Posted on 03/22/2007 11:50:41 AM PDT by MovementConservative
The Boston Globe just released 24 more employees today, including Pulitzer Prize winner Eileen McNamara. All 24 cuts came from the Newsroom, and the total carnage amounts to 6% of the newsroom staff.
During my time in the new media world, Ive made several friends in the old media. I dont have it in me to gloat over the newspaper industrys death rattles. That said, new technologies come along and push old ones aside. Such is life in a free and vibrant economy. Pravda never had any such concerns. Major daily newspapers are either a dying industry if youre a pessimist or a rapidly contracting one if youre a cockeyed optimist. Thats just the way it is.
Additionally, our newspapers suffer from their transparently disingenuous pose of impartiality. Who wants to read a rag that pretends Adam Nagourney is an unbiased observer? What makes this pretense especially baffling is that naked partisanship makes for an easier sell and a stronger product. Who rules the cable airwaves? Fox. What kind of papers have bucked the trend? The New York Post. And even on the left, Keith Olberman draws stronger ratings than the creaking leftwing fossils that populate CNN. (Do fossils creak? Eh leave me alone. Its too early in the morning to craft coherent metaphors.)
The publications that survive will be the ones who find a niche. Ill even provide a hint for any managing editors of major dailies who might be reading cover local issues with the same eagerness that Al Gore has for an all-you-can-eat buffet.
One other thing - the fetishization of unbiased reporting is a historic anomaly. Ernie Pyle wasnt unbiased. Neither was the New York Times for most of its existence. Unlike today. Giggle. Writing that unapologetically takes a stand has always been a lot more bracing than the day-old dishwater that currently drenches a modern daily. (Metaphors getting better!)
Meanwhile, from the bridge of the sinking ship, fresh from just having shifted the deckchairs once again, Globe managing editor Marty Baron pronounces, When these job reductions are completed, the Globe will continue the ambitious journalism that brings so many readers to our newspaper and website every day."
Good to know.
Compliments? Complaints? Contact me at Soxblog@aol.com.
Oh pleeeze God, don't let one of them be Derrick Z. Jackson!
Fixed it.
Haven't bought the Globe in YEARS - every time they call with a great new offer, I tell them, I just can't read their biased reporting.
FYI , Boston Globe is a subsidiary of NYT ...
Wow, they let Eileen McNamara go.
Still not gonna read it.
My oneday grandkids will classify paper newspapers along with rotory phone, buggy whips and stone knives. Even the Liberals don't care about them any more.
Yep! And I will honestly respect the Old Media the day that each and almost every broadcast station and newspaper comes out and admits, "Yes, we slant the news to the Left, and we are proud of it!" I still won't give it any creedence or believe it in any way, but it would make me atleast impressed to see them admit what they are.
So do you think the editors anywhere are ever going to get the idea that the conservatives don't read their dribble -- and the liberals don't buy anything -- they just pick the used papers up on the train seats when they're getting off at their stops.
At least, that's what they do here in Chicago.
By the time the big editors get it figured out, their papers will be down the tubes. No readers. No advertisers. Simple formula.
The last time I put a NY Times paper in my birdcage, my bird damn near died! Havn't done that since.... :0 )
They don't call me anymore but the last time I got an offer in the mail I was going to send the card back with a terse little note on why I'd never subscribe to their rag. Then I realized that the cheap bastards didn't have return postage on the card.
That is a super cartoon! Thanks for sending it.
The new Globe theme song could be "Death Rattle Shake" from Pantera's last album.
I seem to recall he's only done that one time ever.
I have that and then some. As far as I'm concerned, the newspaper industry can't die qucikly enough.
This is just what I told the retired editor of the Dayton Daily News last week. I can read the AP wire on the Internet. I don't need his paper to filter it for me. What I can't read on the Internet is the crash on I-75, the fire on the west side, the new commander at Wright-Patterson. That's what I need for the Daily News.
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.