Wired: Newspapers Should Really Worry

[pricescope]

http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,65813,00.html

"Imagine what higher-ups at the Post must have thought when focus-group participants declared they wouldn''t accept a Washington Post subscription even if it were free. "

 

[strmrdr]

I wouldnt get my local paper everyday either even if it was free.
It would be a waste of paper.
I get my news on the net.
About the only time I buy it is if im going out for pizza at lunch time and need something to read while waiting the 20 min for the pizza to cook.

 

[pqcollectibles]

We probably bought more newspapers this fall than at any other time. Son''s HS football team went undefeated, throughout the entire season, and won the Class 5A State Championship. All the articles and pics have been clipped to save in a scrapbook.

What a way to finish High School, especially coming in your senior year!

 

[eks6426]

I am in the newspaper industry and I agree that newspapers will HAVE to change or be extinct. The trick is that the newspaper industry needs to think of themselves as an information supplier rather than just a producer of a paper product. No other industry has the depth for all the LOCAL news right now. High school sports, life events such as obituaries, legal notices, local news such as street construction, local government, school news etc. is all currently compiled by newspapers and no other industry has all this information in one place. Not to say that some saavy company couldn''t step in and figure out a way to get it up on the web...it''s just that newspaper still stand a chance of surviving IF they leverage the information they collect.

 

[Garry H (Cut Nut)]

2 things happening here

1. www.seek.com.au and used cars etc is taking classifieds and employment earnings from newspapers.
So the papaers are getting smaller, but loosing revenue.

2. We have much nicer coffee shops here in Oz, so people sit and read the paper with a nice cup of coffee - that is no fun with a computer!

3. I know - i cant count - novels are stronger than ever - people read computers for work and paper for pleasure (Young koreans think emails are for the communications with work and the boss and sms text etc and other new means are for your friends)

 

[pricescope]

The Economist: Yesterday''s papers. The future of journalism

“I BELIEVE too many of us editors and reporters are out of touch with our readers,” Rupert Murdoch, the boss of News Corporation, one of the world''s largest media companies, told the American Society of Newspaper Editors last week. No wonder that people, and in particular the young, are ditching their newspapers. Today''s teens, twenty- and thirty-somethings “don''t want to rely on a god-like figure from above to tell them what''s important,”
...
...Mr Murdoch said that news “providers” such as his own organisation had better get web-savvy, stop lecturing their audiences, “become places for conversation” and “destinations” where “bloggers” and “podcasters” congregate to “engage our reporters and editors in more extended discussions.” He also criticised editors and reporters who often “think their readers are stupid”.
...
Older people, whom Mr Murdoch calls ''digital immigrants'', may not have noticed, but young ''digital natives'' increasingly get their news from web portals such as Yahoo! or Google, and from newer web media such as blogs. .... Whereas 56% of Americans haven''t heard of blogs, and only 3% read them daily, among the young they are standard fare, with 44% of online Americans aged 18-29 reading them often, according to a poll by CNN/USA Today/Gallup.

Good reaing

 

[Garry H (Cut Nut)]

Another sage Aussie.
Amazing man - he is pretty old, but has made it clear he will work until he dies or he looses his marbles. Seems he has a full bag still.

 

[NoonersMom]

Yet another sound business mind piping in regarding newspapers....none other than the Oracle of Omaha. Read entire article...newspaper opinion near the end.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/05/02/business/buffett.php

 

[pricescope]

NoonersMom, good catch - thanks

 

[NoonersMom]

Leonoid.....thanks & my pleasure. I''m originally from Omaha, tend to follow WB, have met his daughter, my parents have met him. Guess I''m partial to the home town. I can remember when Berk A was going for $5,000/share in the early 90''s. Thought that was expensive then....little did I know at the time. Now it''s almost at $85,000/share.

 

[Garry H (Cut Nut)]

He always gets a lot of coverage here in Australia (even without the bad insurance news) and is very highly thought of - although few Aussies would invest in his fund.
Buffet ius a very wise man who has never got carried away.

