Cindy Crawford, the editor of the Birmingham Business Journal who you see on campus from time to time, interviewed Cindy Martin, the president of the new Alabama Media Group about the changes taking place in the state’s largest media markets:
But while the entrance of Alabama Media Group on Oct. 1 meant the exit of a daily print edition of the Birmingham News, Martin said the three newspapers created and sold each week on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays are going to be enough for the Birmingham community, especially when coupled with constant coverage online at al.com.
“I really believe this is the right decision,” she said.
Alabama Media Group conducted studies to decide the three print days and determined these were the most desired by readers and advertisers. And she emphasized that the online site, al.com, gets 3.4 million unique visitors a year compared to 500,000 in 1997, so the company is following the wave of the journalism future.
“We’re not a newspaper company or a pure digital company,” she said. “We’re a brand new company.”
Martin has some interesting answers and shares some enlightening statistics about local smart phone and tablet use and also touches on social media in this story.
What do you think of the move?
Multimedia links 