Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

To: abb
Do Web readers value journalism enough to pay?

Show us some honest journalism and we will let you know.

3 posted on 01/01/2010 3:29:35 PM PST by RJL
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies ]


To: RJL

Rainey can whine with the best of them. “We are OWED!!!”


5 posted on 01/01/2010 3:31:10 PM PST by abb ("What ISN'T in the news is often more important than what IS." Ed Biersmith, 1942 -)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies ]

To: RJL
Show us some honest journalism and we will let you know.

Big talk, not backed up with facts.

Look at how conservative papers are closing faster than liberal ones. Look at how the Bulletin has fared. ?Are things great in Boston now? Look at the low quality of amateur reporting. Amateur reporting said that Rush Limbaugh was dead and that photos of his corpse were being bought. HA! A press conference from a walking, talking corpse today!

It makes a convenient meme, but it's not true that a liberal slant is what is killing newspapers...American ambivalence toward in-depth reporting is a large part of it. But go on with the Dan-Rather-style fake-but-accurate belief if tyou want.

10 posted on 01/01/2010 3:40:31 PM PST by Gondring (Paul Revere would have been flamed as a naysayer troll and told to go back to Boston.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies ]

To: RJL
Show us some honest journalism and we will let you know.

Add in Santa Claus and the tooth fairy.

22 posted on 01/01/2010 4:00:34 PM PST by sionnsar (IranAzadi|5yst3m 0wn3d-it's N0t Y0ur5:SONY|Remember Neda Agha-Soltan|TV--it's NOT news you can trust)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies ]

To: RJL

That’s not wholly the issue.

I pay for online versions of newspapers (IBD and Barron’s) - but what they write helps me make money. These papers are doing relatively well (relative to the rest of the newspaper industry).

Why? They don’t report the latest Hollywood gossip (which I could find at hundreds of tattle-tale websites who are parasites chasing celebutards as they self-destruct), or sports (I find there is nothing more useless than American team sports lately - and I would not shed a tear if all big-money national sports teams were simply dispensed with tomorrow). There’s absolutely no money in employing writers in covering local news any more, because the people who are truly interested in what is going on in local government are now able to watch live video of the government meetings in so many localities. Why read a summary when you can watch the real McCoy?

Advertising had been the actual business of a newspaper for years and years - and now, with the exception of legal notices, people and businesses have abandoned newspapers as the place to advertise. Want to sell your lawnmower? You list it on Craigslist, or eBay. Easier for interested people to find and you (the advertiser) gets more eyeballs looking at your goods than you do with a newspaper.

Once the newspaper industry lost the big advertisers (esp. the auto companies and auto dealers), the last nail was in the coffin lid.

There will be markets for journalism that is hard-hitting, balanced, etc - but highly and narrowly specialized. It will also expensive for subscribers in order to make it profitable for the publisher(s) - and the publisher will be delivering value in excess of the cost to the subscriber, much as IBD does.

The days of the “all the news fit to print in one paper” are over - no matter how well written or “balanced,” “objective” or any other sort of criteria you might want to add. The trends in circulation and advertising revenue have converged and will now take down most all newspapers in the country, no matter how balanced they are.


38 posted on 01/01/2010 6:42:57 PM PST by NVDave
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies ]

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article


FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson