Loaded Orygun:: Word On the Street (Literally!) Re: Dead-Tree Media

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Word On the Street (Literally!) Re: Dead-Tree Media

by: torridjoe

Thu Mar 26, 2009 at 15:46:38 PM PDT

Saw this on the way back from my interview with Jeremy Wright of the MLS-to-PDX effort; in the wake of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer failure and deep cuts at all of the major Portland papers, it may offer a clue as to why the traditional dead-tree media are having trouble--and it isn't falling ad revenue. I snapped it at First and Yamhill in downtown Portland:

torridjoe :: Word On the Street (Literally!) Re: Dead-Tree Media

Tags: media, newspapers, New York Times, (All Tags)

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Word On the Street (Literally!) Re: Dead-Tree Media | 6 comments

A dollar? Seriously? (0.00 / 0)

Jeez--it hasn't been that long ago that, if you had an internet connection, the Times would lie to you for free.

Tough economic times all around, I guess.

by: nothstine @ Thu Mar 26, 2009 at 18:17:11 PM CDT

by: you @ soon

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use your library!` (0.00 / 0)

If you have a Multno or Clackamas library card, you can go online and read the entire paper for free! Cool, eh!

by: torridjoe @ Thu Mar 26, 2009 at 18:55:40 PM CDT

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by: you @ soon

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Mythbusters (0.00 / 0)

Uh, No!

I'm never one to defend the intrepiditude or integrity of our current crop of professional journalists, but papers are in trouble because of an outdated business model. It has nothing to do with content. It's a fun little myth for partisans to think about, but that's all it is. It's revealing that conservatives and liberals blame "content" for the industry's decline.

Craigs List has more to down with the downfall of papers than does their content.

by: pat malach @ Sat Mar 28, 2009 at 14:51:02 PM CDT

by: you @ soon

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it IS revealing (0.00 / 0)

it reveals that it's not a case of ideological problems, it's core dishonesty and malfocus. The NYT prints lies--not that they're lies of Dick Cheney or Chuck Schumer, but that they willingly accept what they know is garbage, and print it.

There's more to the failure of their business model than classified revenue--it's just classified ads that are hastening the demise.

by: torridjoe @ Sat Mar 28, 2009 at 15:47:44 PM CDT

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by: you @ soon

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VERY revealing (0.00 / 0)

Your criticisms of newspapers have been made by many others since the first paper rolled off the first press.

The difference now is changing demographics (papers are not adding any young readers), more competition for advertising dollars and more competition for readers from this new thing called the Internet.

That's the difference. That's why newspapers are failing. It has nothing to do with the same old criticisms that have always been there.

The difference is the environment, not the product.

by: pat malach @ Sun Mar 29, 2009 at 09:53:54 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

The product didn't use to suck (0.00 / 0)

I'd believe you, if consolidation had not occurred to wring every bit of local content out--and what local content existed was created by people distant from it, in one way or the other. Journalism has not been criticized the same way since papers began; it is a 20-30 year phenomenon of decline.

Regardless, I said at the outset that this would be PART of the reason. I'm certainly not denying the difficulty of staying viable in a changing news environment. But it's not the whole reason, by a long shot. The O indeed has 21st century delivery methods--they just suck because their corporate masters have foisted junk Internet apparatus on them from afar.

by: torridjoe @ Sun Mar 29, 2009 at 14:10:16 PM CDT

[ Parent ]