Goodbye, daily newspapers in Detroit
As a survivor of the newspaper industry (1), I've been expecting this at one or another major newspaper sooner or later. Still hurts to see it.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/12/12/detroit-papers-looking-to_n_150721.html
And here's what is supposedly the actual circulation notice at the Freep.
https://ecm-c-mass2one.leepfrog.com/detroitpress/newfod/fpnewfod.cfm?ccode=pm
[size=1](1) I'm yet another member of the
American Society of Shitcanned Media Elites. If only the beancounters had recognized inevitability when they saw it, maybe tens of thousands of actual reporters would still have jobs.[/size]
Daily Newspapers have been getting pummeled for years. The bulk of their income is from the classifieds section. That primarily was made up of Auto, real estate and help wanted ads. These have been getting bleed dry form the internet and the latest economic crisis has only exacerbated the situation. There are over 30 daily papers for sale right now and no one is looking to buy them. The Rocky mountain news is another example.
The readership has been the other half of the problem for papers. Their circulation figures have been declining for a long time and their reader demographics show that their only reaching on average a much older segment of the population. These readers are literally dying off, and so are the papers. They missed the chance to get online first and now they are simply dinosaurs waiting for extinction.
Update: Am told that the Detroit papers will continue to print every day, but people will only be able to subscribe to the Thursday (grocery ads) and Sunday (loaded with ads) editions.
Saves 'em a boatload in terms of not hiring a bunch of people to deliver the paper 7 days, but what happens if they don't get the bump in newsstand sales they're expecting?
Newspapers, TV news, and news magazines are all suffering from declining users, and the reason is simple. They now have competition from the internet, and surfers can now get different perspectives on the news, instead of the cookie cutter clones the media have been offering for decades. They are dinosaurs, and they can't figure out why.
This is an opportunity for some unemployed (there are a few in Detroit, right?) to do a little entrepreneurial paper distribution. ;)
I remember reading the Philadelphia Inquirer daily. When the web came around, and suddenly articles from around the world were available, it made it clear how shitty a paper it actually was for a big city. How little content they actually had to produce in order to do a daily paper. How crappy the editorials were for a big deal editorial board.
I'll never get over the day I read the Inqy story about how the Jersey shore faces a deluge of car accidents during the summer because 24% of their accidents happen in June, July, and August. I remember thinking that if they had a Reply button there would be more useful information in the comments than in the stories.
Newspapers, TV news, and news magazines are all suffering from declining users, and the reason is simple. They now have competition from the internet, and surfers can now get different perspectives on the news, instead of the cookie cutter clones the media have been offering for decades. They are dinosaurs, and they can't figure out why.
Not exactly. Most of the newspapers and web sites get their news from the same places -- take a look at how many web sites take feeds from the Associated Press. Same content, different addresses. Way back when, that model worked. People in Detroit didn't often get to read the Miami Herald, for instance, so it didn't make a difference.
If you want to know what really went wrong, it went like this: The business types looked at us reporters, declared that we silly bachelor-of-arts types don't understand how business really works and condescendingly informed us that the Internet would never supplant the daily dead-tree product because ... well, the daily newspaper is a tradition and nothing could
ever break that tradition. :mad:
Actually, those folks couldn't figure out how to make money on it. In a good business environment, most businesses turn a profit of six or seven percent. Traditionally, newspapers' profit margins have run 20 percent or more --- an enormous return on investment, almost a license to print money. Circulation revenues are just a drop in the bucket compared to what the advertisements bring in.
We-the-journalists were ready a decade and more ago to explore paid online methods of distribution. Unfortunately, the bean counters weren't ready to accept a lower profit margin than what they had grown used to, so they declared online product secondary to what they consider the
real product --- the daily printed newspaper. The idea that people would get used to the online product, and that younger people who never knew any other way would abandon the print product ... the bean counters never really considered that possibility until about four or five years ago, which was at least four or five years too late.
Thus endeth my rant.
(And if I sound bitter about that ... well, that's because I was one of the journalists rather than one of the bean counters.)
I remember reading the Philadelphia Inquirer daily. When the web came around, and suddenly articles from around the world were available, it made it clear how shitty a paper it actually was for a big city. How little content they actually had to produce in order to do a daily paper. How crappy the editorials were for a big deal editorial board.
I'll never get over the day I read the Inqy story about how the Jersey shore faces a deluge of car accidents during the summer because 24% of their accidents happen in June, July, and August. I remember thinking that if they had a Reply button there would be more useful information in the comments than in the stories.
Based on what I've seen, most "comments" sections are useless. Lots of ill-informed prattle, no real information.
Based on what I've seen, most "comments" sections are useless. Lots of ill-informed prattle, no real information.
As opposed to newspapers and TV very informed prattle, no real information.
update....
Chicago's newspapers facing troubled futures
CHICAGO (AP) - A little more than a century ago, Chicago boasted 11 daily English-language newspapers.
The fierce competition among them, immortalized in the 1928 play "The Front Page," even turned bloody at times, and that drive to outdo one another led to 35 Pulitzer Prizes, journalism's highest honor.
Today, only two major dailies remain in this city of 3 million, and both are in serious trouble from declining circulation, plummeting ad revenue and a new kind of competition that threatens to make newsprint itself obsolete.
Suddenly, "Stop the presses!" carries new meaning.
Even as the arrest of Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich on federal corruption charges brought the latest and most luscious of scandals to the teeth of the Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun-Times, questions were swirling about their futures.
How long can the smaller Sun-Times survive as its parent, Sun-Times Media Group Inc., loses money every quarter? And what of the dominant Tribune, whose parent Tribune Co. sought bankruptcy protection this month because of its crushing $13 billion debt?
Both papers are steeped in history, the Chicago Tribune's most famous single edition trumpeting erroneously in 1948, "Dewey Defeats Truman." The Tribune first published in 1847, while the Sun-Times, formed in a 1948 merger, has its roots in the Chicago Evening Journal in 1844, making it the city's oldest continuously published daily.
"I think it's great that Chicago still has two newspapers, and it would be a great disappointment to lose either of them," said Tom Spees, 50, a health-information service director who was looking through a Sun-Times left by another customer at Merle's coffee shop near a North Side "el" train station.
But at a downtown Starbucks sat the possible future of news - and the source of much of the newspaper industry's troubles.
Michelle Kurlemann plugged her laptop computer into a wall outlet and thumbed away at her BlackBerry. The 24-year-old interior designer said the closing of either paper would be "really sad," but she wasn't reading one of them, not in print anyway.
