The American Press Institute went through with its plan to bring top U.S. newspaper publishers together in a room this week to figure out how to keep themselves alive despite all the financial evidence showing that hospice care might be their best bet at this point. It also, as we reported before, was closed to press, and none of the 50 executives who went were named. (UPDATE: Thanks to a good friend who supplied me with the list, it appears at the end of the post.)
Here are excerpts from the report. Go to the bottom of this post to read about why we couldn’t go:
The general feel of the conference:
“At times akin to group therapy and at other times resembling a business-school class… (Aren’t these folks business professionals already?)”
The prognosis:
“According to James Shein, Ph.D., turnaround specialist and professor at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, companies should start by plotting their place on a ‘Phases of a Crisis’ chart. The earliest stage is indicated by a company essentially blind to eroding conditions undermining its business. This is followed by acknowledgement but inaction, followed by faulty action in hopes of a quick fix, followed by full-blown crisis and finally dissolution of the enterprise. … As an organization moves down the crisis curve, it will find executing a recovery plan more difficult, and will have less time to do it.”
The conclusion?
“As a whole the industry is at or approaching full-blown crisis stage… And he is pessimistic about their ability to halt their fall without outside help. ‘The biggest hurdles to progress (are) the industry’s senior leadership, including some of the people in this room.’ Shein told the group. ‘I am not sure you can take a look at your industry with fresh eyes.’”
