tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-349994072024-03-08T15:25:00.310-08:00Death of the NewspaperI estimate that newspapers will be gone in my lifetime. If I live up to the standard American woman's life expectancy, this means newspapers will be extinct in the next 52 years.
This blog is maintained in conjunction with Communication 517, Media Studies, taught by Prof. John Pavlik of Rutgers University.Mayahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04686377115503317321noreply@blogger.comBlogger17125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34999407.post-51920185991806502472006-11-20T14:16:00.000-08:002006-11-20T14:35:54.749-08:00Another bleak predictionFrom a journalism professor and contributor to MotleyFool.com. He says:It's become accepted that the younger you are, the less apt you are to be a regular reader of newspapers. That's been an escalating trend since back in the 1960s, but only recently has it begun to affect newspaper advertising seriously. This trend was demonstrated yet again last week when the New York Times Company (NYSE: NYT)Mayahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04686377115503317321noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34999407.post-53534070696648074732006-11-18T14:53:00.000-08:002006-11-18T15:46:56.730-08:00The environmental case for newspaper abolishmentThere was also bad news on the cost side of the ledger in 2005. Newsprint prices, so soft in 2003 and early 2004 that they may have masked deteriorating fundamentals, were up another 5% to 10% in 2005. More of the same is expected in 2006.13 Watch for a continuing wave of reductions in paper weight, newshole and page width to cushion the cost impact. The Wall Street Journal, for instance, plans Mayahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04686377115503317321noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34999407.post-85491874955325634402006-11-09T10:44:00.000-08:002006-11-09T13:53:37.656-08:00Battalions of reporters for what?I so agree with William Marimow, the new editor of the Philadelphia Inquirer:Mr. Marimow said he would continue the focus on local news, and told the staff that the days of sending “battalions” of reporters to events like Hurricane Katrina or the war in Iraq were over.Talk about a waste of money. What are a dozen reporters from the Philadelphia Inquirer going to tell people in the Philly area Mayahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04686377115503317321noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34999407.post-73897037601836076582006-11-09T10:25:00.000-08:002006-11-09T10:37:18.866-08:00Newspaper circulation way down, online readership way upGood news for the newspaper industry, I think. This story in Editor and Publisher analyzes the recent numbers released by FAS-FAX on newspaper circulation. Overall, daily circulation was down 2.5 percent and Sunday circulations was down 3 percent. Not good news.But this is good news, and I wonder if we will start seeing more reports on "total readership" as the norm. It seems like a much more Mayahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04686377115503317321noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34999407.post-50702839740118793172006-10-28T13:22:00.000-07:002006-10-28T14:28:07.267-07:00A quadruple homicide and the stories newspapers can't tellI was a cop reporter for a few years. So sometimes I find myself doing or thinking things that most people might find gruesome. This week I was obsessed with My Death Space. This is a site that lists the deaths of people who have MySpace profiles. It also lists MySpace members who have killed.Overall the site paints a picture of youth living and dying violently. Stabbings, shootings, suicides, (Mayahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04686377115503317321noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34999407.post-23469781567284969072006-10-20T12:13:00.000-07:002006-10-21T09:20:33.911-07:00Cleveland Plain Dealer cuts staffPretty drastically, too:The Plain Dealer, Ohio's largest newspaper, announced Wednesday that 64 of its 372 editorial employees - about 17 percent of its reporters, editors, photographers, clerks and librarians - have accepted a voluntary buyout program to reduce newsroom staff.The Plain Dealer's owner, Advance Publications Inc., offered the buyout in August to all of its 1,452 workers to help Mayahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04686377115503317321noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34999407.post-80710119826045067452006-10-20T12:10:00.000-07:002006-10-20T12:11:02.136-07:00Newspaper circ downEditor and Publisher:Just like downtrodden Charlie Brown on Halloween, it looks like many newspapers are going to get a bag of rocks when the Audit Bureau of Circulations releases the fall 2006 circulation numbers on Oct. 30.Earlier this week, E&P reported that overall circulation data for the upcoming FAS-FAX are trending much like past reporting periods, with industry sources expecting daily Mayahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04686377115503317321noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34999407.post-81717311296528585582006-10-19T05:06:00.000-07:002006-10-19T05:29:48.101-07:00Shift to new media a matter of culture changeWhew. I wish I could post daily on this blog, but working full-time and going to school part-time seems to eat up all my free time. Maybe I am to blame -- I like to sleep, eat, and exercise. That doesn't leave much time for blogging or reading blogs.Anyway, as I have begun to think about the transition from old to new media I have become convinced that the lagging behind is due to culture -- Mayahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04686377115503317321noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34999407.post-59679864143066064002006-10-14T17:08:00.000-07:002006-10-14T17:49:16.290-07:00Why you should come to "Death of the Newspaper"* You are a journalism or communication student, and eventually you will be looking for employment. Come here to get a handle on the direction the media industry is headed -- you've always wanted a newspaper job and you can still have one, but what special skills can you bring to the table beyond the "five Ws"?