"I get my news online, and when someone I know sees a good newspaper article, they message it to me," Kurlemann said. "Still, I suppose that if the newspapers close, it'll hurt things online, too."
To newsprint addicts, those are sad words.
Even in the early 1970s, Chicago still had four major dailies - the others had either folded or been merged.
Their reporters had their own culture, including a rather flexible code of ethics.
I have nothing to add. As a former employee at a daily, this day has been coming for a long time.
Seems like 85% of bean counters are at fault....
Well that or its 85% tw's fault
But tw didn't work for the papers, you did... it's your fault. :haha:
See, I told my boss he couldn't do it without me - its true!
Seems like 85% of bean counters are at fault....
Greedy little turds that they are …
It isn't just in Detroit. All of them are having major problems. Its just a dying industry. This is one of my former employers:
Gannett to Furlough Workers for Week
The Gannett Company, the nation’s largest newspaper publisher, said on Wednesday that it would force thousands of its employees to take a week off without pay in an effort to avoid layoffs.
Gannett, which owns 85 daily newspapers across the United States including its flagship USA Today, said it could not say exactly how many people would be required to take time off, or how much money the company would save. But it said it would require unpaid leave for most of its 31,000 employees in this country.
Also on Wednesday, USA Today notified its staff of a one-year pay freeze for all employees.
“Most of our U.S. employees — including myself and all other top executives — will be furloughed for the equivalent of one week in the first quarter,” Craig A. Dubow, the chairman, president and chief executive, wrote in a memorandum to employees.
“We sincerely hope this minimizes the need for any layoffs going forward,” he added.
The company cannot impose the measure unilaterally on employees covered by a union contract, but Mr. Dubow said Gannett was asking unions to participate voluntarily. Tara Connell, a company spokeswoman, said about 12 percent of Gannett’s domestic employees were unionized.
With the newspaper industry in increasingly dire financial straits, Gannett’s mandatory week off takes its place in a growing list of grave moves. Layoffs have been widespread, the newspapers in Detroit halted home delivery four days of the week, the Tribune Company filed for bankruptcy protection and owners of The Rocky Mountain News and The Seattle Post-Intelligencer warned that those papers could shut down.
Yea, pretty amazing. I think the worst part about it is that there are and will still be times when you can't link up to the web and a really good newspaper is a great way to pass the time.
That's what the Kindle is for, when you're off the net!
I put the Philly Inquirer Front Page into my Google Reader for the last week. None of the stories caused me to click through to read the whole thing. I was hoping for more of a local angle, since the net delivers much better national and international news. But 60% of their stories are still natl/internatl, and the rest are just not all that interesting.
And much of it is "non-news". Big front page story today?
There are a lot of Philadelphia Eagles fans in Phoenix. No shit? What hard-working reporter worked that story? It had to be a tough assignment.
Well it was a great idea to go down there and get the story and not be where it was cold and snowing.
"No, sir Mr. Editor, I still need a few more weeks in Phoenix to wrap this up for you. And it is going to be a good one." : :D
And much of it is "non-news". Big front page story today? There are a lot of Philadelphia Eagles fans in Phoenix. No shit? What hard-working reporter worked that story? It had to be a tough assignment.
FWIW - staff writer Peter Mucha. Don't know the guy and really don't care. I agree UT - thats part of the reason why they are dinosaurs and soon to be extinct.
Mexican mogul Slim sees opportunity in NY Times
New York Times offers prestige to Mexican billionaire looking to expand into US market
MEXICO CITY (AP) --
A Latin American billionaire looks to expand his empire in the United States in a deal that could make him the largest shareholder of The New York Times Co.
The $250 million investment by Mexican tycoon Carlos Slim could provide some synergies with his telecommunications holdings in Latin America, analysts say.
The Times announced late Monday the financing agreement with Slim's companies Banco Inbursa and Inmobiliaria Carso for $125 million each. Times President Janet L. Robinson said the cash infusion will be used to refinance existing debt and will provide the company with increased financial flexibility.
New York Times shares slipped 8 cents to $6.33 in morning trading Tuesday, the first trading day after the company announced the deal.
The Times, which also publishes The Boston Globe and International Herald Tribune, has been trying to conserve cash as advertising revenues continue to slide. Newspaper publishers across the country are hurting amid the economic downturn and as advertisers shift spending online. The Times slashed its quarterly dividend by 74 percent in November and plans to raise $225 million from its new, 52-story Manhattan headquarters, either by selling the building and leasing it back or borrowing against it. It also put its stake in the Boston Red Sox up for sale.
Clear Channel cuts 1,850 jobs, 9 pct of work force
The parent of Clear Channel Communications Inc. told workers on Tuesday that it is cutting 1,850 jobs as the nation's largest owner of radio stations grapples with the economic meltdown.
The cuts represent about 9 percent of the company's total work force and affect staff throughout the company, in radio, outdoor advertising and corporate offices.
In a company-wide email, Chief Executive Mark Mays told employees that the company is facing an "unprecedented time of distress." He also said, though, that "Everyone in our investor group, on the board, and in the executive leadership team remains bullish about the long-term growth prospects for Clear Channel."
In the third quarter, company lost $86.1 million before discontinued operations compared to a profit of $253.4 million. The quarter included $148.8 million in merger-related expenses and other one-time items. Revenue fell by 4 percent to $1.7 billion.
The steepest drop was in radio advertising, down 7 percent to $844 million.
Does anyone even listen to commercials on the radio anymore? How bullish can they really be a bout this market?
Carlos Slim owns one of the Mexican telephone companies - Taco Bell.
L.A. Times to cut 300 jobs
Editor Russ Stanton said in a second memo that the cuts will include a 70-position reduction across the editorial department, or 11 percent, in the coming weeks.
Hartenstein said the paper will reduce the number of sections on March 2, folding the California section into the front section, which includes local, national and international news, while keeping Business, Sports and Calendar as daily fixtures.
Other papers have also moved to trim sections in order to save money amid a rapidly worsening advertising market.
The New York Times in October folded the metro section in the paper's main news section from Monday to Saturday, and combined the business and sports sections on Tuesday to Friday.
Earlier Friday, A.H. Belo Corp., which owns the The Dallas Morning News and three other newspapers, said it will lay off 500 workers, or about 14 percent of its work force, and take other cash-saving measures to cope with falling ad revenue.
I don't see these jobs ever coming back. With severe competition from the electronic competitors and rapidly dying/declining readership, I think this is a permanent change.
Newspaper convention canceled amid industry woes
An annual convention of newspaper editors has been canceled for the first time since World War II, undone by the worst economic crisis since that harrowing era.
