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| The decline of news - Get out yer hankies! |
| 2007-06-22 |
| The Chronicle's announcement earlier this month that 100 newsroom jobs will be slashed in the coming weeks in the face of mounting financial woes represents just the latest chapter in a tragic story of traditional journalism's decline. Oh, the humanity! Reportedly losing an estimated $1 million a week, the paper's owner, the Hearst Corp., concluded it had no recourse but to trim costs by laying off reporters, editors and other skilled professionals, or offering buyouts to the most seasoned journalists in order to induce them to leave. The cuts reportedly will amount to a quarter of The Chronicle's editorial staff. "You're right, I did lose a million dollars last year. I expect to lose a million dollars this year. I expect to lose a million dollars *next* year. You know, Mr. Thatcher, at the rate of a million dollars a year, I'll have to close this place in... 60 years." In the age of "new" media, this rollback in "old" media may be among the most drastic in recent memory, but it is nothing new to the public. Indeed, across the country newspapers have suffered enormous financial losses over the past decade, with far fewer professionals today covering the news locally, nationally and internationally as a result of the industry's contraction. The factors behind this shrinkage are sadly familiar: The rise of the Internet has produced sharp declines in traditional advertising revenues in the printed press. Free online advertising competitors such as Craigslist.com have sharply undermined classified advertising as a traditional source of revenue. While this may be true, the money saved by people and businesses placing online ads can be spent on other items advertised in the newspaper. It is merely a matter of retargeting oneÂ’s marketing. Email has yet to put the post office out of business. |
| Posted by:Zenster |
| #13 Women and Children will be hit hardest. |
| Posted by: Deacon Blues 2007-06-22 21:08 |
| #12 Everyone's fault but their own. |
| Posted by: bigjim-ky 2007-06-22 17:09 |
| #11 Harry lied Media cried Troops died Islamists ride |
| Posted by: Bobby 2007-06-22 13:09 |
| #10 [cue crying] Oh my god, the humanity!!! [/cue crying] reporters, editors and other skilled professionals When did that start? I thought they were ardent, selfless amateurs. |
| Posted by: Almost Anonymous5839 2007-06-22 11:02 |
| #9 ...a tragic story of traditional journalism's decline. Who says tragic? Those aiders and abetters of terrorism. People are fed up with their lying BS. How about a bumper sticker that says: "The media lied, troops died?" |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2007-06-22 09:44 |
| #8 Mine, too, Rob! |
| Posted by: Bobby 2007-06-22 08:37 |
| #7 Rob - you get my vote for "Snark of the Week"! |
| Posted by: Mohammad Khatami 2007-06-22 08:33 |
| #6 forcing top officials to publicly acknowledge their mistakes and work to fix them... Unless those "top officials" are Democrats or reporters. But I repeat myself. |
| Posted by: Rob Crawford 2007-06-22 08:30 |
| #5 "It is a public trust vital to a free society." So all news media jobs should be 'protected' and subsidized by the government - like the BBC does. No layoffs! No pay cuts! No accountability! (sarcasm, I hope.) |
| Posted by: Glenmore 2007-06-22 08:05 |
| #4 Hallelujah! The liberal media monopoly on news and entertainment is finally getting shredded by the free market. |
| Posted by: Glusotch, Avenger of the Wombats7546 2007-06-22 07:15 |
| #3 It is a public trust vital to a free society. And you guys used to be responsible for it. Didn't y'all make a choice to turn the 'public trust' into a profit center? |
| Posted by: Bobby 2007-06-22 06:44 |
| #2 "If all the newspapers in America did not allow Google to steal their content, how profitable would Google be?" Since most of the content Google links to comes from AP, Reuters, etc. -- the same companies that provide most of the items in all the newspapers in America, except the local stuff -- who are the exceedingly well-paid newspaper journalists to complain? who indirectly benefit so enormously from the expensive labor of journalists Clearly it hasn't occurred to the good professor that his graduates might be more than a tad overpaid for the work they do. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2007-06-22 06:22 |
| #1 2 points. Some of the best investigative reporting is happening online. Annie Jacobsen's Terror in the Skies series was terrific. This is disintermediation at work. We need news gathers. We need informed analysis or even the kind of half-assed analysis we specialize in here at the Burg. We don't need journalists. They insinuated themselves into the process when the MSM were the gatekeepers of news. Good riddance to them. |
| Posted by: phil_b 2007-06-22 05:57 |