Blaming the readers

Well, I tried to kill Jane in a car wreck once so I guess I'll have to recuse myself from comment.

 

Isn't the problem at hand that those insulted weren't customers?

 

You know what's odd about Madison is that it's not nearly as overwhelmingly liberal as you might think. It's a pretty schizophrenic place that way.

 

They don't care if it's free or not -- they're still making 50 percent of what Capital Newspapers (prints Wisconsin State Journal and a handful of other papers across the state) rakes in because of their agreement with the WSJ. The Cap Times didn't need to stop print -- I think they just realized that if they ceased production and cut some staff, they'd get an even bigger piece of the pie by not spending as much.

 

The people she insulted aren't customers, which was sort of the point. And I'd almost guarantee that the regular readers agreed with every word written.

This is a great example of why newspapers are failing -- because they can't figure out how to attract and hold both of these groups. They can't figure out how to present a product that's edgy enough and dumbed down enough to get subscriptions or even interest from the folks looking for the next Britney crotch shot and then also present enough well-written, well-reported stories to hold the traditional readers.

 

That's not going to be good for anyone ...