Your editor regrets to suggest what attracted many newspaper readers were classified ads, obituaries, supermarket coupons, department store ads, contests, comics, lottery numbers, sports scores, etc. - not necessarily solid reporting, which is an essential.
Dumb-dumb newspaper publishers screwed up - REALLY screwed up - by taking on too much debt to expand, hence the severe cutbacks.
Radio and TV sounded the death knell starting in the 1930s and 1940s - and the Internet swung the hatchet.
And journalism - despite all the good it does - sadly has to be subsidized by advertising etc. and history teaches that. Subscriptions alone just won't fund it as proven by historic experiments, such as the very old NYC paper "PM."
Well, many of you know this. It's not rocket science.
Most people - I would also suggest - are too harried to worry about much outside their private orbit to worry about news or much else.
Still, the need for news will endure. Information, formal and informal, is power - from global news to gossip. History proves that. Ditto sports and entertainment - and "oddball stories" i.e. the "Loch Ness Monster" ... and my favorite, UFOs.
The news business is evolving. Delivery platforms and news gathering are changing. Fewer people are needed for the publishing process itself due to centralization and the demise of the printing press and physical delivery.
Death and birth are both painful.
[Photo: Public Domain]
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.