Largest daily newspapers are in steep circulation decline.
False sales scandal undermined the confidence of investors and advertisers.
The SEC may be handing out multi-million dollar fines.
Many conservative publications seem to be doing just fine.
Old Media refuses to sweep out Socialism.
Look for lay-offs. Unfortunately, some will then become teachers.
They deserve what they get: bankruptcy.
IOW, they'll become appendages of the National Inquirer and other supermarket tabloids.
I am doing my part in boycotting them.
The biggest problem of the liberal (print) press is a sales strategy that targets liberals. Most liberals can't read.
I think it's time for a congressional inquiry into the deceptive business practices of "BIG NEWS". Sounds like a nation wide crisis! Just another example of the big CEO's getting lots of money and the poor working man holding the short end of the stick (and all that).
In my opinion, they can't ever increase circulation because no matter what they do, they will still be a single source using dirty paper as their medium. Now, if they want to produce well written, unbiased articles, I might make their web site one of the first stops on my surfing.
If they'll lie about their circulation figures, why should anything they print be believed?
Better that they go out of business to make room for conservative replacements.
I love it when a subscription solliciter telephones me regarding a subscription to the L.A. Times. I say, "Oh, I don't make monetary contributions to any political party". There is a moment of silence and then they say, "No, this is a subscription to the L.A. Times". I then say, "Yes, I know, and if I subscribe I am just making a contribution to the Democratic party and I do not make contributions to any political party". There is another moment of silence and then they say, "Oh, OK" and hang up.
Liberal papers face several problems, e.g., oversaturation for their market segment (liberal rags dominate and compete against one another while conservative news sources are fewer and farer inbetween). Fox is the only conservative media news on TV; Rush and host of others dominate the AM radio talk shows. The Internet is dominated by conservaties; The reason the Internet is dominated is due to fact checking and historic nature which does suit well the talking sound bites out of context or the emotional shrill screams, and the outright lies - all of which are scrutinized by legions of folks who can hold accountable the likes of Dan Rather and the NYT.
"Why do they hate us so?"
Answer: because we see through their partisan lies and hoaxed reports.
There goes the MSM's future customers!
Newspapers are heading where the magazines went years ago - speciality and niche markets.
The liberal newspapers will never die off. They'll simply break into highly specialized writing geared toward a select audience. I believe we'll start seeing broadsheets reporting exclusively on business, the environment, etc., all from a liberal slant. The circulation will be fraction of what general readership newspaper can attract.
Those newspapers that want to attract a mass audience will need to start reporting the news straight, without a whining socialist slant, with the five Ws prominent, and a respect for what the readers want.
Right now newspapers are simply writing to impress other left wing newspapers to get a pat on the back from their liberal comrades.
Good riddance to the lot of 'em.
Or not so silently. A couple of weeks ago my local left biased rag, The Seattle Times, called and offered a free subscription and was shocked that I didn't want their paper even when it was free. When asked why I told them exactly why and where I get my unbiased news. It didn't seem a shock...they must be hearing it ever more increasingly.
The mainstream media's major problem is that they don't have any talent. Everybody is smarter than a self-chosen few. They've circled the wagons and locked the gates but they've locked the talent on the outside -- and are left with all these guaranteed lifetime union writers.
That's also the problem of the universities; they're stuck with all these tenured drones who are not the most creative and innovative minds -- but people who just want to hang on to lifetime jobs, doing as little as possible for the most compensation possible. This is your entitled class -- of people earning top dollar for jobs that no longer need to be done.
Obviously in the Internet age, every town does not need a full staff to report the news. They probably need an editor -- of the best reporting in the world. Universities and schools no longer need professors to read their lectures to distribute that information to their classes. That need actually went out with the Gutenberg press 600 years ago but they still haven't dropped that tradition of maintaining that privileged and entitled class. They are the corps of today's liberals -- and the liberal culture of entitlement.
That's what the real news of these times is really about -- but you won't read about it in the press. They can all just drop away and something better will fill the void; it's now about fighting for their own entitlements, status and legitimacy. Meanwhile, the basis for that credibility is eroding.
Such developments happen all the time -- but the defenders of the status quo will never acknowledge that. No, they will maintain that things have always been the way they are and always will be this way. "History," they will repeat, "always repeats itself," as though that wishful-thinking was the truth.
All their cliches are challenged in time and found lacking in any substance. Liberalism works as long as everybody can be coerced into believing in that truth. When a few begin to challenge that authority and the authoritarian personalities behind them who grade everybody on their correctness, the whole structure collapses.
It's a time of change but those who are doing the reporting don't want to see it; it is not in their self-serving best interest. That is the challenge and the dilemma of the media and communications in an age in which vastly greater is possible. They can only try harder to sell us what they've got -- as though that's still the only thing there is.
Into a vast sinkhole of nothingness, yes, the space between Brian William's ears.
I cancelled a local liberal paper because of their bias and their refusal to admit it, and took a paper from farther away because it's more balanced editorially. They both get most of their "news" from AP, however.
Meanwhile, productive members of society, wishing to escape the regulation and moral and material poverty of the big city, become sub- and exurbans. They may work in the city and pay its payroll taxes, but they don't live there. In time, they get tired of reading the dailies published there, since the dailies no longer respect, and perhaps even become intolerant of, their moral sensibilities.
Freed from the necessity to obey liberal political dictates to earn a living, have a school, a church, or entertainment, exurbanites finally cancel their newspaper subscriptions and read the news on the internet.
It's a lovely thing, I think. I hate the two dailies here in Cincinnati, and I used to subscribe to the Enquirer. But it became a victim of lib-chic, editorially, and its articles (even the comics!) became offensive. Now I have coffee in front of the CRT or laptop and get better than what it wants to feed me. Indeed, I do love it.
For details of the circulation scandal, and more info on the decline of newspapers, go to:
http://www.inma.org
(To read many articles, you need to register for free.)
The "blue state" newspapers are even appealing to "red state" sensibilities - sports fans - in an effort to boost circulation. Recently, the self-styled intellectually elite Boston Globe ran coupons for Patriots pins, and included free glossy color photos of players. Apparently, not enough snotty Cambridgians and Lexingtonians are buying the rag.