Article

2009-09-05 Economy

Archived material is restricted to Rantburg regulars and members. If you need access email fred.pruitt=at=gmail.com with your nick to be added to the members list. There is no charge to join Rantburg as a member.

Posted by Fred 2009-09-05 00:00|| || Front Page|| [11 views ] Top

#1 how's that that genius Cuban/Rather news network going?

Posted by Frank G">Frank G 2009-09-05 00:26|| 2009-09-05 00:26|| Front Page Top

#2 About as well as the Gore one ...

Posted by Steve White 2009-09-05 00:32|| 2009-09-05 00:32|| Front Page Top

#3 The net considers any sort of censorship or restriction as damage - and simply routes around it.

Ever hear of Proxys?

Posted by CrazyFool 2009-09-05 00:54|| 2009-09-05 00:54|| Front Page Top

#4 The writer blows right past the point:

The world is flooded with news media. It was once a business which was capital intensive, but which yielded incredible margin. They still could but for the glut of media. Only this time it really takes a miniscule investment to make a news website that can actually compete.

The Internet only changed the economics and made the possible media glut even greater. The glut is still there and is finally showing signs of affecting news organizations.

I can surf to any number of government/institution websites and get the very information the AP sells to member newspapers/local media outlets and with a phone call or two have an original story ready. Now government websites are featuring video presentations which I can embed in a news site if I so choose.

All without stepping on the AP's tender tootsies.

The fact is writer doesn't quite get it, and neither does Mark Cuban. It's the glut that is killing Old Media. It only takes a tiny investment to build a media empire on the Internet. Drudge is only the tip of the iceberg.

Posted by badanov 2009-09-05 01:36|| http://www.freefirezone.org]">[http://www.freefirezone.org] 2009-09-05 01:36|| Front Page Top

#5 Most of the revenue actually came from advertising.

Still does. Or did. Display ads, classifieds and obits are the money makers. Except that classifieds have gone to the Interwebs - Craig's List, eBay, on-line, etc. - and to the local 'alternative' papers. And display ad rates fall in lockstep with declining subscriber numbers. Thank goodness people are still dying!

If you follow the money, you realize you, the subscriber, are not the consumer but the product being delivered to the advertisers. News, sports, weather and opinion were the bait pile to lure you in. But news is expensive to produce, so papers and wire services turned to opinion.

But you can get opinion, in your favorite flavor, on the web. Same with weather data, which comes from the government. The wire services are still putting out news - when it isn't outright propaganda - but what you read in the paper happened yesterday. Might as well turn on the cable and find out what happened today and get video besides!

Others have made the point that hard news reporting is something the web can't do. But that takes people, hopefully experienced ones (see Michael Yon, for example). But experience is expensive and they are the first to go when they layoffs come. Gotta save money somewhere as revenue spirals downward. And news is less of a draw now that the papers have pissed away their credibility with awesome feats like Dan Rather's embarrassingly phony documents and the constant striving to promote The Narrative. Part of the newspaper problem is the rise of alternative technologies, but rest is their own damn fault.

Posted by SteveS 2009-09-05 02:35|| 2009-09-05 02:35|| Front Page Top

#6 The other thing is, Rantburg is not merely parasitic on traditional new organizations around the world. We produce our own news and analyses. Not all the in-lines and comments are snark; some are serious analysis and background pieces from a variety posters expert on the subject. Likewise, posters have reported what they see and hear on location, not much different than what the professional journalists do -- remember when Little Green Footballs nailed the Texas Air National Guard lie? Or when Rantburg's own Bankok Billy reported here on the excitements about the previous Thai prime minister? Or Verlaine and others about how things were going in Iraq?

In the future aggregators are going to collect as much from the hobby journalists as from the professionals.

Posted by trailing wife">trailing wife 2009-09-05 02:44|| 2009-09-05 02:44|| Front Page Top

#7 Badanov's point about low barriers to entry is spot on. (As are the others here.) And the barriers are so low you don't need the old media for anything. Look at how most of the information about the town halls has been produced and distributed. And Van Jones. This is really a variation of the press release that big organizations have long put out. But all the costly intermediaries have been removed. So if I want a trustworthy set of eyes on the ground (a modern journalist), I'll pay Roggio, or Yon or Johannes. Otherwise, I'll let the aggregator sort through the input on You Tube to bring me what's happening in the narrow field in which the aggregator specializes.

The only news print will soon be free to the reader, supported exclusively by local advertisors. At least until someone figures out a way to target local advertising on the net. Home delivery may cost extra.

Posted by Nimble Spemble 2009-09-05 08:08|| 2009-09-05 08:08|| Front Page Top

#8 In the future aggregators are going to collect as much from the hobby journalists as from the professionals.

ahhhh but then we won't have those layers of editors and fact-checkers. And no big-media investigative curiousity:

From a Nexis search a few moments ago:

Total words about the Van Jones controversy in the New York Times: 0.
Total words about the Van Jones controversy in the Washington Post: 0.
Total words about the Van Jones controversy on NBC Nightly News: 0.
Total words about the Van Jones controversy on ABC World News: 0.
Total words about the Van Jones controversy on CBS Evening News: 0.