The American Society of Newspapers Editors' decision to skip this year's meeting was announced Friday, coinciding with the final edition of the Rocky Mountain News—the largest daily U.S. newspaper to shut down so far during a steep two-year slide in advertising revenue that's draining the life out of the industry.
"The industry is in crisis," said Charlotte Hall, president of the trade group and editor of the Orlando (Fla.) Sentinel. "This is a time when editors need to be in their own news rooms doing everything they can," to help their publications survive.
Until now, 1945 had been the only year that the American Society of Newspaper Editors didn't meet since the group's first convention in 1923. The newspaper industry weathered through 10 U.S. recessions since the last cancellation.
If it hadn't been canceled, this year's convention—scheduled from April 26-29 in Chicago—probably would have attracted a sparse crowd because so many newspapers are pinching pennies to ease their financial pain.
Newspaper staffs have been gutted, stock dividends have been suspended and, in the most extreme circumstances, bankruptcy petitions have been filed as more readers get their news for free from the Internet and advertisers curtail their spending on the print medium amid the recession.
Canceling the convention will likely result in some penalties to compensate the host hotel, the Fairmont in Chicago. The newspaper group is still negotiating with the hotel, Hall said.
The adverse economic conditions also prompted Magazine Publishers of America to cancel its convention this year. That decision was announced earlier this week.
Save some trees - shut 'em all down.
San Francisco May Be Largest City to Lose Main Paper
By Greg Bensinger
Feb. 25 (Bloomberg) -- San Francisco may become the largest U.S. city to lose its main daily newspaper after Hearst Corp. threatened to sell or close the Chronicle unless it can push through more job cuts.
The publisher, already trying to sell the Seattle Post- Intelligencer, said yesterday that it would seek voluntary buyouts for a “significant” number of its 1,500 employees after the San Francisco Chronicle lost $50 million last year. The announcement follows two newspaper owners filing for bankruptcy protection since Feb. 21.
“The Chronicle plays an important role in our civic life and we don’t want to see this treasured institution close its doors,” San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom said yesterday in a statement. The California city is the nation’s 14th largest, with an estimated 744,000 residents, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
Publishers including New York Times Co. and Gannett Co. are cutting costs and seeking to sell assets after forecasting further declines in print advertising sales. Philadelphia Newspapers LLC, publisher of the Inquirer, and Journal Register Co. filed for bankruptcy protection to reorganize their debt.
Industrywide print advertising sales suffered their worst plunge in at least 37 years in the third quarter, according to the Newspaper Association of America. Newspapers haven’t managed a gain since the first three months of 2006.
The Philadelphia Inquirer claims it's still a profitable operation, however. The filing is to protect them from past debts until they can get them restructured.
Journalism evolving, not dying: science author
"I am not bullish on what is happening in the newspaper industry; it is ugly and it is going to get uglier. Great journalists are going to lose their jobs and cities are going to lose their newspapers."
The shift was foreseeable but ignored, resulting in changes that should have happened gradually over a decade being crammed into a year or two with some pressure from the global economic meltdown, according to Johnson.
"There is panic that newspapers are going to disappear as businesses," Johnson said.
"Then there is panic that crucial information is going to disappear along with them. We spend so much time figuring out how to keep the old model on life support that we don't figure out how to build the new one."
News organizations should stop wasting resources on information freely available online, he added. And, they should stop killing trees.
"The business model sure seems easier to support if the printing goes away," Johnson said. "They don't have the print costs."
The global technology media, events and research company learned the benefits of delivering its publications, such as PC World and InfoWorld, exclusively on the internet, IDG chairman Patrick McGovern told AFP in a recent interview.
"The overall move to online has been big," McGovern said. "Print editions are yesterday's news. If it is news, people want to hear it as soon as they can."
IDG operates in 95 countries and says it is growing by double digits in China, India, and Eastern Europe.
Newspaper publishers would be wise to drop print and delivery costs and then focus on digging out the hot local topics that their readerships crave, according to McGovern.
"Find out the scandal in the mayor's office; what the police are up to, and those other things that people love to talk about," McGovern said. "It is easier and much less costly to put it online."
While internet users have grown accustomed to getting news, pictures, videos and other content for free, McGovern believes people will pay monthly subscriptions for online newspapers solidly tapped into their communities.
"I think people realize that if they are not paying for the information there will not be much investment in the information," McGovern said.
Johnson sees the future of news weaving together talents of professional journalists, bloggers, and people using social networking tools such as Facebook and Twitter to instantly tell what is happening around them.
The information mix will, of course, include direct online streams such as webcasts from high-profile people such as US President Barack Obama.
"Let's say it is impossible to separate fact finding from rumor mongering," Johnson hypothesized.
"If only there were some institution that had a reputation for integrity and a staff of trained journalists that had thousands of people visiting their websites every day."
Those institutions are newspapers, Johnson noted, adding that an Internet-age motto of newspapers should be "All the news that fit to link."
Johnson is co-founder of a series of websites, his latest being Outside.in, and his books include "Everything Bad is Good For You" and "The Invention of Air."
Something related to this thread and the conversation in a few others. I think he has some good insight into the issue. Especially this line -
"We spend so much time figuring out how to keep the old model on life support that we don't figure out how to build the new one."
Clay Shirky understands this stuff better than anyone else.
He just uncorked one on newspapers and the Internet. Sample:
That is what real revolutions are like. The old stuff gets broken faster than the new stuff is put in its place. The importance of any given experiment isn’t apparent at the moment it appears; big changes stall, small changes spread. Even the revolutionaries can’t predict what will happen. Agreements on all sides that core institutions must be protected are rendered meaningless by the very people doing the agreeing. (Luther and the Church both insisted, for years, that whatever else happened, no one was talking about a schism.) Ancient social bargains, once disrupted, can neither be mended nor quickly replaced, since any such bargain takes decades to solidify.
And so it is today. When someone demands to know how we are going to replace newspapers, they are really demanding to be told that we are not living through a revolution. They are demanding to be told that old systems won’t break before new systems are in place. They are demanding to be told that ancient social bargains aren’t in peril, that core institutions will be spared, that new methods of spreading information will improve previous practice rather than upending it. They are demanding to be lied to.
If it is news, people want to hear it as soon as they can."
Not necessarily, I don't care if I read what happened at Tuesday night's town council meeting on Wednesday, Thursday, or even Friday. Not everything is the paper is breaking news, and much of it is interesting but you wouldn't go searching for it.
