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The LA Times continues its death spiral

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by Birdscribe, Oct 8, 2008.

  1. slappy4428

    slappy4428 Active Member

    fetch the beer, newb.
     
  2. Mizzougrad96

    Mizzougrad96 Active Member

    Who's to blame for the downfall of newspapers?

    The idiots who run them and ignored the Internet for the better part of a decade. To blame it on anyone else is absurd.
     
  3. TrooperBari

    TrooperBari Well-Known Member

    Not even soccer?
     
  4. BTExpress

    BTExpress Well-Known Member

    I don't get this "ignored the internet" theory.

    It's not like readers are not going to newspapers' web sites. If Local Team makes a big trade at 1 p.m., it'll be on our newspaper's web site at 1:15.

    Our 210,000-circ daily gets 40,000,000 hits on its web site every month.

    We just can't turn 40,000,000 hits a month into advertising revenue . . . especially in an economy in its death throes.

    I realize the dunderheads running this industry have not done themselves proud, but think about what the consensus here is:

    Every publisher/owner at every newspaper in the country is making the exact same mistake over and over again and keep ignoring this wonderful solution (which I have not seen yet, by the way).

    If there really is a solution . . . don't you think SOMEBODY would have come up with it by now?
     
  5. Mizzougrad96

    Mizzougrad96 Active Member

    I was in staff meetings as recently as five years ago where the beat writers were telling the editors that they wanted to file running gamers or breaking news to post on the Internet to keep readers from reading the same thing on ESPN.com or Sportsline.

    We were looked at like it was the most idiotic suggestion ever made. About 2-3 years ago, our executive editor, who was in the room five years ago when we made the same suggestions, randomly sent out an email saying, "Sports, we need running gamers and breaking news to put up on the site immediately to keep our readers from going elsewhere."
     
  6. BTExpress

    BTExpress Well-Known Member

    Fine, but like I said, all this "going to our web site instead of ESPN" is not translating into advertising revenue.

    And what's a "running gamer?" If I want an update of a game in progress, I'll click on a Gamecast. Can your paper provide that?
     
  7. Mizzougrad96

    Mizzougrad96 Active Member

    You don't know what a running gamer is?
     
  8. BTExpress

    BTExpress Well-Known Member

    If it's what I think it is, it's not something I would ever care to read.
     
  9. Goldeaston

    Goldeaston Guest

    Mizzou, I'm curious as to your definition of a running gamer, and how it would differ from anything the Internet, radio or TV already provide.
     
  10. SF_Express

    SF_Express Active Member

    Well, unless I'm missing something, a running gamer would simply be the running you keep to file on deadline for the paper, with the twist being that you use it a second way but continuously updating it on the web.

    BT, if you wouldn't care to read it, I guess I understand, but under tight deadline, it's what you read in East Coast newspapers every day.
     
  11. SixToe

    SixToe Well-Known Member

    The thing about a running gamer or blogs (BLOGS!) during the game is you cannot have the writer depart midway through the fourth quarter to run downstairs for quotes.

    Great, great idea. Establish a connection between the writer and reader-viewer for the entire game, but then drop out for an hour or two while you write for deadline? Not smart.
     
  12. SF_Express

    SF_Express Active Member

    I understand this for some sports, but not others. Wait: I don't understand this.

    Back when print was the only thing, there were plenty of reporters who sent running gamers with a quick top with not a single quote, just how it ended, as soon as the final buzzer or gun sounded, then headed to the locker room, got their quotes, came back and wrote through. How is that different from now? Except the running gamer has more value than a first-edition print version that's going to be subbed out.
     
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