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

As of now, we're fully staffed. It's like I always say around here, "We're in no danger of losing anybody. Nobody's hiring."

 

Pretty sure I'll listen to someone who's won a Pulitzer over a random SportsJournalists.com poster.

While the small papers right now might be in better economic shape than Gannett or Tribune, that doesn't mean they will be 5 years from now.

 

Actually I'm right in what I said. Just use common sense and look at the numbers.
But that is for another day. This is about a guy blaming smaller papers for the fall of bigger papers.

 

Why would you listen to him? Does he walk on water or something? What he's won doesn't have a bearing on what's going on now. I think you might be giving this guy too much credit.

 

Here. Numbers. Look.

The United States is an urbanized nation, with 80.8% of its population of 305,186,613[1] residing in cities and suburbs as of mid-year 2005

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_the_United_States

 

Does someone have to walk on water to be worth listening to?

By the way, I looked at the numbers again:

*Two-thirds of our population live in the top 100 metropolitan areas
*84 percent live in all 363 metros

Apply some common sense to that and tell me how "most Americans DO NOT live in metropolis (sic) areas."

 

He's right about one thing. Being at a small daily I can tell you we don't offer a "full range of local, national and international news and features." We don't even try to offer a full range of international and national coverage and very few people complain. We're a local paper. We do a great job covering local stories and rely on the wires for regional coverage and customers are happy with that.

McDonald's doesn't a full range of gourmet options, they do what they do and that's great for them.

 

What is your source?

 

You said it best. The customers are happy.

 

Why do I need a source? You didn't question the accuracy of the numbers. You said someone needed to apply common sense to them.

 

Anyway,

 

It doesn't take a rocket surgeon to realize that of those 363 metros, many are not what people would consider a metro area. The cutoff point is basically a little more than 100,000 people living not in the city, but in the area.
So Bay City, Mich. with its 107,517 people and checking in at No. 363 is a metro area. Or Anniston, Alabama, home of the finest small-town, family-owned newspapers in the country, and checking in at No. 350.
So you could live out in the wilds of Alabama and be as rural as they come, and still live in a metro area.
Back to the Post's guy's point, the Anniston Star, a paper that is also hugely profitable or at least was, should close so that the Washington Post can have a larger market share?
Really?