Posted on 03/18/2006 11:02:48 PM PST by MRMEAN
Recent events in the newspaper business make it clear that newsrooms cannot escape market forces.
Stockholders forced the sale of Knight Ridder Inc., the nation's second-largest newspaper chain, with 32 papers. McClatchy Co. announced Monday it would buy Knight Ridder, but said it would sell 12 of the 32 newspapers -- the ones not making enough money and not in growth markets.
And Post editors announced March 10 that the newsroom will cut 80 of 870 newsroom positions. The New York Times, located in the world's financial center, announced on Tuesday that it will stop publishing daily stock listings.
Advertising revenue has fallen at most newspapers because of mergers of major retailers, lagging auto sales, the bankruptcies of major advertisers and a shift of classified ads to free Web sites such as Craigslist. Declining circulation and the defection of young readers to the Internet mean that newspapers can't raise their advertising rates year after year.
Newspapers are part of the civic glue that holds communities together. The turnover in newspaper ownership has been staggering to cities that wake up to find their newspaper sold and to employees who thought their jobs were safe. The Post, like most big-city dailies, has lost circulation -- a nearly 7 percent drop since 2003 -- and advertising revenue has been flat while expenses have risen, so The Post is trimming its budget sails. Newspaper journalism is labor-intensive and expensive; the two big costs are people and paper.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
This is how much teh Houston Chrnicle is design witht eh community in mind. The management and editorial staff was brought over from Sin Freakisco. They routinely insult our values.
Not only has the paper taken to running leftist columnists like E.J. Dionne, but the reporting is skewed to the left. I cancelled my long-time subscription when they misreported the 2000 Florida recount Supreme Court decision. When I called to complain the managing editor told me that the information on the count of justices came out too late for them to have it accurate. That was a bald-faced lie, and I told him that I had seen the count on Fox News way before the deadline, and if they couldn't turn on a TV they were pretty poor reporters.
We agreed to a Sunday subscription about a year ago because my husband wanted the ads. A couple of weeks ago they started giving us the Thursday paper for free, so we could get the grocery ads. I am certain this was because the groceries pressed them to do so.
Content is skewed in every section of the paper. Local stuff pumps up the incoompetent democrat mayor and ignores much of what Governor Daniels is doing...last week their front page story was on Daniels doing too much too soon. (I guess they wanted him to simply be a place holder or something.) The feature section (formerly women's pages) is skewed to minorities, same-sex couples, family problems, etc. Sports coverage is always full of scandals and griping.
Gannett has turned it into a rotten paper. If I could just buy a subscription to the ads, I would do so.
Masterful post.
Consider Mary Mapes: by all evidence a person totally consumed by delusions of adequacy. Only in the bizarre world of high stakes journalism could a person so immune to facts survive even as long as she did. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
You may be right but a lot of people who are totally immune to facts have had long careers in business management.
Wow!!! Fantistic words.
The Philly ones, Wilkes Barre, St. Paul (anti-trust), Akron, and several in California.
Betcha if you cancel they'll call you back and offer a big discount to renew.
At least until something causes the markets to go into a prolonged tailspin. When that happens the latest stock quotes will be an page A1, above the fold and on the right.
I cancelled my Boston Globe subscription after they published porno site photos represented as depicting actual rapes of Iraqi women by American forces. They'll be holding the Winter Olympics in Hades before I ever let that rag in my house again. Fortunately, the Boston Herald has the same coupons as the Globe.
We only have one paper. I am serious...the only thing I read in it is the ad fliers and the coupons. If I could pay just for those, I would.
In my experience, "managers" tend to be more politically adroit. There are different kinds of reality. On the project I am working on now, I was relieved from a leadership role because I refused to make promises that I could not deliver on, I told the program manager that he was making commitments that he could not deliver on based on misinformation and wishful thinking. I was replaced by people who were more willing to make promises.
In the event, I was proven correct. A good deal of what we shipped was garbage, testing was inadequate or meaningless. I'm now trying to backfill and fix what is essentially junk, though nicely documented and tested.
I refrain from saying "I told you so", because if they had listened to me, we might have gotten our contract canceled. Instead, we have the customer pregnant (actually trying to raise the little bastard) so the customer keeps coming back to its abuser. Am I morally comfortable? Hard to say. Did the company actually do anything unethical? Not intentionally, more engaging in wishful thinking, actual malevolence.
Excellent points all. Seems like after Watergate journalism began attracting people who wanted to change the world rather than report the news. With a self appointed mandate like this it doesn't take long before the ends start justifying (indeed! - mandating) any means imaginable.
That story sounds so familiar, I have witnessed the same sort of thing numerous times. I checked your home page, I am about six years older than you, born and raised in the South and did not attend college but I share your opinion of Clinton in almost every detail. I have never understood those who call him charming and charismatic, speaking as someone who is very familiar with the type I call him the typical Southern con artist, I would never want to be in his company for any reason. I also think your description of his "wife" is dead on the money.
Reading between the lines I suspect that you suffer the same "malady" as myself. If I were less honest and did not so love to tell it exactly as I see it I would probably be a multimillionare now. Oh well, I sleep very soundly at night and as I love to tell people, "I am not in jail or the hospital so I am doing fine".
It's been a dream of mine for a while now to run a local newspaper that does not involve newspaper - just a web-site and an email newsletter. I guess when the next economic adjustment comes along and I have some time on my hands, I can get it started.
I stopped taking that crappy fishwrap back in 1990. They would call on a monthly basis for years trying to get me to take a free subscription until I told them that my phone was unlisted and not to call again. They stopped for several years but just recently started again. I actually enjoy rubbing their demise back in their face.
Pravda has been doing pretty well since they began reporting the Truth. Perhaps the Stone Age Press should take notes?
Pray for W and Our Freedom Fighters
It seems like Ebay and such have taken up the bulk of private sales.
But my Cockatiel still needs new carpet once a week, so the Sunday paper, with the grocery cupons and cartoons, make it worth a small bargain to have it delivered. The articles and editorials are predictable and the headlines are still non credible as always and are duly ignored.
Now that is the truth along with the Main Slime Media.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.