All you hear about in the new is how the ravages of the Internet and the introduction of the blogger have undermined newspapers and their profitability margins around the country.
News papers are folding....
Reporters are being terminated...
However,
I made out my annual contribution to MPR today...a free news service that I donate money too because I feel the news service feature that they bring into my life is that valuable.
I think a lot of newspapers are engaging in a downward spiral because they are trying to pander to the masses.
You see celebrity gossip.....trash talk....one sided talking heads spouting opinions...you see the news papers playing to the lowest common denominator. News via sound bites.
The problem then is this is exactly what the blog sphere for the most part already has to offer.
So as a consumer if you are going to degrade your quality to compete I have a decision to make if your trash talking quality is better then something I can already get for free.
And the answer is no..
So you will go out of business.
With the chilling exception of the Sunday paper and then I only put up the few dollars for the coupons inside...what is that sayign the coupons for soup in your paper are more valuable to me then your news coverage?
2 comments:
Thumbs up for NPR
At the very core, it's really supply and demand. Trash tabloids and trash tv shows survive only because there are people buying it/watching it. If it's available elsewhere for free, then people will move over there. Same with newspapers. If they just churn out crap that is available for free, then they will go out of business. In that sense, it's a "Self Correcting Mechanism". (Ouch, did I really say that? isn't it what the free-market advocators say....self-correcting blah blah?..that led to the wall street fiasco?).
Anyway, you get my point. Eventually the newspapers that have substance will win out.
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