Great news too that Bill Gates is on the board now.

 

[NoonersMom]

Gary....interesting to hear a perspective from the other side of the world. Yes, definitely a wise man. Agreed regarding the Gates news. Who knows, Buffet could have another 20 years in him.

 

[Garry H (Cut Nut)]

heard the other day that babes born in rich countries now can look forward to life spans of 120 barring accidental death.

 

[perry]

I stopped my newspaper subscription almost a decade ago, and consider the local papers not worth the paper they are printed on.

The biggest problem is that local news reporting and local papers are almost extinct due to the fact that national chains have purchased them and imposted standard formats on them. The way for the national chain to make more money was to substitute more state and natioanl level stories into the paper as substitutes for many of the previoius local stories. Thus they could reduce the number of local reporters - typically by about 50%.

They also exerted control over what the editors could say (driving out most of the interesting fiesty ones).

That of course gutted the content of the local paper - the reason I liked the local papers.

What is really sad is that many of the local papers had already reduced their printing cost by essentially banding together with a single printing plant (back in the 60''s and early 70''s most local papers owned their own presses - but could not afford to upagrade them; regional presses that printed a dozen or more local papers adequately solved the problem).

When I have time I do like going down to the library and reading the Wall Street Journal; but then it is not your normal newspaper.

I get most of my news from on-line sources these days.

I fondly remember the days when my local paper soliceted the high school students for writers and teenage editors to assemble a teenage intereste and activity section of the local paper - that was a hit (I believe that the local paper increased their circulation by 25% dispite the outrage and loss of some of the older customers as the teenagers requested serious articles on sexuality and other ''taboo'' subjects of the day - of couse, today such stuff is standard internet affair) . The national chains would never allow such a thing today.

In the end, the newspapers are dying because the national chains are not willing to serve the needs of local community and of the next generation. Older, predominantly white men, still are controlling the base content and delivery methods of the papers based principally on what worked 20 years ago.

The other problem that has affected newspapers was the change to soy based inks years ago. Before that your hands did not get dirty from handling the paper as the inks really bonded tightly to the papers. While environmental regulations drove the newsprint industry to adopt different ink''s there were actually several other choices than the current soy based inks. Of course, they were more expensive than the soy based inks - so we ended up with inks that smear off on your hands as you read the newspaper.

Note that books are printed with non soy inks that do not come off or smear.

I personally know a number of people who dumped their newspaper subscription after that. Call them cleanliness freeks if you want; but I am reminded every time I handle modern newsprint - or even use newspapers as a "grease" soak if I fry something (fish, home- made french fries, etc). Yes I use a layer of paper towel, but watch the ink come off and smear under it... I remember the days when all you used was newspaper and the ink did not come off on your food.

Anyway, Newspapers are dying - and justifiably so.

I also believe that in 5 - 10 years there will not be any free news sources on the internet. Allmost all internet services will be subscription or fee based.

 

[Garry H (Cut Nut)]

Perry I know Leonid is more likely to read the economist online - he also gets the news faster, but to do that effectively you need to log on and that means buying a print subscription.

But i like to sit in a coffee shop with a paper - or somewhere unmentionable with the economist and relax and read

I cant relax at a computer screen

 

[Garry H (Cut Nut)]

I mean imagine relaxing in front of the computer?

 

[Islandia]

Date: 5/9/2005 2:55:10 AM
Author: Garry H (Cut Nut)
I mean imagine relaxing in front of the computer?

I am in the demographic you guys are describing and normally I do enjoy reading a book while taking care of business

But if there is something really compelling on the web (like say some article on the Motley Fool on investing tips), I would have no problem printing it out to read at my leisure in whatever setting.

I have been so happy ever since my subscriptions to the Seattle PI, Maxim, and Time lapsed because they were just piling up around my house and never read them, while I get all my daily news from MSNBC or cnn.com (and I will admit Maxim is not news but it had to go now that I am getting engaged soon!).