Among daily metro newspapers, The Dallas Morning News is in a relatively enviable position. It’s debt-free with some $80 million on its balance sheet, which has enabled it to go shopping to try to secure its future.
Publisher Jim Moroney III has led the paper’s two-year-old acquisition strategy under parent company A.H. Belo. He says this tactic — aggressively seeking out marketing, data and innovative search companies to complement its existing business strengths — is what the DMN needs to sufficiently diversify its revenue base. Moroney says that growing digital advertising and digital-only subscribers just won’t ever be enough to offset growing print-related declines.
In an exclusive interview with NetNewsCheck, Moroney acknowledges that the paper fumbled the ball in its first two digital pay strategy attempts, but it will likely take a third pass next year. He says ad blockers have yet to have a painful impact on the paper, but the best counter-strategy will be more relevant and engaging ads. And he says that while The Dallas Morning News will experiment with distributed publishing, he’s waiting on more data and revenue to see if it’s really the path forward.
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