is the hardest challenge for newspaper executives, Paton suggests, and cites Clay Shirky's 2009 essay, "Newspapers and Thinking the Unthinkable." 


  16. where are the industry efforts to understand how news is actually consumed? asks @jxpaton #cjfforum
  17. John Paton at #CJFForum: To change, we have to admit that newspapers are broken. You don't tinker or tweak a broken model
  18. 1921ET #JXPaton: If we're going to change then we have to admit that the print model is broken. #CJFForum
  19. 1923ET #JXPaton: What will replace that old model? Nothing... You start anew. #CJFForum
  20. Another part of the problem is that the public's tastes and what they expect of news sources has changed, Paton says.
  21. The Internet has shown us traditional newspaper journalism's value, according to the marketplace, is valued at 0 - @jxpaton #cjfforum

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