Article

2008-11-13 Fifth Column

Is the Financial Demise of the New York Times at Hand?

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Posted by DoDo 2008-11-13 11:17|| || Front Page|| [5 views ] Top

#1 Obama will bail them out; he owes them, BIG TIME.

Posted by Glenmore 2008-11-13 13:27|| 2008-11-13 13:27|| Front Page Top

#2 Better watch what Treas Sec Paulson does. He will probably put them on the bailout list, or the govt will buy NYT stock and merrily glissade down the slippery slope. I know that Ima bein snarky, but todays snark becomes tomorrow's policy at the national level.

Posted by Alaska Paul 2008-11-13 13:29|| 2008-11-13 13:29|| Front Page Top

#3 I've got my fingers crossed. Die! Die! Die!

Posted by Scooter McGruder 2008-11-13 13:42|| 2008-11-13 13:42|| Front Page Top

#4 The N.Y. Times is a bad newspaper. Bad newspapers should fail. A good newspaper prints, well, news (not fiction), and does not try to defeat the USA whenever it can. Good bye.

Posted by whatadeal 2008-11-13 13:51|| 2008-11-13 13:51|| Front Page Top

#5 As an interesting sidenote, all the national press press in France simply wouldn't even survive without gvt subsidies (except for the rightwing publications, which are graciously left apart from any kind of aid) and/or disguized subsidies (like the national railway company, a bastion of commie unionization, buying bunchloads of advertiseemnt in the communist newspaper). Top ut it bluntly, the french press simply is not viable through readership, but grants keep it afloat, and even that barely (the leftist "libération" has been supported by the Rotschilds, lol), because, well, no one read them. And mags are only a bit better.
Note that in the case of the french press, there's a particularism, past the sheer mediocrity of it, it's that there's a printing & distribution monopoly that was "accorded" to a communist union, back in the immediate post-WWII of the gaullo-communist provisional gvt (commies got a monopoly on book & dailies printing/distribution, docking, and parisian sewers, all kind of useful stuff...), which basically make national press a very iffy business, if you're in to actually make money out of it.

Posted by anonymous5089 2008-11-13 13:55|| 2008-11-13 13:55|| Front Page Top

#6 Actually the Franch tax payer pays about hamf the newspaper cost (and that without counting govenrmnent advertisings): German newspapers despite their much marger circulation cost twice more (I am referring of course to the price you pay in Germany not the price in France).

Posted by JFM">JFM 2008-11-13 14:18|| 2008-11-13 14:18|| Front Page Top

#7 The Times will fail, until babmi takes over and bails them out. Then they will fail until the Treasury is broke.

Posted by DarthVader 2008-11-13 14:34|| 2008-11-13 14:34|| Front Page Top

#8 Breaking: Obama agrees to a bailout of the New York Times
Only hours after Mediapost reported that The New York Times had a negative net worth, President-Elect Barack Obama announced a $5 billion bailout rescue package for the media concern. In a hastily arranged press conference at the newly constructed Office of the President-Elect, Obama noted the importance of the Times' ability to influence public opinion.

"It's not overstating things to say that I owe my presidency to the New York Times," he stated in his perfectly pitched, baritone voice. His hand smoothed a crease in his tailor-made Canali suit, which was precisely matched with a cream Ike Behar shirt and baby blue tie. "The Times' prowess at non-investigation and their matchless creativity related to John and Cindy McCain stories were, no doubt, critical to the process."

"Losing the Times would be like losing a father or, in my case, a preacher. Therefore, I'm happy to announce that the Federal Government will be writing Bill Keller a check for $5 billion dollars to keep the Times afloat for at least another four years."

The press conference was briefly marred by Maureen Dowd fainting and Paul Krugman experiencing "a thrill going up my leg."

Posted by tipper 2008-11-13 14:44|| 2008-11-13 14:44|| Front Page Top

#9 I'll need something new to line the litter box with.

Posted by Hellfish 2008-11-13 14:47|| 2008-11-13 14:47|| Front Page Top

#10 Well the owners of the papers and other media outlets would be happy to be subsidized by the govt. Follow the money. And BTW, lest we forget . . . these BUSINESSES are owned by private people--and not too many of them. Like sports team owners. We look at the (media) players, but it's all about the owners.

Posted by ex-lib 2008-11-13 15:03|| 2008-11-13 15:03|| Front Page Top

#11 Make note that the article makes no comment about content being part of the problem, just advertising and readership. They blame the symptoms, not the disease.

Posted by tipover 2008-11-13 15:12|| 2008-11-13 15:12|| Front Page Top

#12 If Obama doesn't bail them out I'm sure Al-Qaeda or Saudi Arabia will. The NYT is just too important to their efforts in the WOT.

I mean you just can't buy government secrets that cheaply....

Posted by CrazyFool 2008-11-13 15:54|| 2008-11-13 15:54|| Front Page Top

#13 The NYTs ceased being a newspaper when they stopped reporting the news and instead started making it up to suit their liberal agenda.

Posted by JohnQC 2008-11-13 16:38|| 2008-11-13 16:38|| Front Page Top

#14 Demise of the New Yuk Times? Can't come soon enough for me. They deserved to die as soon as they printed the Pentagon Papers.

I hope bad, bad things happen to them. They've got them coming, and in spades.

Posted by Jolutch Mussolini7800 2008-11-13 17:48|| 2008-11-13 17:48|| Front Page Top

#15 Oh please oh please oh please...

Posted by OldSpook 2008-11-13 18:05|| 2008-11-13 18:05|| Front Page Top

#16 As reassuring as it would be to think the NYT or other papers are dying because of the horrid problems with most (not all) of their content, it ain't so. Monster.com/other internet sites killed help wanted; Craigslist and EBay and etc killed classified; advertising has been siphoned off by diverse factors incl. more & better targeting of TV/radio, decline in auto dealers ads and also the consolidation of department stores, and a move by big-box stores to market only weekly through those shiny inserts, on which the papers make very little. Yes, circulation is way down, but even without that the revenue picture would have been grim.

No doubt many are disgusted at many things like the outrageous bias, and astonishing arrogance and irresponsibility such as with the revelations of GWOT surveillance activities. But this huge substantive problem afflicts almost all major "news" media; it crested (could it get even worse??) with this election cycle; and the electorate REWARDED this behavior by voting for the empty suit and his imbecilic side-kick.

Posted by Verlaine 2008-11-13 18:07|| 2008-11-13 18:07|| Front Page Top

#17 I don't know exactly what's going on with the NYT, but my local fishwrap is doing pretty good. It's a Freedom Group newspaper, and for the most part is fairly "fair and balanced" - although they do print a LOT of AP, McClatchly Group, and Rooters articles. It's been the home of Chuck Asay, one of the most conservative (and readable) political cartoonists of the last 50 years, for two decades, at least. I'm not sure if they have a union printing plant or not, but probably - the Printers' Union Retirement Home is located just two miles east of the newspaper.

Posted by Old Patriot">Old Patriot 2008-11-13 19:19|| http://oldpatriot.blogspot.com/]">[http://oldpatriot.blogspot.com/] 2008-11-13 19:19|| Front Page Top

#18 I don't care why the NYT dies, Verlaine - I only care that it DOES die.

SOON.

Posted by Barbara Skolaut">Barbara Skolaut 2008-11-13 19:28|| http://ariellestjohndesigns.com/]">[http://ariellestjohndesigns.com/] 2008-11-13 19:28|| Front Page Top

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