I posted four days ago that I disliked being on the receiving end of benefits that came as a result of misfortune to others, except in the case of politics.
I should elaborate—it's not just politics, but any time that the unfortunate one richly deserves said misfortune. Politics simply came to mind first.
So I hardly mind extending my exception to the world of Legacy Media, including newspapers as an industry. Sure, there may be a few papers out there that don't twist and distort the truth beyond recognition, but dead-tree news as a whole, just like television news as a whole, wholly deserves the irrelevance that is swiftly overtaking it.
Slow growth in ad revenue is expected to eat into third-quarter profits at U.S. newspaper companies.
...In a sign that some media companies don't see the disappointing advertising trends abating anytime soon, three of the nation's largest newspaper publishers — Knight Ridder Inc., New York Times Co. and Tribune Co. — recently unveiled job cuts.
...A big part of newspapers' sluggish advertising sales in recent years has been attributed to the shift in ad budgets to more measurable types of advertising, including the Internet and direct mail.
The fact that I'm a part of the instrument of their downfall—albeit a very small part—makes this all the sweeter. Notice the next sentence:
"This switch alone, however, does not account for weakness across traditional advertising — newspapers, television, radio, magazines, and even cable networks have started to see advertising decelerate," says Craig Huber, an analyst with Lehman Brothers.
Could it be, possibly, that readers are actively choosing not to read/watch/listen to these grand old stalwarts of journalism? This is the question never asked, the issue never visited, the elephant in the room no one will acknowledge.
Just like the Democrat who, upon losing an election, attributes his loss simply to "not getting his message out to the people," the Legacy Media will never publicly consider the possibility that they simply aren't offering a product Americans want to buy.
Bill Quick calls it "the death of a thousand cuts." Add to that the cumulative effect of tens of thousands of tiny voices like this blog, and there's no longer a need to get your news from the local monopoly-holder. And a commenter at Daily Pundit adds this:
The sign that it is over for them will be when they beg the government for subsidies because a major city "needs" a dead tree news source. It happened with passenger trains and it will happen with newspapers.
He might well be right. Imagine the newspaper industry in America reduced to the equivalent of Amtrak, courtesy of your friendly neighborhood blogosphere.
Couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of agenda-driven, manipulative socialists.
UPDATE: Thanks to Mark at Cutting Edge of Ecstacy for the link! "They distort, we deride." Heh.
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You know, there is a network out there that shows mostly "good news". I have SkyAngel on my Dish and they run a channel that has CBN (Christian Broadcasting Network) News. They make no attempt to be completely impartial (with a refreshing right-bias) but even that I wouldn't mind seeing gone. (though not enough to actually complain about it to them :-) I don't even watch that very often. With all the news I get off the Internet I don't have a "news hunger" when I get home...
Posted by: Rob | Sunday, 09 October 2005 at 12:22 PM