Free Republic

A few years ago, you would have unfolded your newspaper and read opinion and analysis like this. Those days are gone.As Visual Capitalist's Avery Koop details below, most people today - more than 8 in 10 Americans - get their news via digital devices, doing their reading on apps, listening to podcasts, or scrolling through social media feeds.It’s no surprise then that over the last year, only one U.S. newspaper of the top 25 most popular in the country saw positive growth in their daily print circulations.Based on data from Press Gazette, this visual stacks up the amount of daily...

A lot of my fellow journalists are upset that CNN's Jim Acosta was banned from White House press conferences. Not me. I would prefer that all press conferences be restricted to the press, by which I mean the print media. I've been a print journalist since before Acosta entered kindergarten. For the first five years or so of my career I never attended a press conference that included TV and radio people. That made for a much more informative interchange between journalists and politicians. The reporters wanted simply to have their questions answered. The answers could then be incorporated into...

For those of us who still love getting our news from newspapers, those inky, crinkly, thin sheets of wood pulp you hold in your hands and read, these indeed are sad times. Print newspapers, thanks in large part to the meteoric rise of smartphones and online and social media, are in serious decline. [Snip] Many media analysts believe it won’t be long before print newspapers disappear. If it happens, they in large part will be devoured by a voracious horde of online and social media, many of which have little respect for the notion that the first function of news...

Survey: Half of Journalists Think Their Offline Publications Will Eventually Fold Posted by Lauren Dugan on July 22nd, 2010 4:41 PM journalists and twitterJournalists appear to be reaching an equilibrium of sorts between print and digital media – an “equilibrium of sorts” because it appears the scales are tipped heavily in favor of going digital. According to a recent report by Oriella PR Network, journalists see their offline publications as risky endeavors in the current economy, with over half of those surveyed predicting the demise of their print, publication or TV media sometime in the future.

Editors' Note: Every month, Townhall Magazine highlights some of the outstanding blogs written by users in our community. The following is an entry from William Dannenmaier and appears in the July issue of Townhall Magazine. Newsweek has dropped its “guaranteed” circulation to advertisers by half a million. Time has dropped its expected circulation by 750,000. While these MSM outlets have declined in readership, the general population has been increasing. Rupert Murdock, a major newspaper publisher, has proclaimed that “there has never been more hunger for news.” That is true. But we are not getting it from newspapers. Too often, newspaper...

The collapse of the newspaper industry continues apace; now it's the San Francisco Chronicle that is likely to be sold or even closed down in a matter of months. This follows Sunday's bankruptcy filing by the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Philadelphia Daily News, just two and a half years after investors paid more than $500 million for the company. We've known for a while that the newspaper industry is in desperate trouble, but it didn't occur to us until recently that it may be a leading indicator.

AP's headline is "Cousins plead guilty in plot to kill US soldiers." But of course they didn't get involved in this plot because they were cousins. The Department of Homeland Security doesn't need to begin a Global War On Cousins. They did this because they wanted to wage jihad. They met the jihad recruiter at a Muslim convention. They were clearly inspired by Islamic teachings regarding the necessity to wage war against unbelievers. But since none of that is suitable for an AP headline, we get...cousins. An update on this story. "Cousins plead guilty in plot to kill US soldiers,"...

Does anybody read newspapers anymore? And if so, why? There was a time, just three years ago, when I got three newspapers each morning. Living in Silicon Valley, I, of course, subscribed to the San Jose Mercury News. I bought it for the business stories, the movie listings and neighborhood news. Having once worked for the paper, there was a nostalgia factor as well. I also subscribed to the San Francisco Chronicle — not for the news coverage, for which that newspaper is notoriously bad, but for the columns and features, for which the paper is justly esteemed. The Chron...

At the rate newspapers are losing circulation, the last reader is expected to croak in 2040. In April to be exact. Philip Meyer, author of The Vanishing Newspaper: Saving Journalism in the Information Age made that grim prognostication on Wednesday, during a live webcast about our impending extinction. Since I myself will be dead or defunct by 2040, it's not really my problem — unless I am still trying to collect my Star denture benefits. Don't misunderstand: People will still be talking, online or on whatever new forms of communication will arise. The question is, what will be the quality...

When I left a steady newspaper job nine years ago to help launch this online news site, many people called me nuts. Too risky, no credibility and no brand loyalty, the naysayers said. It seemed OK to me: I'd worked at big daily newspapers and a magazine for 15 years, and, as a news hound, welcomed the chance to publish scoops in real time. It's a simple "model," as the MBAs put it: We get a scoop and publish it on the Internet ASAP. No "back shop," no printers, no newspaper delivery people. Readers like it, and the print competitors...

President Bush has leadership country needs Sunday, October 24, 2004 On Nov. 2, Americans face a crucial decision. Do we stick with a commander-in-chief who has sound judgment, an unwavering commitment to the war on terror and who has a clear vision for where he wants to take this country? Or do we vote for the most liberal senator in the U.S. Senate who is for tax increases, more government intrusion in our lives and whose campaign statements and Senate record raise serious questions? It is important to look at both men’s records to contrast the major differences between them....