OPINION: The Palm Beach Post’s Consultant is a Dud!

Posted by Jose Lambiet , November 30, 2011 Print

When The Palm Beach Post was forced by its owners in Atlanta to hire a California readership consultant in 2008, the goal was for the consultant, Frank N. Magid Associates Inc., to tell a staff with plenty experience how to slow down a decline in readership.

The Palm Beach Post

Three years later, the Post is selling nearly 70,000 fewer newspapers on weekdays and 72,000 on Sunday, a loss of more than 45 percent in readership.

According to the latest statistics, the company is well below the 100,000 daily newspapers mark for the first time in memory — this, as potential clients soared to 1.1 million in Palm Beach County!

I don’t know about you, but I’d be asking Magid for my money back just about now!

Or I’d ask Doug Franklin, the former Post publisher promoted to head owner Cox Media Group after the decision to dole out millions to Magid was made, to “take the buyout.”

Another one of the bright minds behind the Magid hiring, Bob Neil, a radio exec who ran all of Cox Media’s properties in Florida, recently retired. He was then re-hired as, you guessed it, a consultant!

When Magid was brought on in 2008, several top editors told me their mandate was to follow Magid’s recommendations, whatever they may be.

Never mind that newspaper journalism is fueled by instincts, not consultants. But it was pretty clear at the time that top jobs were on the line. So Publisher Tim Burke, Managing Editor Nick Moschella, and the usually maverick Features Editor Jan Tuckwood fell in line like good soldiers.

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Changes on the papers’ front page, which sets the tone for the rest of the product, were quick and drastic after Magid assembled a sample of readers that supposedly was representative of the local population.

The “representative” readers, it turns out, wanted more hard news, more international, less frills, less sports and fewer entertainment features.

Just like in your grandfather’s newspaper!

The changes would have made sense for The Evening Times circa 1974 since they didn’t seem to take under consideration the web, cable TV and what’s left of local television — and earlier deadlines caused by deep labor cuts.

Maggot, sorry, Magid, then wiggled its way through other sections of the paper and still provides its “expertise.”

In September, subscribers were grilled over the telephone for yet another survey about sports columnists, and whether readers mind reading in their morning Post Miami Heat and Miami Dolphins stories written by the Sun-Sentinel. Doesn’t bode well for the section!

Magid may have extenuating circumstances like the economy and the decline of newspapers in general. But then, how would the high-priced consultants explain why circulation of the St. Petersburg Times INCREASED by 6.6 percent on Sunday?

Burke didn’t respond to an email asking if Cox regrets hiring Magid. And media specialist Magid apparently doesn’t have a spokesperson, or so I’m told by a secretary. No one returned calls to address the decline.

I don’t know what’s worse: Gutless mid- and top-managers who continue to do as they’re told, or L.A. consultants who obviously don’t know the West Palm Beach market and its nuances?

Either way, the paper’s more-than-capable staff and hardcore readership end up paying for an institutional lack of vision.

For more:

– More turmoil at the Post

– Is it time for readers, advertisers of the Palm Beach Post to pull the plug?

– Massacre at the Post: 20-plus lose their jobs

Editorials Palm Beach Ann Cox Chambers, Atlanta Journal Constitution, CMG, copy desks, Cox Media Group, Edgar Thompson, Greg Norman, Jose Lambiet's Gossip Extra, layoffs, New Operating Model, Nick Moscella, NOM, The Palm Beach Post, Tiger Woods, Tim Burke, turmoil, West Palm Beach

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Edwin Rojas, 1 year ago Reply

The PBPost gets worse every day. In fact, their online edition is so poor (and don’t even get me started about the iPad app!) that I don’t even look at it online. I go to the Sun-Sentinel’s web site. The Sun Sentinel’s PB local news is laid out in a much more pleasing to the eye style; it’s just more customer friendly.

The Post, I hate to say it, is toast. The world went by and they react so slow, and so poorly, they are dead. Classic business case study on what NOT to do!
- Post Person, 1 year ago Reply
  
  Jose might make some accurate points, but it’s worth noting that the “The Sun Sentinel’s PB local news” is almost all written by the Post.
  - Edwin Rojas, 1 year ago Reply
    
    It’s not the content, per se, it is the annoying ads on the PB Post site. Layout is piss poor. There is no eye for design, no class. It is a junkyard…with bits of news. How annoying is that home page with the drop down ad?
aGuyonClematis, 1 year ago Reply

I think you nailed the problem with consultants on the head.

Instead of sticking their neck out and putting out “make or break” recommendations, they stick with the safe bet of what has worked in the past. Clearly in the rapidly deteriorating world of print media hanging on to your laurels isn’t going to help anyone.
Gerald Henner, 1 year ago Reply

I stopped my subscription last year. The newspaper is just not reporting the facts like they used to, failing to report on critical events. They fail time and time again to report on the wrongdoings in the county and then when they write about some corrupt political getting arrested, they make it seem as if they had no idea. They shouldn’t be surprised; the reason the wool is pulled over their eyes is because that is exactly where they want it to be. I get the impression they are so terrified from political fallout they won’t write the hard stories.

Hey PBPost – A little tip for you: People WANT TO KNOW about crime and corruption in their backyards. If you don’t expose it, the people will go to sites like this, written by people who aren’t scared of their shadows. It doesn’t take a firm like the one you hired to figure that out.

Mr. Lambiet, I can only say I am glad you are back so I can get the “real deal” on the happenings in the county, even though I don’t particularly care for celebrity gossip.
F Gree, 1 year ago Reply

The Post is Ultra Liberal. How about the fact that many people don’t want to pay for one sided reporting? The people they would like to court as readers are looking elsewhere for their news now.
ha ha, 1 year ago Reply

Working stiffs buy newspapers. And we’re taxed to death to support the 47% who dont work. And the PBP is slanted to the LEFT. hummm. I guess capitalism and FREE MARKET are the answer. We don’t like and we don’t buy!