Not Waiting For The Asteroid

It really is shocking just how stupid these old-guard newspaper people are. It's like overhearing two monks, blinded by years of diligent hand copying, talking about that Gutenberg fellow.
I remember speaking to a newspaper ad manager in about 1994 and explaining to him that an on-line travel ad could feature a cruise ship sailing across the ad copy. He was stunned. Looking back I suspect he didn't believe me.
Well that ship has sailed, and the newspaper people still don't believe it.

This all reminds me of the fossils(record labels) in the music industry crying because they can't sell any CDs. They've been cut out of the loop, yet many musicians today start their own labels and do just fine. People (especially yoots) are spending record $$ on entertainment. You just have to get off your arse and hustle.

Indy:

My son points out that the internet has played a role in the demise of both traditional models of music distribution and now news.

As the article points out, if the news is available free on websites, why would anybody plunk down half a loon to buy the newspaper?

A couple of months ago on CNN, the owner of a Chicago paper made exactly that point. The newspaper owners are shelling out the money to pay for reporters and offices and websites like CNN are just taking those stories and posting them on their sites without paying for it.

So, that's their dilemma. How can the newspaper owners get their money back?

Before the internet, there was no better way to deliver advertising than in a newspaper which, face it, paid most of the bills.

Apparently, the owners have been unable to generate the same amount of advertising dollar over the internet. If they were generating the same revenue, they wouldn't be in trouble, would they?

I consume zero newspapers, TV news shows or news magazines. I consume -many- car mags, wood working mags, gun mags, science mags (but not Scientific American), and I watch Discovery channel on TV.

Why? Because when I pick up Hot Rod or Car Craft and read about the new Dodge Challenger or whatever, they don't LIE to me about the car. They just show the car, and say what its like. Then later when I see one, its pretty much how they said.

Journalists, I'm talking to YOU monkey boys. I frickin' hate being lied to.

Agree with Phantom - I don't like paying for spin and bias. Especially when its spin and bias against all I value. As for todays journalist - too bad so sad, the chickens are finally coming home to roost.

Subscriber revenues? If the readership still exists, the advertising revenue will carry the day.

This article is bogus. The readership is leaving - evidenced by the growth in revenue of Google.

What, do the facts have to walk up and clock these fools on the noggin before they will report anything accurately?

Funny, I was just listening to "Talk of the Nation" on NPR: the media reporting on how the White House Press Gallery is "too white". Then fix it, dummies!

I seem to recall that the subscription and news stand price simply covers the paper, ink and delivery costs of the print versions. By this reconing, they can deliver the online version at no charge for about the same cost as the printed one.

They will clutch at whatever false notion they choose as they fade to oblivion, allowing them to dodge the reality that it is their content that is at fault.

Some famous saying about shit, sunshine, and the speed of light comes to mind.

Phantom: I have to agree with you, I haven't watched the CBCpravda for anything but a hockey game. I refuse to watch any Canadian news channel and have done so for over 15 years. All the BS spewing out of their mouths just turned me off to the point I had had enough. If somebody wants to watch it, I leave the room and go to the computer, book,etc.

What most of the Media types do not get or do not want to get is this;

Yes major media are still huge news collecting orgs and yes many in the blogsphere obtain much of their information from Media sources,

but But BUT - unlike in the past, we can now, at the click of a mouse, compare. You hear ? COMPARE !!

I do not care if the CBC, CTV, G&M, NYT make up 99% (which they do not) of the hits on an item. The likes of a Kate McMillan may make up only one of the pages but if it is the truth and not taken out of context and not spun - that is the one that will be read. All the rest are just clutter. Even if they collected it.

Nothing but nothing orientates a person better than comparison. Hear that Media types. Comparison !!

Before the Internet, there was no comparison at all. It didn't matter if you went from the NYT to the CBC to the Wpg FP - it all, more or less, originated from Reuters, AP, CP, Thompson. Same take. Had to be that way because, as with all lying, the stories would not jive.

click - cbc blah yawn
click - LA Times spin blah
click - ctv instant professor yawn
click - cbc gwyn Dyer bull sh**
click - NP kinsella smearing for points, childish punk

CLICK ! - sda makes sense ! Does make sense, because I know a commenter who was at the scene.

to the lefties (which most journalists are) their own lies represent the truth, thus they will not get it until after the bailiff locks the doors behind their sorry a$$a$

A couple of years ago I had a conversation with a guy from the Free press.
Apparently he was on the editorial staff and board.

He was concerned about the impact of the internet but could not say exactly what the impact was.

Jim and Agent Smith, I cannot pretend to any great moral rectitude here. I just can't STAND the news outlets. If I ever catch one of these news shows by accident, I'm yelling at the TV inside 30 seconds.

I don't have enough liver cells left to be burning them up like that, eh? Life is better with the tube -off-.

Phantom, you nailed it with your 3:26 post.

When I read or watch news coverage of an event to which I was a witness, I am flabbergasted at the reporter's interpretation. I have lost all faith in the msm being able to deliver an objective account of events.

Further, I would never consent to an interview unless it was agreed that the interview was uncut or I had the right to review before airing.

The msm cannot be trusted - period. Is it any wonder they are losing their audience?

