Blogs aren't going away, but neither are newspapers

[Algorem]

(99.9% pure bullshit)

http://www.cleveland.com/readers/index.ssf?/base/opinion/1131877992200641.xml&coll=2

Sunday, November 13, 2005
Ted Diadiun
Propagandist Daily Columnist

We newspaper folks can be a paranoid lot, and who would blame us?

We've been regularly warned of our impending descent into irrelevancy ever since Guglielmo Marconi first got the idea that he could send wireless signals across his father's yard back in 1895.

Over time, our supposed executioners have ranged from radio to TV to cable to the Internet. All have had an impact on how newspapers gather and present their information. But far from being a fatal impact, it has been more in the realm of "what does not destroy me, makes me stronger."

Today we are dealing with something called the "blogosphere," an instantaneous and far-flung world of blended fact and opinion on electronic bulletin boards that some people believe marks the dawn of a new information age...

[PDittie]

1. Nope, newspapers are not going away

but their advertising base is quickly and their readers are dying off steadily.

Newspapers already are about half the size they were just ten years ago -- in number of pages as well as number of readers -- and that trend will continue at the same rate.

[depakid]

2. Not to mention

the fact that many if not most of them have been running cover for the far right for years- and so have gone along with- or in more than a few cases actively encouraged divestment in public and higher education.

Less educated people don't read newspapers (other than alternatives from the racks)- and now there's a whole generation of kids who've grown up like that and a generation more behind them.

Not the best way to keep circulation (and ad revenues) up.... :nopity:

[freesqueeze]

3. Sorry, But Major Newspapers Are On Their Last Legs

They are a victim of their own success. They have, over the years, become part of the establishment that they are supposed to monitor. All major newspapers are pro-business conservative, because they have no choice if they want to have any chance of surviving. This position alienates almost all the potential readers.

The Dallas Morning News, in their 100th straight year of endorsing Republicans for President. Gave Bush a grade of 89 on economics for his first term. AN 89!?! This shows how out of touch they have become....he smiles and waves bye-bye to a million jobs and he's still one point from an A?

I don't know who it is in Dallas who would agree with this evaluation (no one I know), but the DMN had better hope it's enough to support them.

I gave up delivery of this paper in '04 and I don't miss it at all. When they call to try and regain my business, I tell them I have an AM radio which gives me all the GOP propaganda I need.

Just go wireless and take your laptop to the john....problem solved.

[Demeter]

4. Local NYTimes Subscriptions Down 20% in My Town (Ann Arbor)

And the Ann Arbor News is down to 1/3 of its subscription level since Bush took office. The AA News endorsed Bush, which annoyed a large portion of the subscriber population.

The NYTimes is victim of its online service and the local economy, which is in its 6th year of decline as Bush trashes the engine (manufacturing) which made America great. Of course, he had lots of help from the corporate officers who defrauded their workers, shareholders, customers, suppliers and pensioners, so they could live off the fat of the land and steal elections for BushCo.

The Detroit News and Detroit Free Press have yet to recover from the lockout they instigated in the 90's.

What goes around, comes around.

[siddcnc]

5. Parent Companies are a reason too

Most of the News Papers are owned by large corporations. These corporation's commercial outlook often interfers with the freedom of journalism. I think that's one reason readers want fresh, different news.

[newyawker99]

9. Hi siddcnc!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[welshTerrier2]

11. structured, scripted and sterile corporate news ...

welcome to DU, siddcnc !!

excellent point ... the news has become so structured, sterile and scripted that it just doesn't feel real anymore ... most papers just reproduce feeds from AP, Reuters and UPI ...

and for those of us on DU, by the time the newspapers come out, it's mostly old news already ...

on one hand, i'm glad to see the dying embers of corporate controlled media; on the other hand without an agressive media to act as a check on government, i worry about preserving our democracy ...

we sure is in a pickle ...

[SharonAnn]

6. Lack of good content is one reason. A few syndicated columns,

(mostly conservative or right-wing), a few AP articles (that I saw on the Internet 1-3 days before), a few "feel good" local interest stories, and a lot of ads.

Where is the meat that used to be there? Gone, along with the related expenses of having actual reporters who covered the news and actually wrote articles.

Starting in middle school, I used to read the local newspaper from cover to cover every day. i didn't understand everything that was in it, but there was a lot of information and it made me think about the information.

Now, I guess I'm almost used to it being bland and non-informative.

It's like the so-called "news" shows on TV. The cutback in reporters means that many only have "opinions" about various press releases they've received that day.

Where is my old CNN News, that used to have real news about the U.S. and news about the international community. I used to be able to find out a little about what was actually going on in the world.

[bemildred]

7. Newspapers are information brokers, middlemen.

The Internet is death and ruin for information brokers and middlemen.

Newspapers, at least in the present form, the present business
model, are toast. Those that survive, will survive by figuring
out how to make do on the web, because that is the only place I
go for news and advertising.

Which is great for the future of our forests, too.

[NJCher]

8. Let me recommend my favorite blog, The Longtail

The Longtail, written by the managing editor of Wired, studies this situation on a regular basis. What "The Longtail" actually means is the end of "shelf space." Or in the case of newspapers, "all the news that's fit to print." The Longtail observes the crumbling of broadcast TV, radio, newspaper, mass movie going, etc.

Here are a few of my favorite entries from The Longtail:

The folly of zero-sum thinking
Rich Karlgaard, one of my favorite writers, now has a blog. Here he explains why zero-sum thinking is the "world's worst disease". Excerpt: "Meanwhile, the most energetic, original and positive writing has been migrating to the Web and to blogs. No surprise here. Anybody who creates a blog is: (a) an entrepreneur and thus probably NOT a zero-sum thinker; (b) a producer first and a consumer second. These two attributes alone guarantee that the blogger probably has a more accurate view of the world, and how it really works, than does the zero-sum thinker toiling away at his Mainstream Media position."

Another:

Stock performance over the past 12 months:

* Belo (BLC): -11.6%
* Emmis (EMS): +8.7%
* Fisher (FSCI): -3.1%
* Gannett (GCI): -24.2%
* Gray (GTN): -38%
* Hearst-Argyle (HTV): -6.9%
* Media General (MEG): -17%
* Meredith (MDP): -2.4%
* New York Times (NYT): -30.7%
* Sinclair (SBGI): +29.1%
* Tribune (TRB): -24.8%
* Young (YBTVA): -80.2%

-------------------------------
Average: -16.8%
Dow: +4%


http://www.thelongtail.com/the_long_tail/




Cher

[welshTerrier2]

10. "the blogosphere: blended fact and opinion"

i seem to recall all the assurances and phony journalists employed at the NY Times (you know them: "All the news that's fit to print") hyping the war in Iraq and not honoring their responsibility to act as a check and balance against an out-of-control government ... yeah, good thing we have a real press instead of all those bogus bloggers who warned this country about getting involved in this madness ...

the NY Times owns the Boston Globe ... the Globe just laid off like 143% of their writers and editors as a response to their rapidly vanishing ad revenues ... the paper isn't thick enough anymore to get a really good campfire going ... and don't even think about house-breaking a new puppy ...

journalists were once warriors for democracy; at least some were ... today they all want to be pretty boys and girls hosting their own "read the news" shows on TV ... maybe they should be taught about democracy before they take all those journalism and hair-styling courses ...