Carlo Vittarini grew up outside Philadelphia, Pennsylvania as a self-proclaimed non athlete, who read a lot and developed a curiosity for the world. It is in high school where he found his passion for writing, and that devotion led to the appointment of editor for his school’s yearbook. This is where Mr. Vittarini stressed the importance of communication in bringing people together in every form.
Upon graduating high school Mr. Vittarini found himself that the University of Pennsylvania which is a prestigious ivy League University. However when he got there he did not like the politics involved at the school paper. So he became a “stringer” for local high school sports. This got him hired by Charlton Publishing Company which printed 11-12 magazines and was an independently run printing company. Mr. Vittarini had a curiosity to get recognized, and did not have the networking capabilities but he was successful in large part because of his curiosity. He had the desire to ask questions, and peel the layers away from the onion with persistence. So he started in their promotion department.
Yet Mr. Vittarini was also very savvy when it came to problem solving. He recalled a story where he was working for a pharmacy chain, and he had to visit all 56 stores in 2 days on a tight budget. So he went off on his route trying to figure out how he could accomplish this seemingly impossible task. It was at the second store visit of the day where he recognized a gentleman that he had just seen in the first store. He approached the gentleman and asked him what his job was, and Mr. Vittarini found out that the gentleman was actually collecting film from each of the pharmacies to be further processed, and that he was just on his daily route. So Mr. Vittarini paid the man $25 to ride with him on his route, and he was able to accomplish a task that he did not initially envision completing in 2 days.
It was that kind of intuition that eventually led to Mr. Carlo Vittarini becoming part of Parade Magazine where he was directly responsible for advertising, and then on to New York Advertising Directorship of Redbook magazine. Mr. Vittarini is a truly interesting man who has had a lot of experience in media, and has had the chance to see it evolve into new media. So it was excellent to hear his insight about not only the past, but the future of the media industry, and what one must do to stay relevant.
What is happening with literacy?
Well first I would like to start off by mentioning an article by the BBC news questioning whether we are becoming “digital goldfish” which addresses the fact that the addictive nature of Internet browsing can leave you with an attention span of 9 seconds which is the same as a goldfish. So not only has our attention spans decreased with the increase of technology, but literacy across many subjects has also decreased because of the accessibility of information and the ease at which one can gain answers for questions they may have. If someone wants to know something, there is no research involved like it once was. The libraries are empty, except the areas with free Internet, because people can instantly gain the information they want, even if the source it came from may not be reputable. Not to mention the fact that there is “spell check” on all of our technological devices from computers, to cell phones, to tablets – the need to be able to spell is becoming less and less important because people have now become more dependent on technology to think for them.
2. Name three ways in which magazines make money
How do magazines make money? Well when you go to the newsstand and buy your favorite magazine, the profit from that sale makes money for the magazine. However there is very little profit in this type of sale, which is called a “single copy sale.” You also have to factor in the operating costs of transporting it to the newsstand and the commission the magazine company must pay the newsstand company for providing space to sell its magazine. Magazines actually make far more money from subscriptions because it allows them to cut out the middle man, and get their product directly to the reader.
There is also the use of classified advertising where you see a classified section with want ads. Magazines sell want ads by the word or the line, and the ads can be quite expensive in popular magazines with large circulation. Even moderate magazines charge a high asking price for their want ads.
The most profitable way that a magazine makes money is by allowing advertisers to use its unused space throughout the magazine, including the covers and inside front and back cover as advertising space. It is normal for a full page back cover ad to run several thousand dollars or more in popular magazines with national coverage. Not only does the magazine make money with this form of advertising, it also fills up the pages by placing ads in space on pages around the story lines . The magazine looks better and its revenue increases.
Page One: Inside the New York Times
“It’s hardly breaking news that the newspaper business is in deep trouble” (Howard Kurtz, CNN)
“The Rocky Mountain News which has been around for more than 150 years is printing its last newspaper today.”
“The newspaper is dead”
“Denver can’t support two newspapers”
“It’s a grim race to see who goes under first. The Philadelphia Daily News and Minneapolis Star Tribune are both in bankruptcy. The Boston Globe and San Francisco Chronicle have been….”
“After 146 years the print edition is now a thing of the past”
These are just some of the quotes that are layered within an opening “montage” if you will of broadcast journalists and headlines that are attempting to draw attention to the serious problem of the decrease in demand for print media, as new media continues to take over as the form of the future. These reports are coming from reputable sources like Brian Williams and the Ludlow Report. Even though the majority of these headline warnings in the opening of the documentary were mostly television news media, everyone within news industry is feeling it – not just the newsPAPER industry. But there is one newspaper that has managed to stay relevant through these tough times, and in the beginning of the documentary there is a passage that reads “In 2008, The New York Times created a Media Desk to report on changes in the media industry – including at the Times itself.”
I think that passage in itself sets the tone for the documentary in that it lets the viewer know from the get go that New York Times had not only the foresight, but the intestinal fortitude to acknowledge that their industry was changing. The documentary also starts off with David Carr at his desk, microphone around his head, and hands busy at work on his computer. He is deciding what story to tell – but eludes to the rhetorical question “What’s going to happen to the New York Times.” The problem is that question isn’t so much in rhetoric anymore as it is a genuinely serious issue.
The New York Times had to do a lot to weather the storm, and several decades ago there was an idea that getting to The Times was like getting tenure, and you would have a nice long career in a variety of different journalistic areas. Gay Telese talks about how “hard news was a phrase that the New York Times almost owned. NBC, CBS, ABC – the first thing the director of their shows would do in the morning is look at the New York Times.” And traditionally The New York Times was known to be fair, and many world leaders would get a copy of The Times, even being smuggled into places like Beijing because it allowed for the reader to have an idea of the world’s existence which was recorded each day in The New York Times. They even talk about the “New York Times” effect in which The New York Times would run an important piece, and on day two the tier two newspapers would essentially imitate the story. To me this shows the grandeur and the allure behind The New York Times. With such high standards it does not surprise me that they were able to acknowledge they needed to adapt. And even though The New York Times may not have the number of subscribers they once did, yet they have managed to stay relevant, even after the scandals that plagued the periodical when Judy Miller reported wrong information about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
Today in an age where so many famous long standing newspapers have gone out of business, The New York Times is still up and running with a hard copy, and electronic copy of their periodical which allows them to reach readers because of the adaptations they have made as an organization and their recognition of innovation as an integral part of all industries. We cannot ignore how connected we are with today’s technology. And in an age where there is a tremendous amount of information overload, it is nice to know that The New York Times is still reporting ground breaking stories that resonate across the world.
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