They don't take into account how a paper is used. On the bus or train, at work, can I borrow the movie listings section a minute, fold up the sports section and stick it in your back pocket on the way to the shithouse.
Not everyone sits at a desk with a computer all day. Those hand held thingys are neither comfortable nor practical to just scan while you eat your sandwich... tough on the eyes too.
Well the new generation has no trouble reading whatever they want on their phones :eek:
Whatever they want? Do they know what they want? How do their broaden their horizons on Fark? By the time they do have trouble they'll have no choice.
I never said it was a good thing, just that it is what it is.
The answer is the
Kindle. Then you get news, blogs and books in a portable format with paper-like crispness.
Hey it's only like $359.
You still have to use your hands and you wouldn't want to throw it in the shithouse trashcan when you're done.
Whatever they want? Do they know what they want? How do their broaden their horizons on Fark? By the time they do have trouble they'll have no choice.
This is the strength of a good newspaper that the internet doesn't even come close to touching. When you open up a newspaper, you are flipping the pages and seeing all these different stories. You encounter stories that you would never think to look up on your own. If it was a link on the internet, you wouldn't bother to click it. But there it is, right in front of you, staring you in the face. So maybe you read the first paragraph. The story is written in a way that the first paragraph gives you the most important information first. If it grabs you, you read a little further.
You can spend 5 minutes reading the paper, and get all the basic information, or you can spend 2 hours reading the thing from cover to cover. It's harder to do that with the internet.
Plus, the local news simply isn't covered as well anywhere else on the internet. Bits and pieces, sure, but not everything.
It is clearly a revolution, and bitching and moaning about it isn't going to stop it. But it doesn't mean I have to like losing such an important aspect of what makes society work today.
When you open up a newspaper, you are flipping the pages and seeing all these different stories. You encounter stories that you would never think to look up on your own. If it was a link on the internet, you wouldn't bother to click it. But there it is, right in front of you, staring you in the face.
Right, and laying open while you've got your lunch in both hands, your eyes wander over the paper picking out stuff.
I don't disagree with either of you. I think the biggest loss will be the investigative journalism though. For example, Watergate for one. Another would be the Fumo case (local to PA) which was broken open in large part from articles in the Inquirer.
I don't disagree with either of you. I think the biggest loss will be the investigative journalism though...
I agree wholeheartedly with that classic.
Ok, What the hell is going on? Two people have agreed with me in the same day! Is it a full moon or are we upon the apocalypse... what?
Mercury is in retrograde... :D
[COLOR="Red"]Mercenary [/COLOR]is in retrograde... :D
Huh?
I heard on NPR just a bit ago that Tuesday's Seattle Post-Intelligencer will be the last printed version. They are going digital only.
Investigative journalism is allmost dead already. :(
ETA So is speling, aparuntly.
Yup Dar - I heard the same thing.
Seattle paper stops the presses, goes online only
Reporters, editors and photographers at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer prepared their final contributions to the paper, toasted one another with shots of Wild Turkey and packed up their desks in an "eerily clean" newsroom as the final edition of the paper went to the presses Monday night.
The paper published its final print edition Tuesday as the P-I makes a transformation into an online-only news outlet. A skeleton crew of 20 to 25 staffers will remain at the new Seattle PI.com while more than 140 staffers will lose their jobs.
"Its been an opportunity to experience your community first-hand," staff photographer Meryl Schenker said of her 13 years with the paper. "You meet people from all walks of life, and that's been a real privilege."
P-I journalists coming into the newsroom Monday morning were told by management that they would "put the paper to bed for the last time" that day. Other reporters and photographers on assignment when the news broke received texts about it from their colleagues.
The P-I is the largest paper to go under in an economic climate where newspapers are facing a steep drop in advertising revenues and readership. At the same time, newspapers are also forced to compete with Web sites that republish news stories but do not share the costs of producing them.
Here is another
Ex-Rocky Mountain News staffers plan news Web site
DENVER (AP) - Former Rocky Mountain News staffers plan to start an online newspaper if they can get 50,000 paying subscribers by April 23.
That date would have been the News' 150th anniversary.
The E.W. Scripps Co. shut down the News last month, citing mounting losses.
The founders of InDenverTimes.com say the site will go live on May 4 if they meet the subscription goal.
The Web site would be free but subscribers who pay $4.99 a month would get interactive chats, columns and other extras.
The site calls the subscriptions an investment "to encourage a bold, creative effort to continue a vision based on a 150-year Denver tradition."
InDenverTimes.com includes 30 reporters and editors who worked at the Rocky.
I don't think that investigative journalism will go away entirely. What you'll see is more organizations like AP and UPI supplying stories to the web news providers.
AP sucks worse than most newspaper reporters.
We haven't had much true journalism anywhere in the system for some time now. Most local newspapers reprint a combination of information anybody can get, and information fed to them by people wanting publicity or stories.
Half the "real" news is not from reporters calling people, it's from people calling reporters. This information will move to wherever the eyeballs are.
Aside from the real news from NYT and WaPo, we simply aren't losing that much actual news from newspapers. Here are the Philadelphia Inquirer front page stories from Monday (yesterday):
1. Suburban school districts are finding it harder to get extra money from fund-raisers and so can't afford the special "extras" outside their traditional budgets. Unavailable due to cuts: chamber music coaches, Arabic teachers, smartboards. Not news: the precious snowflakes will have to learn the basics for a while.
2. Pakistan to reinstate chief justice. an AP story, and not a very important one. News failure: the importance of Pakistan's chief justice will be lost on all but 1% of readers, and there are about 50 more important stories in the region.
3. Storage unit auctions on the rise. When people abandon their rented storage units, the contents are auctioned all at once. Happening more often right now. A hard-working reporter wasted time to bring you this front-page item.
4. Fumo trial status. Highly-visible local corrupt politician gets closer to his jail sentence. News.
5. AIG lists payouts from its bailout. Washington Post story. News.
What do you miss by the loss of the Inquirer, the biggest daily in the 5th largest city? Two actual news stories, one which appears nationally anyway, and a local one which can wait for the trial's verdict. One item which doesn't mean much to anyone. And two "non-news" stories of little importance to anyone.
Throw out the front page, actually the whole "A" section. The value of the Local paper is in the other sections, that's what's hard to get elsewhere.
Throw out the front page, actually the whole "A" section. The value of the Local paper is in the other sections, that's what's hard to get elsewhere.
Bingo.
Well, somebody has to tell them, because they are paying big money for those AP and WaPo stories.
Huh?
