MSM In Depression

The Virginian ^ | 10/26/2008 | Moneyrunner

[moneyrunner]

NEW YORK (AP) - The Star-Ledger of Newark, N.J., will reduce its newsroom staff by nearly half through voluntary buyouts as New Jersey's largest newspaper seeks to return to profitability. Jim Willse, the Star-Ledger's editor, said Friday that the newspaper accepted 151 buyout offers from its news staff, or about 45 percent of its 334 editorial employees. He said 17 buyout applications were rejected.

Some staffers already have left, and others are leaving by year's end, many after the elections.

This followed hard on: NY Times Profits slide, downgraded to junk status

And underscores: Editing Their Way to Oblivion: Journalism Sacrificed For Power and Pensions

Picture yourself in your 50s in a job [editor]where you’ve spent 30 years working your way to the top, to the cockpit of power . . . only to discover that you’re presiding over a dying industry. The Internet and alternative media are stealing your readers, your advertisers and your top young talent. Many of your peers shrewdly took golden parachutes and disappeared. Your job doesn’t have anywhere near the power and influence it did when your started your climb. The Newspaper Guild is too weak to protect you any more, and there is a very good chance you’ll lose your job before you cross that finish line, ten years hence, of retirement and a pension.

In other words, you are facing career catastrophe -and desperate times call for desperate measures. Even if you have to risk everything on a single Hail Mary play. Even if you have to compromise the principles that got you here. After all, newspapers and network news are doomed anyway - all that counts is keeping them on life support until you can retire.

...

[mlocher]

The Star-Ledger of Newark, N.J., will reduce its newsroom staff by nearly half through voluntary buyouts as New Jersey's largest newspaper seeks to return to profitability.

Even the Messiah will not be able to make the Star-Ledger profitable. (without a bailout that is)

[right wing]

Picture yourself in your 50s in a job [editor]where you’ve spent 30 years working your way to the top, to the cockpit of power . . . only to discover that you’re presiding over a dying industry.

Still refusing to acknowledge the REASON they are a dying industry! HELLLLLOOOOO - THE LITTLE PEOPLE DON'T LIKE YOUR SLANTED NEWS!

[mlocher]

And then the opportunity presents itself: an attractive young candidate whose politics likely matches yours, but more important, he offers the prospect of a transformed Washington with the power to fix everything that has gone wrong in your career. With luck, this monolithic, single-party government will crush the alternative media via a revived Fairness Doctrine, re-invigorate unions by getting rid of secret votes, and just maybe, be beholden to people like you in the traditional media for getting it there.

So, Obama gets MSM support for self interest. Interesting theory. Personally, MSM is on its death bed because the truth is irrelevant.

[scooby321]

even with a bailout the newsprint media is dead.

Its time to serve the people instead of printing lies

Their readers want some balance and those who grew up as the newspapers as their source of news are dying out.

Jornalism Schools must be the biggest waste of money any student's parents can use their money.

[hinckley buzzard]

you’ve spent 30 years working your way to the top, to the cockpit of power . . . Your job doesn’t have anywhere near the power and influence it did when your started your climb

Reveals what "journalism" is really all about and, incidentally, why it has been dead at least since 1992.

[mlocher]

Jornalism Schools must be the biggest waste of money any student's parents can use their money.

I agree. On the other hand, paying any amount of money to get a future journalist OUT OF YOUR HOUSE may be worth the price. (Smile)

[Bernard]

you’re presiding over a dying industry

The industry isn't dying, just the pacakaging. There is still a market for information, advertising, meeting places, gossip, etc. The only thing that has changed is that the barrier to entry into the industry has been lowered, so all that overhead is a waste of money.

Not to mention the damage to the environment, with all the trees being cut down and the ink being used. I'm surprised Al Gore hasn't gone after these people.

[wintertime]

only to discover that you’re presiding over a dying industry.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Unfortunately it is not dying fast enough. We may lose our freedom before the MSM takes its last gasp.

[screaminsunshine]

Hard to make a profit when you can only sell your propaganda to the liberal choir.

[blueheron2]

MSM in denial. I subscribed to the Courier Journal for twenty years. Canceled during the Clinton years when it became obvious they were just liberal shills. Gannett sucks.

[6SJ7]

Here's the link to the original article referenced. Interesting read on the journalistic "profession".

[Carley]

A couple of years ago I ordered a subscription to the Ledger.

As a gift for subscribing they sent me a visa card worth more than the subscription.

This is a familiar scam. It reports X number of readers to their advertisers. Never mind they paid ME to get the paper.

[4rcane]

US population is growing yet newspaper sales goes down?

[Eddie01]

Still refusing to acknowledge the REASON they are a dying industry! HELLLLLOOOOO - THE LITTLE PEOPLE DON'T LIKE YOUR SLANTED NEWS!

What news? It's nothing more than advertising; a 24/7 infomercial for the DNC.

[longtermmemmory]

Four Years of College for Journalism Degree $50,000 in student loans.
Master’s Degree $12,000

-all non-dischargable student loans

Having your Journalism degrees show to be useless when a person sitting at home comfortably in a leather office chair in silk pajamas sipping a warm coffee scoops your story and exposes your relied of fakes,,,,

PRICELESS.

[cosmic_me]

It's a tough sell to the reader when you willingly print a bold lie to manipulate the masses only to be called on it by your readers questioning the validity. Then they are forced to print retraction after retraction and instead of showing bold accountability continue insulting the reader by posting the retraction in small text on page 16 to your left in the bottom corner between some ad for info about erectile dysfunction or bladder control problems.

Seriously, the bottom line is they've lost their credibility. Journalism as a whole has turned into sensationalism. I swear CNN is getting their lead stories from that freak show Perez Hilton.

[joma89]

Only by 1/2? I was hoping for a “Going out of business” sale.

JoMa

[stevem]

In other words, you are facing career catastrophe -and desperate times call for desperate measures...Even if you have to compromise the principles that got you here.

I have worked in a couple of industries that go through, sometimes, long cycles. I have watched a couple of serious contractions. I was picked off during one of them.

I recall asking people, if we are all doomed anyway, wouldn't it be better to go out trying something different? The problem was, so many puppeteers learned their trades using only one set of sales parameters. So many could not fathom another kind of product or another way to deliver the product.

We have had this discussion on FR, and perhaps the naysayers are right. Perhaps there is no way to package news successsfully in print and traditional broadcast.

Still, if I were a news manager, a true manager, I think I would try something diffferent. Not to single them out, but to take just one example, the NYT has an odd philosophy. The largets market that can possibly be interested in the NYT slant is the market of people who can't read. That makes no sense.

[PaleoBob]

I worked in newspapers for 25+ years and was driven out because there is no place for either objective reporting or conservative/patriotic thinking. The American people are not going to pay money for something that deprecates the nation or thinly veils (if it veils at all) contempt for themselves. The business model is that the customer is not just always wrong but an idiot too. It’s as if they said to their sales staffs: “Now, go out and sell that and see how it works.” LOL.