Thursday, October 29, 2009

Newspapers Redux

Continuing a theme about newspapers from the other day, I read the following from Marc Danziger about the fate of print journalism:
"Until the institutions crash and burn and can be rebuilt, there will be a vicious circle of declining revenues, cuts, declining quality, declining audiences in response which will lead to further declines in revenue, and so on."

That isn't exactly how I remember the "circle" beginning. I'm pretty sure the quality declined before the revenue. Not all of this can be attributed to a bad business environment, much of the damage was of the self-inflicted variety. But, hey, the balance sheets sure looked good for a little while. (Offered as proof, take a look at this article from the halcyon days of 1994 Why are newspaper profits so high?)

In effect, it looks like the papers (via their parent companies) plundered themselves in a fit of suicidal profit taking.

From that fact I do not learn the lesson that newspapers can no longer provide a quality product along the lines of their former selves.

Sadly I seem to be in a distinct minority here.

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