Posted by Frank G">Frank G 2009-09-05 08:10|| 2009-09-05 08:10|| Front Page Top

#9 figuring it's their last chance to kill the parasites before they kill the host.

errr...MSM is a parasite that has amply demonstrated has no interest in sustaining the host it has lived in.

But news is expensive to produce, so papers and wire services turned to opinion.

Used to be. If the major media enterprises disappeared tomorrow, the market would be met by alternative sources that weren't tied by legacy restrictions and constrictions. Citizen reporting would bloom and with any evolutionary process, some will transform into the 'new reporting' while other will fall away much like the initial period of personal computer manufacturers. You'd probably see major players like Google, Yahoo, and MS get into the play to exploit their technological position. What will likely emerge will be more fractured than consolidated news. With that fracturing goes the loss of power which is what they bemoan the most. Like the old news stand or cable tv the consumer will have real choices of what will have their attention. You'll have people who are 'experts' or really knowledgeable on their individual subjects who report rather than reporters who know little about what they write about. That expertise will adjudged by the net community as a whole to determine their 'value' rather than investors, or journalism school grads, or the local politico.

Posted by Procopius2k 2009-09-05 08:13|| 2009-09-05 08:13|| Front Page Top

#10 But news is expensive to produce...

Produce (as in Manufacture) yes. Report, not so much.

What I would see is a return to the origins of news reporting - citizen reporters - much like Michael Yon. Back in the days where 'reporters' reported on the news and didn't try to twist each story to their own agenda.

How hard is it to report the news? Why does it take a degree in Journalism?

Posted by CrazyFool 2009-09-05 09:53|| 2009-09-05 09:53|| Front Page Top

#11 Newspapers are just journalist agregators, just like these sites are.

If I was running a newspaper I'd like the extra traffic, so I'd make journalists publish MORE, and make them do a aggregator link (i.e. 2 hook paragraphs) for the site to link to.

Posted by Bright Pebbles 2009-09-05 10:15|| 2009-09-05 10:15|| Front Page Top

#12 "Display ads, classifieds and obits are the money makers"

Don't forget Legal Notices. Papers love legal notices and even small local papers try their damndest to get approved to publish legal notices.

For those who don't ~~care~~ know, they're those boxed ads in the classifieds in little teeny tiny letters telling you something required by law - you know, those things you think nobody must read. (And mostly they don't, unless they're like me and looking for something specific to be noticed.)

What's interesting is they're required by law to be placed a specified number of times (sometimes just one, sometimes more) in a newspaper of "general circulation" in the area that will be affected by what's being noticed.

What's going to happen as newspapers go out of business? The legal notices will still be required by law. Should be interesting. And, having worked for the state legislature for a few years, I can pretty much assure you that there's not a legislature anywhere, state or federal, that has considered this and even started to talk about modifying the requirement to allow posting on the internet.

I'm not mentioning this to support or defend the newspapers - I don't give a good rat's ass about them as they skip merrily down the primrose path to sure destruction, courtesy of their own ignorant, in-denial hands. Just wondering what the modified requirement might be as paper "newspapers of general circulation" go out of business. And contemplating how entertaining it will be when the legislatures get caught with their collective pants down ~~as usual~~.

Posted by Barbara Skolaut">Barbara Skolaut 2009-09-05 18:11|| 2009-09-05 18:11|| Front Page Top

#13 What's interesting is they're required by law to be placed a specified number of times (sometimes just one, sometimes more) in a newspaper of "general circulation" in the area that will be affected by what's being noticed.

Who knew the little old local Penny Saver would become such a valuable instrument of law? :)

Posted by Procopius2k 2009-09-05 18:51|| 2009-09-05 18:51|| Front Page Top

#14 It's probably going to come to that, P2k.

Last time I was looking for a notice to be published, I had to check all the papers in the area, including the local style-type rag. It was surprising to me that even small local papers limited to village areas outside the local big city's area were (or were getting qualified to be) approved by the local court to publish legal notices. (The papers will be glad to tell you which county/city areas they can publish notices regarding.) It was a royal pain in the ass to get some of the papers every week, too.

Posted by Barbara Skolaut">Barbara Skolaut 2009-09-05 20:25|| 2009-09-05 20:25|| Front Page Top

23:56 gorb
23:47 SteveS
23:39 Pappy
23:23 ed
23:18 ed
22:20 USN, Ret.
22:06 Sluns and Tenille8706
21:55 Sluns and Tenille8706
21:51 notascrename
21:47 trailing wife
21:46 regular joe
21:45 Skunky Glins 5***
20:55 Redneck Jim
20:49 3dc
20:34 badanov
20:27 Barbara Skolaut
20:25 Barbara Skolaut
20:24 DarthVader
20:17 Barbara Skolaut
20:14 Mizzou Mafia
20:07 Barbara Skolaut
20:06 Barbara Skolaut
19:47 SteveS
19:39 Cornsilk Blondie