When Mercury goes Retrograde, it appears the planet is moving backward. It isn't really, it is an optical illusion. But, Mercury rules communication, so when it's retrograde, it's said there is all kinds of miscommunication, and anything dealing with communication and understanding goes haywire. Hence my little joke. :p
When Mercenary goes retorgrade, all bets are off. :D
It makes me very sad. Obama is worried about the auto industry going away, but has he said anything about this? Why aren't we trying to save newspapers? :(
How do their broaden their horizons on Fark?
Oh, believe me, I've learned MANY things on Fark I had never known about before.
4. Fumo trial status. Highly-visible local corrupt politician gets closer to his jail sentence. News.
Yeh - who was gonna read any of that when the BIG story was the verdict that already came out?
Yeh - who was gonna read any of that when the BIG story was the verdict that already came out?
I did, to find out what he was guilty of and the collateral fallout that they think will happen.
Tonight I posted a clipping in Chisinhuston's Cape Town thread that I never would have seen on the internet. I'm sure it's there somewhere but I wouldn't have gone looking for it, because it's too off the wall.
I agree with your second point Bruce and thats what is going to suffer. As far as the Fumo trial ... There was no need to wait till the next day to find out that info, that was posted the moment it happened.
Yes, but in bits and pieces, some didn't actually come out until they were well into the trial. It's the difference between, he's accused of climbing a mountain, and he's convicted of climbing a mountain, while trespassing on Joe Blow's land, and with the help of Mr Somebody cut down trees for firewood.
It makes me very sad. Obama is worried about the auto industry going away, but has he said anything about this? Why aren't we trying to save newspapers? :(
U.S. bill seeks to rescue faltering newspapersU.S. bill seeks to rescue faltering newspapers
It's an interesting idea. But if the papers have no profit, will a tax break help them?
Sadly, many of the papers do make profits, but not enough to cover the debt of the companies that bought them up.
No. We still need cars. We don't necessarily need newspapers (playing devil's advocate; I like newspapers too.)
It's progress and technology. I want to revive the failed papyrus industry: would it help anyone to do so? I hear the plants that produce gas-powered street lamps are in trouble, would rescuing them help our economy?
Like it or not, it's the future.
from the link -
Under this arrangement, newspapers would still be free to report on all issues, including political campaigns. But they would be prohibited from making political endorsements.
[FONT=Arial][SIZE=2]As Sheikh Yamani, the former OPEC oil minister, said, "The Stone Age didn't end because we ran out of stones." [/SIZE][/FONT]
from the link -
Quote:
Under this arrangement, newspapers would still be free to report on all issues, including political campaigns. But they would be prohibited from making political endorsements.
I don't know why that would be applicable. Just look at how some churches endorse
certain candidates while threatening fire and brimstone if you vote for others.
Why "they would be prohibited from making political endorsments" would be applicable to newspapers simply because they were nonprofit. So are churches and religious organizations that are nonprofit, yet they do it.
Did you read the article? At all?
Washington Post, New York Times seek new cost cuts
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Two of the most respected U.S. newspaper publishers, The Washington Post Co and The New York Times Co, are embarking on new cost cuts in the face of dramatic declines in advertising revenue.
The Times said it laid off 100 workers and is cutting non-union salaries. It is also asking unionized employees to accept similar concessions to avoid layoffs in the newsroom.
The Post is offering a new round of buyouts to newsroom, production and circulation employees, and said it could not rule out laying off staff.
"This was a very difficult decision to make," said a memo signed by Times Chairman Arthur Sulzberger Jr. and Chief Executive Janet Robinson. "The environment we are in is the toughest we have seen in our years in business."
The moves come as a host of other U.S. newspaper publishers have reduced staff, declared bankruptcy or shuttered once-vaunted newspapers, as readers seek news online and elsewhere and as the recession crimps advertising spending.
Non-union employees at the New York Times and the Boston Globe would get a 5 percent pay cut for nine months, along with 10 days off. At other units, including the company's Worcester, Massachusetts, newspaper, the amounts would be a 2.5 percent pay cut and five days off.
The Times has laid off workers before, including 500 at a newspaper and magazine distribution unit that it closed. It also held buyouts in its newsroom last year and laid off a small number of employees there.
No one is safe.
Why "they would be prohibited from making political endorsments" would be applicable to newspapers simply because they were nonprofit. So are churches and religious organizations that are nonprofit, yet they do it.
there are many different types of non-profit orgs. Religious groups are just one type. Most types are not allowed to make political endorsements to receive the tax breaks they do. Churches are already brainwashing, so a little extra is neither here nor there.... besides, they own the govt anyway....
::lights blue touch paper and retires::
Churches aren't legally supposed to endorse candidates. Of course, few politicians would take the PR hit of enforcing that law.
Did you read the article? At all?
No, I didn't. I was responding to what was posted. I did, however, see a segment about this on Hardball or somewhere several days ago.
Just so I know the rules, do I have to click on every single link that is posted in order to reply, or can I simply reply to what is in front of me, in the thread? Because if I have to read every link, I will kill myself.
Mr. Simpson, don't you worry. I watched Matlock in a bar last night. The sound wasn't on, but I think I got the gist of it.
Sun-Times Media Group files for bankruptcy
(AP:NEW YORK) The Sun-Times Media Group, owner of the Chicago Sun-Times and dozens of suburban newspapers, says it has filed for bankruptcy, making it the fifth newspaper publisher in recent months to seek protection from creditors.
The company said it filed for Chapter 11 protection in a Delaware court Tuesday. It will continue to operate its newspapers and online properties.
It retained Rothschild Inc. to help with a possible sale of assets.
"We firmly believe that filing for Chapter 11 protection and exploring the potential sale of assets or new investment in the company offers us the best opportunity to protect our respected media properties for the long-term," Jeremy Halbreich, the company's interim chief executive, said in a statement.
This is another big hit for the industry. Interesting that they filed in a Delaware court.
This week, the Washington Post
dropped some content from their print edition. Moved stuff around within the paper, dropped an entire section (Business), and moved a bunch of stuff to the web. It's maybe 10 pages thinner now.
Sucks. They had already slimmed down a year or two ago. It's becoming a shell of its former self.
This guy I'm dating keeps comparing the local newspaper (The Oregonian, admittedly one of the worst in the country) to his hometown newspaper (whatever it is in Milwaukee, WI) and I kind of just want to ask him if he's been home, lately. Papers are suffering. Content gets dropped. That, sadly, is life right now.
Also I love my home town and sometimes I want to punch out the pretentious fuckers who move here and then won't stop complaining about how wherever they came from is WAY BETTER.
Damn Tiki, I would think Portland would be a pretty cool place to live.