Phantom: very same reasons I do exactly the same. Have'nt bought a BS paper or watched the lying Count Lloyd and liberal lover Fife or any of these liars or liebrals same thing, for years and I won't. Start telling the truth of face demise. Your stinking attempt at social engineering MSM, and trying to mould us to become brain dead, global warming koolaid drinkers like yourselves is hopeless, give it up.

I do a lot of driving around Central Alberta as a part of my job. As a result, I often have a quick lunch at some fast food place or other - alone. Used to be I would hit a local serivce station and pick up a Post or, if not available, a G&M or Herald to read while I 'dined'. Now I have an Iphone and browse the 'net for my reading material...

Bit by bit newspapers and magazines are becoming as obsolete as etched slate tablets.

Exxon for some time now has been saying that it is not in the oil and gas business - it is in the energy business. Newspapers and magazines need to realize that they are not in the printing on paper business - they are in the news and opinion business. If their news is slanted and their opinion is uninformed, they are like a company selling poor quality gasoline - they will go out of business.

The tragic problem illustrated in the column linked to in this post is that the author spent all of his time talking about how these companies could generate revenues and none on the possibilty that perhaps their problem lies with the quality of their news/opinion product. That is like a sales person worrying night and day about their commission rate and not caring a fig about his level of product knowledge and how he communicates the features and benefits of those products to the customer. As a salesperson I can attest that people with that attitude typically don't get very far in the biz.

What's really surprising is that the author is reputed to be one of the very best in the industry - which perhaps says a lot about how fat and happy these companies have been all these years and how atrophied their business sensibilites are.

Dinosaurs indeed...

oh oh...
still reading the National Post 50% of the week, and a few magazines like the Phantom describes. That spinning sound? I can hear it all over the Tv, see it all over the other canadian newspapers.
.... and the crap meter is quite sensitive these days.

Maybe I'm just too old, but I can't stand reading anything on my cellphone - too much scrolling, the text is too tiny and no one lets you control that. I still get the Post - I've given up completely on the Globe - because I can carry it around from home to work, read it on the bus, or like Gord, while I'm having lunch out.

Plus it has the crossword, bridge problem, chess problem and Sudoku all on one convenient page.

And, if only the Leafs and Raptors didn't suck so much, I would actually enjoy reading the sports page.

Actually kevin B, you can zoom in or out with an Iphone - best $200 i ever spent.

kevin b - part b

check out a guided tour here; http://www.apple.com/iphone/guidedtour/

Just spent two weeks in Waikiki. Can honestly say the big flat screen TV was not even turned on. The free "news"paper went straight into the garbage.

But we were completely and constantly in tune with world events - via a $229 buck iPod Touch. No monthly sub, just lots of open WiFi every where. (no I didn't pull a CHRC stunt)

Fast, easy scrolling, video, audio, easy typing for commenting and emails. COOL !!

No more of that helpless, media indoctrinated feeling when away.

They all came in load and clear;
sda
bourque
goldstein
hotair
drudge
google news
coyne
foster
and about ten other regulars

Biggest era change since Gutenberg !!

Web browsing is great but it is the apps that are going to change utterly how we live our lives.

Web browsing is great but it is the apps that are going to change utterly how we live our lives.

Having an app that removes double posts would be nice...

"Journalists, I'm talking to YOU monkey boys. I frickin' hate being lied to."

Yeah but what would we do with all the self-important, deluded, fart-smelling, left-leaning ignorami of the world?

Wait, did anyone else see The Matrix?

"Web browsing is great but it is the apps that are going to change utterly how we live our lives. "

So when is the gPhone (Android) coming to Canada, Gord? That's the one that will allow home-grown apps, unlike the iPhone. I have to admit that the Apple offering is pretty sexy and intuitive to use, though.

I'm looking to dump my Instinct, any buyers?

Rosco:

"Further, I would never consent to an interview unless it was agreed that the interview was uncut or I had the right to review before airing."

Digital cameras which can do video with sound are cheap these days. You don't need broadcast quality, you just need an insurance policy.

If they won't let you make your own recording, leave.

kevin, i still like the feel of the paper and to read the words in print. i browse through some but usually find interesting items in most papers. the political lies are what's killing them.

And the Socialist hordes are horrified at losing their monopoly on our minds...

Screw them. It isn't about how much a subscription costs. I have bought and paid for all printed media including hard cover books that are worth a year's subscription at a rag, but it had to be worthy of my dough.

The garbage and Socialist agendas, dreadfully researched and poorly checked and vetted stories are not worth even a cursory glance never mind thinking about the effort to reach into your wallet to offer up some real hard cash.

Long live my ability to go get my information where I decide is worthy of it. I have hundreds of thousands of opportunities to get it, and it is not from the local yoco putz.

A decade ago I attended a trial in which the Calgary Herald was also in attendance. I read an article written the very next day on the preceding days ongoings and it was as if the "reporter" [more like propagandist] was covering something else somewhere else.
It remained so for the following to weeks until the trial end.
I then had my first hand taste of Media Bias. Since then I have been extremely critical and very cautious of printed media, which has spilled over into tubemedia.

they made their beds- let them lie in it.