Comments on: Newspapers' Woes Worsening

Rocky Mountain News Is Latest Casualty, S.F. Chronicle May Be Next; What Are Implications For Nation Of Industry's Problems?

[missingamerica]

I quit newspapers when the cartoons started to get political.
Posted by mav547166 at 4:11 PM : Feb 28, 2009

lollll...I think that was shortly after Gutenberg invented the printing press...

[mav547166]

I quit newspapers when the cartoons started to get political.

[missingamerica]

"..and a couple of smaller, independent "muckraker" papers, who usually get the facts straight YEARS ahead of the mainstream liberal rags."

Posted by UpajOs at 3:58 PM : Feb 28, 2009

Got any examples? You know - like the names of these "muckraker" papers, and examples of the facts they and they alone got right "YEARS ahead of the mainstream liberal rags"?

Perhaps America could use information sources similar to yours, eh?

[UpajOs]

I agree with much of what platteman says. I got tired of the liberal slant in the San Jose Mercury News over 20 years ago and dropped my subscription. I've been getting by with AM radio, the Internet and a couple of smaller, independent "muckraker" papers, who usually get the facts straight YEARS ahead of the mainstream liberal rags. The suck-up performance of the mainstream media during the most recent presidential election amounts to a gross dereliction of duty. Good riddance to every one of them that goes down. There are plenty of better practitioners that are ready to step in and fill the void.

[missingamerica]

"What Are Implications For Nation Of Industry Problems?"

Duh - that is easy. More corporations seeking to control the existing broadcast, cable, and satellite media.

After all, they have an object lesson in Rupert Murdoch; everything said or done by Fox was all about loosening up any restrictions upon the rate at which Rupert could accumulate wealth.

And it worked, for a while...until the economy reacted like any other pyramid that has had its foundation blocks kicked out from under it and toppled over.

[grabandgo]

Newspapers are finished.
The internet has done them in.
They can only survive as on line papers.

[ubrew12]

independenti said: "[San Fran has] A beggar or more like 50 beggars on every corner and no police in sight to protect you. " And how many of them were raised in SanFran? None. Ask sometime and you'll find they come from (mostly conservative) areas all over the country, abandoned even by their own families (thats conservatism for you). They come to San Fran because of its reputation as a liberal enclave: that it'll tax its rich to help pay for the poor and downtrodden. Frankly, they come because San Fran hasn't forgotten the promise of Ellis Island, like the rest of the country has. But San FRan is overwhelmed by these people, as are most cities. Most of these folks are from small towns, conservative American towns that cast off their poor and unwanted just as easily as they drive 'to the city' to get an abortion. Anything rather than stain their tidy, lily-white world.

[dprice123-2009]

I spent 22 years with McClatchy Newspapers. Ten years ago most people in the newspaper industry did not see the internet coming. They should of but held to the belief that they were better than anyone else.They banked on their reporting and journalism skills....but in the meantime outsourced many of the non-reporting jobs. Most newspapers not give a Rats*** about the customer. They only assume what the customer wants. Unless their is some kind of immediate financial gain most newspapers will not make any changes.All you people over the age of Forty....Remember the Milkman who used to deliver Milk to your doorstep.We will have the same memory of newspapers 10 years down the road. Maybe sooner.

Local and regional newspapers are critical to our quality of life, but there is no reason that they cannot succeed on-line. Newspapers and merchants have to learn to do effective on-line advertising.

I miss the ads that I used to read in the hard copy editions, and if they were available in the on-line addition, I would use them, and I believe others would too if they were user-friendly. It isn't hard to do.

The supermarket weekly specials, the department store sales, the electronic store inserts -- all can be posted and linked to. These ads work well on line; there are many user-friendly formats already in use. Newspapers, merchants and internet readers just have to pitch in to create, purchase and click on these ads.

[850Rick]

At least from my point of view the Rocky Mtn News was an excellent paper, better than that of the Denver Post, but with the advent of online 24/7 news there is no need for printed paper. The only consumers hurt by this will be those that do not have PC access and rely on a paper version. It's too bad their management didn't see this coming a long time ago. I really don't think the unions had much to do with it because it is the product or service that is no longer needed. United Parcel Service is a union shop but their product or service will always be needed so they will survive.