Arianna Huffington, along with other donars and organizations, is creating a fund for investigative journalism. I think that's great, because I was kinda worried about losing that aspect of journalism that newspapers supply.
http://www.cbc.ca/arts/media/story/2009/03/29/huffingtonpost-investigative-team.htmlMost of the people who move here, but the few who don't are really vocal about it!
I laid the smackdown on him, he knows not to do it anymore.
AP cuts newspaper rates, moves to protect web news
NEW YORK (Reuters) – The Associated Press unveiled rate cuts on Monday to help member newspapers reeling from declining advertising revenue and said it would sue websites that use its members' articles without permission.
Changes announced by the AP at its annual meeting in San Diego include $35 million in rate assessment reductions for 2010 on top of $30 million it already instituted for 2009.
The 163-year-old newswire service also will allow member newspapers to cancel their membership with one year's notice instead of two, while offering a discount to papers that stay on a two-year cancellation notice.
Jim Kennedy, AP's vice president of strategic planning, said in a telephone interview that AP would have to reduce its costs to compensate for the rate cuts. That includes not filling vacant jobs and possibly buyouts.
Dean Singleton, AP chairman and chief executive of Denver-based publisher MediaNews Group, said, "We feel it is critical to help our members during these extremely difficult times, and these numbers show our deep commitment to doing that."
U.S. newspapers are buying out or laying off workers to stay in business. Some, including EW Scripps Co's Rocky Mountain News and Hearst Corp's Seattle Post-Intelligencer, have closed in recent weeks. The New York Times Co has said it might close the money-losing Boston Globe.
The AP, a nonprofit cooperative formed by its member newspapers, said revenue from U.S. papers would fall by about a third between 2008 and 2010.
In 2007, 25 percent of its $710 million in revenue came from U.S. newspapers.
Seventeen percent of its revenue comes from digital sales, such as the Internet and mobile devices, Kennedy said, adding that the number could grow to more than 20 percent in 2010. Most newspaper publishers get about 10 percent of their revenue online, and the other 90 percent in print.
The AP also threatened to "pursue legal and legislative actions" against websites that do not properly license news content. It said it would develop a system to track its members' and its own news distributed online to determine whether it is being legally used.
"We can no longer stand by and watch others walk off with our work under misguided legal theories," Singleton said.
Times co. threatens to shut down Globe
By Robert Gavin and Robert Weisman, Globe Staff
The New York Times Co. has threatened to shut the Boston Globe unless the newspaper's unions swiftly agree to $20 million in concessions, union leaders said.
Executives from the Times Co. and Globe made the demands Thursday morning in an approximately 90- minute meeting with leaders of the newspaper's 13 unions, union officials said. The possible concessions include pay cuts, the end of pension contributions by the company and the elimination of lifetime job guarantees now enjoyed by some veteran employees, said Daniel Totten, president of the Boston Newspaper Guild, the Globe's biggest union, which represents more than 700 editorial, advertising and business office employees.
The concessions will be negotiated individually with each of the unions, said Totten and Ralph Giallanella, secretary-treasurer of the Teamsters Local 259, which represents about 200 drivers who deliver the newspaper.
"We all know the newspaper industry is going through great transition and loss," said Giallanella. "The ad revenues have fallen off the cliff. Just based on everything that's going on around the country, they're serious."
Catherine Mathis, a Times Co. spokeswoman, declined to comment. Globe publisher P. Steven Ainsley also declined to comment.
Earlier this week, the Globe newsroom completed cutting the equivalent of 50 full-time jobs. But the deteriorating economy has made the paper's financial outlook much worse. Management told union leaders Thursday that the Globe will lose $85 million in 2009, unless serious cutbacks are made, according to a Globe employee briefed on the discussions. Last year the paper lost an estimated $50 million, the employee said.
NYT Co. 1Q losses worsen as ad sales plunge 27%
The New York Times Co. fell into a deeper financial hole during the first quarter as the newspaper publisher's advertising revenue plunged 27 percent in an industrywide slump that is reshaping the print media. Its shares dived after the results were released Tuesday.
The owner of The New York Times, The Boston Globe, the International Herald Tribune and 15 other daily newspapers lost $74.5 million, or 52 cents per share, in the opening three months of the year. That compared with a loss of $335,000 at the same time last year, which was break-even on a per-share basis.
The results in the most recent quarter included charges totaling 18 cents per share to cover the costs of jettisoning employees and other one-time accounting measures.
Even with those charges stripped out, the loss was much worse than analysts expected. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters had predicted the New York-based company would lose 4 cents per share.
Revenue for the period dropped 19 percent to $609 million -- about $22 million below the average analyst estimate.
Chief Executive Janet Robinson painted a bleak picture for the spring too, predicting ad revenue will fall in the 20 percent to 30 percent range in the current quarter. The company is being hurt most by lower spending on real estate, automotive, help-wanted and movie ads.
How long before they start begging for money?
How long before they close the doors and turn off the presses?
Maybe someday the newspapers will wake up, and realize they're losing readers because we can get more objective news on the web, instead of one sided crap they've been getting away with for years.
The papers aren't losing readers so much as they are losing advertisers.
Craigslist is free, so nobody buys classifieds, and the economy is so bad right now, the big companies aren't advertising like they used to.
Architectural Digest has lost 47% of its ad pages this year.
Publications which are losing nearly half of their ad pages are almost certainly not going to make it for another year no matter what subjects they cover. Conde Nast has already closed or cut back several of its other magazines.
Maybe someday the newspapers will wake up, and realize they're losing readers because we can get more objective news on the web, instead of one sided crap they've been getting away with for years.
Seriously, dude? You don't think the fact that the content on the web is free has anything to do with readers' preferences?
Sadly, many people do prefer a hardcopy rather than having to logon to a newspaper's site to view their dose of news
Judge approves Tribune bonus payments
WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) — The Tribune Co. can pay more than $13 million in bonuses to almost 700 employees for their work last year, a federal bankruptcy judge ruled Tuesday.
But the judge denied authorization for the Tribune to make more than $2 million in severance payments to more than 60 employees laid off shortly before the Chicago-based company filed for bankruptcy protection.
Judge Kevin Carey authorized the bonus payments after Tribune chief financial officer Chandler Bigelow III testified that the bonuses are critical to keeping key managers motivated as Tribune tries to adjust to a tough economic climate for media companies.
"We need to motivate and incentivize the key people who will implement change," Bigelow said. "These are really good people we're talking about. They're the best and the brightest of the company."
These are true bonus', NOT retention payments.
