Are Newspapers dead?

[Deberg_1990]

IM not talking about the Internet news. IM talking about the traditional "papers" you buy for .50 or .75 cents everyday. (or $1.50) on Sundays.

This little passage from Peter Kings MMQ got me to thinking. Do you still read the paper??





http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/200...16/mmqb/3.html





I think it's a rotten week for newspapers. Really rotten, and not just because of the horrendous mistake by the Boston Herald.

One of the reasons I've always been such an avid newspaper person is because of writers like Tony Kornheiser. He's terrific on Pardon the Interruption, but he'll never, ever be better at anything than writing a newspaper column.

Last week, he took a buyout from his paper, the Washington Post, which, even though he hasn't been writing for the paper recently because of his TV commitments, is another nail in the coffin of the fishwrappers some of us still spend breakfast and commutes with.

I called Kornheiser, who told me he could still make a deal with the Post to allow him to write occasionally for the paper. But he was fairly fatalistic about the industry. "Newspapers aren't dying,'' he said. "They're dead. But was it a sad day when the guys who made the great buggywhips and the beautiful classic carriages saw the first cars rolling off the assembly line? No. It was progress.''

I'll disagree, in this vein: The morning won't be the morning for me without a paper with my Cheerios. But his point is valid. We're just getting the news delivered in a different way. Kornheiser is like me -- a 'net devotee. As long as there are good reporters working out here, he thinks all is not lost.

"What would be terrible is if we didn't have good reporters still out there," he said. "I fear more that reporters who do the persistent grunt work may not be there. I'm a yodeler who does skeet-shooting. I need stories to respond to.''

The yodeling is fine. Someone's got to find a way to get Kornheiser back to writing, too. He's too good for us not to have the chance to read him occasionally

[Sam Hall]

Originally Posted by SEKChiefsFan

It seems to me that newspapers are dying in an odd way, compared to other industries... It's the big city papers that are suffering, while the small town papers are still, in some cases GROWING. You'd think it'd be the other way around.

For one thing, local papers do a better job of covering high school sports. No other paper should cover a small town better than the hometown paper.

[OldRaidersFan]

I don't get the newspaper.

1) I don't like the black ink.
2) It makes me sneeze, allergic
3) I hate the waste, the landfills, the trees

Just last month Devin Leonard, senior writer at Fortune wrote:

Harbinger of things to come in the news business?

This was my response to Mr. Leonard:

If the New York Times, one of the best brand names in the business (along with the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, and L. A. Times) can't make a go of it, what is the point?

What is the business model that works?

What could two or three board seats do?

Look at papers like
Sun-Times Media Group Inc (SVN), down 93%, and Journal Register Co (JRCO), down 98%, over the past five years.

They need a business model that works. The Albuquerque Tribune, here where I live, just pulled the plug and packed it up.

I personally don't read the newspaper because of allergies and the waste they create.

Is changing the board just a shuffling of the deck chairs on the Titanic?

Owning a TV station in another city doesn't make sense to me (Sun-Times Media does. UPDATE: They have started selling off those stations.) There is no cross-marketing/cross selling. You must DRIVE people to the paper/website.

About the only thing that I can think of is for a newspaper to own a TV station and radio station and use them to do briefs of story's, and if you want a more comprehensive story you must either buy the paper or buy an online subscriptions, but you must have all four. Also, you combine advertising with a customer (selling them a TV ad, radio ad, Newspaper ad, and online ad all in one-tied ads) and tell the TV/radio viewer/listener that to get a coupon they have to get the paper. There HAS to be a reason to either get the paper or pay online. What is that reason. A single market vertical approach.

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Another idea would be that Kindle from Amazon (without the stupid laugh of Jeff Bezos). If they could reach critical mass, and get the price point down. A well run newspaper might give or lease you the device for very low cost and then get you to pay a monthly subscription fee. But, this will be tough because the end user wants flexibility.

Another factor that will hurt newspapers is the rising cost of fuel.

You could also see a decoupling between printing and content. You would have a statewide, nationwide or global company (s) that prints many papers, from different content providers, at local printing plants. If you didn't truck the papers all over the state, maybe you could cut back on fuel cost. In small towns, these would be new digital cutting-edge micro presses, for small runs and the ability for quick change. One printing outlet could print 20 different newspapers in a day.

Bottom line, it is a tough road to hoe. And as the Baby Boomers go, so goes the traditional newspaper business.

[KcMizzou]

I'll buy a paper when one of my favorite teams does something significant, and save it.

I've still got the SI with Chase Daniel on the cover, from when Mizzou was ranked #1.

Shut it, Beakers.

[Mr. Kotter]

Newspapers are not yet dead, but....as we've known them....they will be on life-support within 10 years.

[Fishpicker]

I buy WSJ occasionally and I subscribe to my local paper. Both of those are decent enough. I used to subscribe to the KC star , but their subscription department used to call me every 2 weeks and ask me to renew for 6 months. I did that once and they kept callling. Finally, I told them to cancel the subscription and to quit callling. they havent called back and I have been receiving the Star daily for the last 8 months. I'd still be a subscriber if they weren't such pushers.

[kcxiv]

Originally Posted by Stewie

Whaaaaat?!!!!!! That show sucks as much as Kornholer on MNF.

No it doesnt. I try to watch it as much as possible. Not very often, but i try too.