Wash. Post columnist: Time to shut down the small papers

+1

 

I was just pointing out that what he said is demonstrably false.

 

oh i agree with you there

 

I disagree ... I think the newspapers that survive will be the small ones, and folks will get their state and national news (for better or worse) from CNN, FoxNews, regional TV channel/web site, etc.

There is a paper in the county next door that publishes page after page of high school sports (sometimes more pages than the regional daily). I don't see that going bye-bye any time soon...

 

I quote from the link: "Not only can't those papers be very good at delivering a full range of local, national and international news and features, but their existence makes it difficult for even the big metro papers to have enough circulation (scale) to do that."

What this pinhead, Pulitzer and all, doesn't understand is that smaller papers aren't concerned about carrying the national and international news. They continue to succeed, despite being cannibalized or siphoned off through "consolidation" by their respective motherships, because they provide LOCAL content unavailable anywhere else, to include the Internet.

 

Your post answered exactly what I was going to say.

 

Checking in from a 16K family-owned daily in the south. No layoffs. No paycuts. Circulation is actually going up. The only thing we're struggling with is advertising, but that has more to do with the economy than anything else. Heck, as recent as August, we were setting records for advertising. Our prep football section had more ads in it than ever. I'm not bragging; I'm just trying to illustrate how stupid this idea is.

 

Amen to that, brother. Keep up the good work!

 

I just looked at the source. Sort of like Detroit blaming Japan for all of its troubles. Hey, build a better product and things may change.

 

Way to go, man. We're in the same boat. If this economy shows even small signs of improving, and with statewide and county elections on the horizon in 2009, next year doesn't look to be that bad here.

 

You hiring?

 

That's how you were going to respond to evidence supporting the fact that you made a sweeping statement that could not have been more wrong?