Where did we hear that type of praise before?
May 27 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. publishers are betting readers will fork over a few more quarters for their newspaper, one of the few ways they can boost revenue as advertisers cut spending.
New York Times Co.’s flagship newspaper will cost $2 at newsstands as of June 1, a 50-cent increase, and subscription prices also will rise. A.H. Belo Corp. said this month it will consider more increases next year after raising the Dallas Morning News 25 cents to $1 in February.
Price increases at the Washington Post and Tampa Tribune also paid off with higher circulation revenue, a rare area of improvement in an industry that posted declines in advertising and readership in the past year. Ad sales have dropped so low that publishers said they are willing to lose some readers to get more money out of the loyal ones.
“Those rate hikes will continue as long as they can keep pushing them through,” Alexia Quadrani, a JPMorgan Chase & Co. analyst in New York, said in an interview. “Circulation is relatively a positive story, but unfortunately it doesn’t do too much to offset the declining advertising.”
In 2007, readers paid 35 cents for the Washington Post, less than half the current newsstand price of 75 cents, and $1 for the New York Times or the Wall Street Journal, which now costs $2.
Raising prices too far may carry unintended consequences, including driving readers to free news Web sites, said Tom Corbett, a media analyst at Morningstar Inc. in Chicago. Most publications have suffered declining readership as consumers seek more news from the Internet or television.
The Washington Post daily newspaper is to shut its bureaux in Chicago, Los Angeles and New York.
Executive editor Marcus Brauchli told staff that although the posts of six correspondents in the offices were safe, three news aides had lost jobs.
In a memo, he said the national paper would focus more on political stories and local news coverage in Washington.
Like other US media, the paper has seen a decline in advertising revenue and circulation in recent years.
Pressures
The offices are due to close at the end of the year.
The paper has a circulation of more than 582,000 copies during weekdays and 822,000 on Sundays, with most papers distributed in the Washington area.
This is seen as its latest attempt to cut costs.
The newspaper division lost $166.7m (£100.5m) during the first three quarters of this year.
However Mr Brauchli tried to reassure his staff that the paper would continue to provide its readers with national stories.
He wrote: "We will continue to cover events around the country as we have for decades, by sending reporters into the field."
:headshakeMaybe nobody wants to buy their paper because they insist on giving words like "bureaus" an ancient-ass wannabe French spelling.
The online replacement for the Ann Arbor News makes sucking donkey balls seem like an attractive option.
The Washington Times will lay off 370 employees, reportedly around 40 percent of its workforce, as part of a major overhaul that will also see the paper distributed for free in some places.
In a statement, the Times' president and publisher, Jonathan Slevin, said the cuts were part of a strategy to transform the paper into a 21st century media company.
"We have developed plans to secure our position and advance our vital role in an evolving media marketplace and through challenging economic times," he said.
Acknowledging the tough times being experienced in the media industry and economy as a whole, Slevin said future plans had to be constrained by "current marketplace realities."
"In this regard, the company is aggressively working to achieve efficiencies of scale that must include significant staff reduction of its 370 personnel."
Politico newspaper reported that the figure represents around 40 percent of the Washington Times workforce.
The announcement also included a new circulation model, under which the paper will be distributed for free to
"targeted audiences in the branches of the federal government as well as at other key institutions."
Link
Thats an interesting thought - NOT.
The newspaper industry is suffering "market failure" and the government will need to help preserve serious journalism essential to democracy, an influential US congressman said Wednesday.
"The newspapers my generation has taken for granted are facing a structural threat to the business model that has sustained them," said Representative Henry Waxman, a Democrat from California.
"The loss of revenue has spurred a vicious cycle with thousands of journalists losing their jobs," he told a meeting on journalism in the Internet age hosted by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).
Waxman, who chairs the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, which has jurisdiction over the FTC, said the "depression in the media sector is not cyclical, it is structural."
"While this has implications for the media it also has implications for democracy," he added. "A vigorous free press and vigorous democracy have been inextricably linked.
"We cannot risk the loss of an informed public and all that means because of this market failure," he said.
Without endorsing any proposals, Waxman noted various proposed remedies, including new tax structures for publishers, providing non-profit status, changing anti-trust regulations or eliminating a law that bars owning a newspaper and a television station in the same city.
Acknowledging that talk of government support for the press raises "red flags," Waxman stressed it is not the job of Congress to "deny the evolution of media."
But "as we look at these various solutions, government's going to have to be involved in one way or the other," he warned.
"Eventually, government is going to have to be responsible to help resolve these issues and our whole society depends very much on reaching some resolution of the problem."
US newspapers are grappling with declining print advertising revenue, falling circulation and the migration of readers to free news online, while several major US publishers have declared bankruptcy.
Gannett Co. posted its largest profit of the year in the fourth quarter as cost-cutting efforts were aided by a lessening decline in advertising sales. But shares of the biggest U.S. newspaper publisher tumbled after company executives didn't offer any hope for an upturn in newspaper advertising this year.
The report released Monday showed that newspaper and magazine ad revenue plummeted by almost $1.2 billion, or 28 percent, from 2008. Print advertising remains Gannett's biggest source of revenue despite efforts to bring in more money from the Internet and other media.
Fourth-quarter ad revenue at Gannett's publications, which include USA Today and more than 80 other daily newspapers, fell 18 percent, or more than $172 million. That followed year-over-year declines of 32 percent to 34 percent in each of the first three quarters.
Newspaper ad sales have been deteriorating for several years, but the erosion widened dramatically beginning in the summer of 2008 as the economy headed into its worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.
The fallout has driven at least 14 U.S. newspaper publishers into bankruptcy protection. Although Gannett isn't among them, questions about the company's financial stability caused its stock to fall as low as $1.85 early last year. Those worries have faded now that the ad slump isn't getting any worse.
Link
I call BS. The fourth quarter is by far the best for papers as virtually every major retailer increases their spending astronomically. The first quarter of this year will tell a more accurate story.
Nah, they all did their seasonal advertising online. No-one looks for Black Friday deals in the newspapers anymore -online is faster and easier to compare.
I've watched from the inside through my friends who are the business editor, the retail correspondant and the advertising sales manager of the locals rags. The ones that only exist online now.... with increased revenue q4 because their ads were cheaper and more navigable by the punters.
Well after spending 20 years in the business, the 4Q by far generates more revenue than any other and in some cases more than two or all of the others combined.
Speaking of online sales . . .
Print advertising remains Gannett's biggest source of revenue despite efforts to bring in more money from the Internet and other media.