* You are a journalism or communication student and you have to write a paper. Maybe itMayahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04686377115503317321noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34999407.post-5287772633648071412006-10-11T19:46:00.000-07:002006-10-11T20:06:37.522-07:00Online newspaper web sites bring communities togetherThe Sun-Times News Group, which publishes the Chicago Sun-Times and dozens of other publications serving 120 communities across the Chicago area, launched the STNG Network, a web portal that links all of their publications. Basically, it's an easy way to read the Sun-Times or your local publication, and be able to go to another local publication's site. They call it "hyper-local."This makes senseMayahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04686377115503317321noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34999407.post-90104785854408956972006-10-09T13:49:00.000-07:002006-10-09T14:03:03.411-07:00The media ownership problemTV dinosaur Dan Rather revamps his career at age 74, and I’m glad to see it. No, he wasn’t a print journalist, but network news has suffered as much as newspapers with the onset of the electronic information age.He obviously wasn’t ready to give up working and give up journalism – and fortunately Rather has found a new niche that I predict will be satisfying for him and a journalistic Mayahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04686377115503317321noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34999407.post-19936672279140495902006-10-08T13:17:00.000-07:002006-10-08T13:18:25.571-07:00A cute little animated shortMayahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04686377115503317321noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34999407.post-86255660589117391192006-10-08T08:19:00.000-07:002006-10-08T08:36:29.346-07:00If newspapers are profitable, how can they be dying?I wondered this myself. Of course I know the answer - smaller news holes, shorter and fewer stories, fewer reporters, less newsprint. As a result, the quality of the product is pretty shoddy. I remember growing up in Westchester County, I read the Herald Statesman every day as a child. It felt so thick and broad and chock full of information. Great stories from the police beat, which may have Mayahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04686377115503317321noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34999407.post-2689883299559668822006-10-08T06:20:00.000-07:002006-10-08T06:30:24.454-07:00Trouble at the L.A. Times and its owner TribuneNew publisher at the L.A. Times almost certain to bring job cuts with him, despite journalists' efforts to fight the cuts:The Tribune Co. forced out Los Angeles Times Publisher Jeffrey M. Johnson this morning, a little more than a month after he defied the media conglomerate's demands for staff cuts that he suggested could damage the newspaper.Tribune Publishing President Scott C. Smith huddled Mayahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04686377115503317321noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34999407.post-11332598089929809782006-10-07T16:26:00.000-07:002006-10-07T16:37:10.036-07:00What happened to newspaper believability?People's faith in media credibility has been falling for some time. I'll examine reasons for this in this blog - examples abound, that is for sure.But I found it interesting that in the late 1980s, newspaper believability dropped more than television believability: Chart courtesy of State of the News Media.NBC's believability dropped 3 points from 1985 to 1989. ABC dropped 7 points, CBS dropped Mayahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04686377115503317321noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34999407.post-68652771662199363692006-10-07T15:59:00.000-07:002006-10-07T16:08:59.942-07:00Cuban: Newspapers too cheap?Mark Cuban, a shrewd businessman and owner of the Dallas Mavericks, suggests newspapers are too cheap. On one hand I agree with him - 35 cents is a ridiculously low price to pay for a full day's worth of reportage. But every time I pick up a newspaper lately, it feels thinner and thinner - full of ads and a few short stories:Wearing blue jeans and an untucked shirt in front of a crowd of 500 at Mayahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04686377115503317321noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34999407.post-1159642875778175422006-09-30T10:44:00.000-07:002006-10-07T15:55:40.123-07:00First postThe slow death of the newspaper saddens me. I majored in journalism in the latter half of the 1990s, a time when journalists were still quite unsure of how all this technology could or would change everything. Many were quite skeptical that newspapers would become extinct. I include myself among those, as being a newspaper writer was a childhood ambition of mine. The people who taught journalism Mayahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04686377115503317321noreply@blogger.com0