Megan McArdle reports that newspapers are in the process of collapsing. The numbers of subscribers lost is astonishing.
6 thoughts on “Freefall”
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The right of the citizens to bear arms in defense of themselves and the State …
Megan McArdle reports that newspapers are in the process of collapsing. The numbers of subscribers lost is astonishing.
Comments are closed.
Glenn Beck just said his e-mail news letter now has a larger circulation than the NYTs.
Washington Post claims me among it’s circulation, because they throw an unwanted free Sunday edition in my driveway once a month.
I’m sure the number of paying readers is much lower than their claimed circulation figure.
Most newspapers are pretty leftist…and most all leftist media purveyors are seeing their audiences shrink.
Certainly there is the impact of technology, I can cover a lot more ground on the net and cross-talk stories more easily.
I take the LA Times, for the slight amount of local news, an op-ed page that is informative about leftist thinking and the Sunday crossword.
Add to the above..the bigger problem is their leftist message isn’t selling well.
Air America cratered due to its content and the habits of lefists to ignore talk radio except NPR. Being run by a couple of drunken loons didn’t help, either.
For those of us annoyed by the leftist leanings of most newspapers and newspaper reporters (though not all by any means) it’s hard to feel bad about the demise of some of these rags. But that said …
Newspapers are at the bottom of the American media machine, and we are losing a lot everytime one goes under. TV news covers the big stories, bloggers give good opinion and news (though inconsistently) on local issues, but it’s newspaper reporters for all those hundreds of local papers who sit in on every town council meeting in America watching for stories and writing up details that would be lost if not for them. And the larger media outlets depend on these as feeds and story ideas.
As newspapers go away, I’m a little worried as to how reporting overall will adjust. One of the main supports of American media is being whittled away, and I’m afraid it will empower the opinionated cable news shows that much more (which I’m not so concerned about if it’s Fox news, but how much power to do you want MSNBC to have?)
Just something to think about …
Megan (and her commentors) seem to believe that the local (really local) newspaper isn’t going away, and neither are the national papers. The mid-tier papers, though, are in trouble.