The death of the American newspaper

I used to get three papers a day. I would read the morning paper by a quick review of the front page news, but then I would go to sports and review box scores. I now get up and go to the web to do the same thing. I no longer read newspapers. Today I clicked twice to see my White Sox rookie is now leading with 15 home runs.....and the month of May is not even over yet.......a new era of Latin American stars in MLB, and a new era of the demise of the American newspaper and all the negative connotations which come with that conclusion.

It's the unwillingness of newspapers to evolve and adapt. As nice as the access to such a diverse amount of info is...

I don't think we have seen the full interactive product that news can be... not even close yet. They lack vision and guts.

I don't think we have seen the full interactive product that news can be... not even close yet. They lack vision and guts.


Completely agree. I had written the PNJ and argued why get rid of the forums. Why not expand them geographically and involve high school reporters who give scores of high school events, local boy scouts, church events, and local government detailed reporting. A place where local people could talk about local events of importance.......but instead it was simply gutted.

The importance of the ad revenue which drives local newspapers has not even tapped the surface of the success of google ad words, yet newspapers have a tenfold advantage over ad words because they can do the same thing but do it right in people's discussions about local business. The paper could become the new yellow pages, tv, music, and connecting the community.......instead they lacked the vision and the guts.

They'll have to let go of the death grip on content... it's choking the life out of their profession and the public service.

I don't know if I've ever mentioned it... but I spent a year selling advertising for a nyt regional paper. I enjoyed it... but I didn't see a future in it. My dad was in advertising too... but the game changed heading into the nineties. But if I were in that position today I think I would envision it much more enticing... I think that there are very interesting solutions to news. I think there're going to be local services that connect the people with each other with real time current events... this could help peoples lives in many different ways... perhaps most importantly by raising peoples general awareness of the processes that affect their lives. People are so unaware that our electorate is greatly diminished and therefore makes poor decisions. There has to be a tool that engages us and uses the collective consciousness to enrich our lives.

Oh well... it won't be me that does it. I just hope it isn't administered or controlled by the govt.

I agree with Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity. They say the newspapers have died because they were so liberal. If they had been conservative they'd be thriving.
It's just like the transition from the horse to the car. Those damn horses were stubborn and kept being liberal so they died out. But the car was conservative so it thrived.

Simple liberal and conservative science.

2seaoat wrote:I don't think we have seen the full interactive product that news can be... not even close yet. They lack vision and guts.


Completely agree.  I had written the PNJ and argued why get rid of the forums.  Why not expand them geographically and involve high school reporters who give scores of high school events, local boy scouts, church events, and local government detailed reporting.  A place where local people could talk about local events of importance.......but instead it was simply gutted.

The importance of the ad revenue which drives local newspapers has not even tapped the surface of the success of google ad words, yet newspapers have a tenfold advantage over ad words because they can do the same thing but do it right in people's discussions about local business.  The paper could become the new yellow pages, tv, music, and connecting the community.......instead they lacked the vision and the guts.

The forums were took too many man hours to monitor or they had to pay an outside vendor to monitor the sites 24/7.

The newspapers had successfully ignored any and all competitions for literally hundreds of years. They BELIEVED they were invincible. They ignored CNN when they first started and believed they were invincible when along came the internet. They believed the internet could not hire journalists and people couldn't watch TV 24/7.

The Wall Street Journal has a necessary niche. Plus, despicable to Progressives, they have a Conservative slant. In cable news FOX News leads all others combined because the DO provide both sides and Progressives have never even considered that there were two sides to issues.

Now my Progressive good friends here and those further to the left, check out Socialist/Communists Wordslinger and a few others check in at "The Nation", DailyKOS, The Democratunderground, PBS, NPR, CBS, NBC, ABC, MSNBC, HLN, plus their idol, the New York Times.

Markle wrote: In cable news FOX News leads all others combined because the DO provide both sides and Progressives have never even considered that there were two sides to issues.

Fox News is the only fair and balanced journalism. Their content presents an equal amount of liberal programming to balance the conservative programming. That's why they're so succesful.
All other media is all liberal and that's why it's failing.

I think there're going to be local services that connect the people with each other with real time current events...

Completely agree. We look at the evolution of email which was a direct communication, or could even be a blast communication the user defined. We then look at other social media which has fundamentally changed the way families stay connected, yet your concept of local services and people in a community being connected will be the next big jump in social media, and it will be a format which connects a community, not a family, or nation. The newspaper of the future must capture what the PNJ had in its forums which dealt with local input and shared opinion.........we will see this connection in most of our lifetimes.

I remember the local radio station being the center of small towns in Texas... people calling in... town meetings... etc.

My grandparents were ham radio operators... there were large networks there too. This morph particularly w phones is very close.

Pkr,

Locally owned and operated radio stations were everywhere.
Now they've all been bought up by Clear Channel and Cumulus.
These are giant media corporations.  They have zero interest in anything local.
The first thing they did was to gut the local news departments of their radio stations.  We had one helluva locally owned and operated AM radio news department here from the time radio was invented until AM switched to syndicated talk (Limbaugh,  Hannity etc).  The station's call letters are WCOA.  
Now it's nothing but a corporate cash cow.