In the 4th quarter the Philly paper was loaded with sale supplements, but I don't know if the ads in the regular printed sections were up to normal.
Those inserts are big money makers, but ROP has the highest profit margin. Page counts have been so down for the last year++ The news to ad ratios have also been skewed over the same period. From those I spoken with and what I've seen, the 4thQ was a much needed shot in the arm for the industry.
I find it interesting that the stocks went up rather nicely and then dropped almost right at the end of the season as well. I believe those in the know were taking profits when they could and then got out.
OK, clearly you know way more about it than I do, so I'll leave you to your quotation from other sources thread. :)
But but but - I was just getting into talking about it with you. <sniffle>
monnie? MONNIE??? Come back!
Seems as though right behind their print counterparts is the network news...
ABC News is making no secret about what is behind the sweeping staff cuts it now faces: raw survival instinct.
“I just looked out at the next five years and was concerned that we could not sustain doing what we were doing,” said David Westin, the president of ABC News, as he explained the decision last week to jettison up to 400 staff members, a quarter of the news staff, in the coming months.
The same compelling motive already instigated strategic retrenchment at ABC’s broadcast competitors. NBC, the one network with a cable news channel, MSNBC — and, not coincidentally, the only network in a sound position of profitability — has drastically pared down its operations over the last few years. So has CBS, which is losing money already and has cut about 70 jobs this year.
But with news available more places than ever, on cable channels and Internet sites, and with revenue challenged by heavy dependence on shrinking advertising dollars, the future for the news divisions at ABC and CBS remains deeply insecure.
“Long term, it’s going to get harder for these guys to exist as they are currently constructed, with the exception of NBC because it can offload the costs on MSNBC,” Michael Nathanson, an industry analyst for Sanford C. Bernstein & Company, said.
LinkThe media industry may be going through some rough times, with the landscape changing day to day, but at least one aspect is business as usual: big paydays for the people at the top.
Top executives at the country’s largest media companies continued to reel in multimillion-dollar pay packages in 2009, a year of widespread cost-cutting throughout the industry. In several cases, the packages even increased from the year before.
At the top of the list is Leslie Moonves, chief executive of the CBS Corporation, whose pay package in 2009 totaled almost $43 million, more than twice what he made in 2008, according to an analysis by Equilar, an executive compensation research firm.
Not far behind was Viacom’s chief executive, Philippe P. Dauman, who was paid nearly $34 million, a 22 percent increase over 2008. Sumner M. Redstone, who controls CBS and Viacom, was paid more than $33 million from the two companies combined.
“Anybody who reads the business section knows the margins are being squeezed at media companies, so the fact that there are these huge packages makes no sense,” said James F. Reda, the founder of James F. Reda & Associates, a compensation consulting firm with offices in New York and Atlanta.
Link... unless you plan on a nice big payout from the Gov't.
The internet is a matchless device for distributing information on true, and truly disturbing, developments. Case in point: the FTC's recently released discussion draft on "reinventing" journalism.
Those who have read the 35-page document are mostly left agog by its absurd reach and its dangerous suggestions.
Among the items under discussion: Enhanced postal subsidies for newspapers, which already have their own uniquely cheap postage rates. Tax credits for organizations with journalists on the payroll. The formation of a new journalism cadre within AmeriCorps.
The estimated $35 billion required to keep traditional journalism afloat would be raised via several mechanisms, including a check-off box on tax returns. Those who are sympathetic to the industry's plight -- nationwide, they must number in the dozens -- could send a portion of their tax return to ameliorate the woes of the nation's MSM. As the report states,"If desired, this proposal could be structured to apply to commercial, as well as non-profit, news entities."
No plan is complete unless it calls for new taxes, and the discussion includes some doozies, including substantial new taxes on news aggregators on the web. Critics have quickly dubbed this plan the "Drudge Tax," but it would also impose new taxes on others, including Digg and the Huffington Post. The paper also floats a proposal to add a five-percent tax on consumer electronics, producing an estimated $4 billion annually. These funds would be distributed by the FTC.
The report also suggests that a "Fund for Local News" could be created using existing and new fees imposed by the FCC "on telecom users, television and radio broadcast licensees, or Internet service providers." These funds would be distributed directly to newspapers and other media outlets by state panels.
If written into law, this program would make the government a partner with each participating newspaper.
I'm not prone to hyperbole, but I frankly cannot imagine a greater, more odious conflict of interest than this one. As a journalist of thirty years standing, I wish I had an ounce of faith that publishers would reject the money, but I don't. After all, newspapers exist to make money, and they will quickly convince themselves they can enjoy the government largesse and remain independent in thought and spirit.
Link
Wow.
... unless you plan on a nice big payout from the Gov't.
Link
Wow.
LOL....The FTC hosted a series of workshops on the Future of Journalism: “How Will Journalism Survive the Internet Age?” and released a pre-draft mid-level staff report exploring a wide range of options from a wide range of perspectives on whether to recommend policy addressing the issue of journalism in the internet age. The report made no recommendations or specific proposals....just seeking and gathering information from interested parties.
At the very least, one should read the FTC statement on the misinformation that has gone viral across the right wing news sites and blogs in the last few weeks, after the report was widely distributed by the FTC.
[INDENT]Through this document, we seek to prompt discussion of
whether to recommend policy changes to support the ongoing reinvention of journalism, and, if so, which specific proposals appear most useful, feasible, platform-neutral, resistant to bias, and unlikely to cause unintended consequences in addressing emerging gaps in news coverage.”
The FTC has not endorsed the idea of making any policy recommendation or recommended any of the proposals in the discussion draft.
http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2010/06/journalism.shtm[/INDENT]
The danger of the internet? Believing everything you read from partisan sources w/o, at the very least, looking at both sides.
In effect, the FTC held a bunch of brain-storming sessions, invited lots of people with different interests who were encouraged to toss out ideas, compiled all the ideas in a very preliminary draft report, with no comments or recommendations...a common practice in preliminary brainstorming sessions like this.
And suddenly, its government take-over of the media.
added:
I do like some of the wacky headlines, all of which completely misrepresent the actions of the FTC:
Journalism 'Reinvention' Smacks of Government Control, Critics Say
FTC: We Will Reinvent Journalism By Force
FTC Reinventing Journalism Today’s Watchdogs May Be Tomorrow’s Lap Dogs
FTC Suggests Tax on Consumer Electronics to "Reinvent Journalism"
FTC Floats Drudge Tax
Meet the Commie Behind Obama FTC's Campaign for "Reinventing Journalism"
and of course, the classic American Thinker - Putting the Watchdogs on the Payroll