Why Not Buy Newspapers?

http://media.corporate-ir.net/media_files/irol/80/80412/JRC2007AR.pdf ^

[guitarplayer1953]

I think that the reason that they are going under is the lack of balance and true new reporting with out an agenda. Most of the readership who have dropped their subscriptions are tired of liberal view. I think that it would bring the papers back to life go with a conservative writers. It could in time change the way journalism is taught in the universities from a far left point of view to a conservative point of view. Wouldn’t that be a wonderful outcome?

[Paleo Conservative]

Interesting idea, but if you’re going to end up dumping most of the staff anyways, why bother? Just start your own paper.

Well it depends if you want to publish dead tree editions. In that case having a color offset press printing plant would be beneficial. They could be used for printing all sorts of publications not just traditional newspapers.

Buying the equipment already set up in a building is much cheaper than setting up a new publishing plant. It might be better to buy assets when a newspaper goes through liquidation rather than buying the newspaper and all its financial liablilities.

[joesbucks]

Buy them up? Well, then you would have the headache of running them. Isn’t it more fun to watch them circle the drain on their own?

I knew it, I knew it, I knew it.

Conservatives would rather gripe and bitc* than to change the situation. This thread sort of proves it.

We'd rather have a focal point to project our shortcomings at so we can wash our hands of the condition.

[Navy Patriot]

Good points Paleo,

Just for information's sake, the print plant here in the bay area is shared prints about a half dozen competing papers. I don't who, or if all own it.

[GAB-1955]

There will be news gathering and reporting. However, there's a great deal of redundancy in news reporting in the days of the Internet. For example, there are too many Washington reporters, too many New York reporters, and so forth. In addition, I can get commentary repeated in the New York Post, the Washington Post, and my second-favorite Web site, National Review.

Again, local news sells papers, but classified advertising is going to Craigslist.

I would enjoy having a printing press, but if I did that, I would have several around the country printing local versions of a conservative national newspaper, which I see as an American version of the Daily Telegraph.

[Army Air Corps]

Very true. In addition, you can include inserts and special pubs in the papers. Imagine offering a conservative magazine insert in the NYT or LA Times.

[Army Air Corps]

Some are that way. Personally, I like the idea. Buy ‘em while they are cheap or wait until they go bust and have to sell assets.

[Army Air Corps]

I would enjoy having a printing press, but if I did that, I would have several around the country printing local versions of a conservative national newspaper, which I see as an American version of the Daily Telegraph.

I like it.

[Fichori]

Why not buy newspapers?

Because I don’t have a bird, thats why.

[LibFreeOrDie]

Paper is obsolete as a medium for distributing news.

The newspaper’s news is old by the time it’s in the reader’s hands.

Young and middle age people do not read printed news. They go to the newspaper Web sites.

You’d have to deal with not only the journalist unions but also the pressman unions.

Advertisers have alternate outlets.

Existing conservative publications have very small circulations:

National Review 160,000 (median age = 67; only 28% are 25 - 54 years old)

Weekly Standard 83,000

[org.whodat]

ROFLOL, I have the inside track on a couple of livery stables and a telegraph office if you are interested.

[GOPJ]

Interesting idea...

[Lancey Howard]

Wait a little longer and you can pick up a New York toilet tissue for a song:

[org.whodat]

Let me restate my statement. You seem to think that a newspapers business is selling the news. It is not, a newspaper sells advertisement. Those stupid little inserts and plain ads. They have had that income stream taken away by the Internet. And the news is old by the time they print and distribute it. They are just simply an antique!!!

[bruinbirdman]

"Is Rush reading? He's got cash."

Hey! Someone should tell a guy like Rupert Murdoch.

yitbos

[Paleo Conservative]

Let me restate my statement. You seem to think that a newspapers business is selling the news. It is not, a newspaper sells advertisement. Those stupid little inserts and plain ads. They have had that income stream taken away by the Internet. And the news is old by the time they print and distribute it. They are just simply an antique!!!

But at the right price some of a newspaper's assets would be useful. Sure news gets stale fast, but print still has advantages. It is light weight, disposable, and still doesn't require special equipment to read. There's no way I'm going to read large amounts of text on my Treo cell phone even if it does have access to the internet. Laptop computers are small, but ones with screens large enough to read comfortably still weigh more than a book or even a good sized pile of books and need AC or battery power.

I'm not saying that one should buy a newspaper and try to use its assets the same old way that has already failed. I was responding to a question about why one should buy an existing newspaper rather than start up a new one or an internet only news site.

[Kevmo]

I’ve been saying the same thing for a while now. The price is even cheaper now.