Can the Washington Post survive? (Dinosaur Media DeathWatch™)

Fortune ^ | July 26, 2007 | Marc Gunther

[goodwithagun]

If it is dying the libbies need to practice what they preach. Pull the plug!

[Brad from Tennessee]

Raasch of USA TODAY may be right—at this point in time—about the “stellar MSM ‘cargo’” but as the MSM gets weaker so does its news product. Big papers are being forced to lay off reporters, close foreign and out-of-town bureaus and rely on wire reports from AP, Reuters and other wire services to fill their pages. I believe the emergence of the “New Media” will give rise to new international news services on the internet. The AP has had a virtual monopoly for decades and its product has gone from mediocre to piss poor. Buffet’s idea of combining the three big paper web sites could work if the subscription cost is not too high.

[Chuck Dent]

They’ll find a way to make money

I think your confidence is misplaced. Newspaper publishing is just like any other business - ongoing sustainability is solely dependent on the ability to generate revenues in excess of expenses.

Newspaper publishing has traditionally had two primary sources of revenue (forget purchase price): print & classified ads. Print ads for dept stores, real estate & autos has migrated en masse to the Net. Ditto for classified - does anyone pay/read these anymore when Craigslist is available?

It doesn't matter a whit what they may do about content; the game is over and they know it. There's a lot

[NCjim]

[GOPJ]

Thanks for the ping.

[Lancey Howard]

Great post! Your house sounds just like mine - - reading glasses, pens, and puzzles in the bathroom. The rest of the paper gets tossed unrumpled. A dollar-fifty for two decent crosswords is okay with me.

[Shortstop7]

The Tennessean has been calling me for the last three weeks. I finally picked up the phone tonight to see what they had to say. I was tired of the ringing phone.

They were running a special offer. The girl said it would be $3.71 for 7 days. Plus, I wouldn’t have to pay anything for 6 weeks!!

I politely said, no thanks.

I was surprised to hear the price though. They must be desperate.

[TenthAmendmentChampion]

Hey, great screen name! I wish I’d thought of it!

The Internet won’t save them. They’ve lived for years on blue sky advertising rates, and now that ads can be monitored for effectiveness, and space presence on some blogs can work as well as a sidebar on a news”paper” web page, the writing is on the Internet wall. Good riddance, I’d say.

[N. Theknow]

MSM = Roadkill on the information superhighway.