Ted's Take

Here it is:

1. Get out of the newspaper business. Culturally, you can’t look and define your business as the delivery mechanism. The business is truly content and distribution across all pipes. The asset is journalists and the brand. A print-based property is just one of the many ways to distribute the digital bits. Most newspapers have in charge of their leadership "newspaper men". They should turn over the reins to young execs, women and people with diverse backgrounds, who are web based and new consumer savvy and will NOT be wed and enamored with the print-based delivery system of the past. A true mind shift change is in order and an integrated plan for content delivery across TV, mobile, Web 2.0, print, radio, podcasts and syndication must be developed. 2. Give it away. Moore’s Law is the defining theorem of our generation: faster, better and cheaper until it is free. Free products are better than paid products on the web. Distribution is key. News is free and readily available; charging for it is old school. Eyeballs and keystrokes are the coin of the realm not paid circulation which will dwindle more and more over time. There need not be any registration either so ditch the sign-up at log-in etc. Look at the print property as a way to promote and support the online and syndication properties. Go from a subscription business with an ad business and digital business aside it to a digital ad business with a print business to promote it. Aggregate up other site’s news to get up the value chain and redefine circulation as syndication for Web 2.0. 3. Partner. I never understood why newspapers didn’t band together to create vertical online sites. A sports site that networked all pro teams across sports would be formidable. A political site that was national in scope with focus on local governments and politicians would work (see Politico.com). Even a Google news-like portal would roll up all of the assets. Then create a separate shared national sales force that sold across the network. Try again to create a Web 2.0 based classified service as well. Look to advertisers as partners. Look to competitors as partners. It is a new world. 4. Syndicate for Web 2.0. Atomize your online Web 1.0 site. Blow it to smithereens. Syndicate it all via widgets. Look to bloggers and social network pages as distributors for your content. It will never be cheaper and easier than it is today to get consumers to carry your info and reach their audiences as it is today. Make your brand a badge of social honor so that a local blogger for the Caps or Wizards wants to carry your scoreboard or your analysis via widget as examples. Look at what initially look like competitors and embrace them. Don’t be rude and expect someone to point to your site. Get your content baked into everyone’s site.

5. Create mini local third party networks. Embrace and extend your reach locally by building a great digital sales force and then network and ingest local unique visitors, page views and engagement from third parties. Do locally what Advertising.com has done nationally, superset the region by creating a network of affiliates and build up massive scale of local sites. Promote them in your print-based property. Write these affiliates checks to own the inventory and own the local market so you don’t die a death of a thousand cuts. 6. Be BOLD now. Take the Top 10 big newspapers and join together and then acquire something massive that can be shared. Why aren’t the newspaper companies banding together to acquire Yahoo as an example? Buy a big social networking site and launch a cross platform classifieds network within to compete with eBay and Craigslist. Acquire Twitter and create real time news and classified for sale network. Do something big and meaningful. Your shareholders will love you for it. 7. Re-purpose cash flow buy acquiring Web 2.0 companies in the rich media space. Go acquire a big podcasting business. Why didn’t a newspaper company acquire Audible as an example? Go acquire a video widget syndication business. You will need rich media assets in the new world. Just having words won’t scale in the Web 2.0 environment. You must move up the value chain and get video and audio assets.  8. Get rid of senior editors. Turn them into algorithmic managers. Editors are pass

I have lived and had a home in Vero Beach, Florida, for more than 25 years. The Dodgers have been the defining brand for Vero Beach and Dodgertown has given Vero Beach a feel of a “special place”. One of my favorite memories in life was going to spring training games with my dad and my son. Spring training games in a small park in the sunshine is just a beautiful experience.

I have lived and had a home in Vero Beach, Florida, for more than 25 years. The Dodgers have been the defining brand for Vero Beach and Dodgertown has given Vero Beach a feel of a "special place". One of my favorite memories in life was going to spring training games with my dad and my son. Spring training games in a small park in the sunshine is just a beautiful experience. Yesterday was the last spring training game for the Dodgers at Dodgertown as they move, rightly so, back west to a new modern facility for next year’s spring training. The Brooklyn Dodgers moved to Vero Beach and created the best spring training facility in the major leagues. But time moved on. The Dodgers moved to LA. Their Brooklyn based fans died off and at most games there were more fans of the opposing teams than for the Dodgers and what was considered modern as a facility became known as quaint. Time moves on and now Vero Beach will be forced to recruit a replacement team - rumored to be the Baltimore Orioles - and upgrade the facility and start anew memories for families.

There is often times no reward without taking risk. We took some risks at the trading deadline and for now, we are reaping the benefits.

There is often times no reward without taking risk. We took some risks at the trading deadline and for now, we are reaping the benefits. We basically have six key players out of our lineup - Nylander, Clark, Pothier, Johnson, Steckel and Erskine - and have replaced them with Huet, Fedorov and Cooke. Just in time replacements and we are better for it at least in our record to date. Adding some vet experience at crunch time may be very helpful to us, now more than ever, as we go on a six game two week road trip that will define our season.

My bad - Brooks was a sixth round pick by Ottawa NOT a second round pick as I noted. Good catch on my mistake. Makes the call by our scouts even more impressive.

My bad - Brooks was a sixth round pick by Ottawa NOT a second round pick as I noted. Good catch on my mistake. Makes the call by our scouts even more impressive. As to Peter Bondra, you can’t retire a jersey until a player formally retires from the NHL. The new CBA doesn