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Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by Biscayne, Apr 1, 2012.

  1. Biscayne

    Biscayne Guest

    That explains why all the local governments down here are corrupt.
     
  2. Yup, we publish a monthly magazine and have noticed similar results. Without fail every time I see someone pick up a copy, they quickly flip past all the sports features and end up looking at a page with tailgating gadgets for the longest.
     
  3. Frank_Ridgeway

    Frank_Ridgeway Well-Known Member

    My newspaper could tip over into profitability if we turned some of our vacant first floor into a discount liquor store or strip club. And as that business grows, they could shove the newsroom up to third floor and install some more VIP lounges on the second floor. Et cetera.

    The question becomes, at what point have you stopped being in the news business and gone into another line of work? There is nothing wrong with being in the business of telling people how to choose a mattress, or for that matter owning a liquor store in a poor neighborhood, but it is not the news business. You have, for all intents, turned your main biz into a sidelight and are working in another field.
     
  4. 1HPGrad

    1HPGrad Member

    Orlando too. Same note.
     
  5. I don't think shifting the focus of the information you're writing about has reached the tipping point just yet. Consider it either evolving with your readership's interest or streamlining a business model that has become inefficient. If you don't give people at least some of what they show you they actually want to read, then consider it obsolete, too.
     
  6. MightyMouse

    MightyMouse Member

    Could've been worse. Coming in a close second to "Digital Membership" was "We're broke; give us more money."
     
  7. Frank_Ridgeway

    Frank_Ridgeway Well-Known Member

    I don't see that as a way of avoiding becoming obsolete but the way of ensuring we will become obsolete. And the trouble with this argument is that neither side ever knows for quite a while whether the supposed cure helped or only made things worse. But in my experience, the latter often has been the case with the way we've tried to repair newspapers, predating even the internet, with supposed fixes that made some money in the short term but ultimately undermined the biz. How To Buy a Mattress wasn't invented in this decade -- we've been doing it for more than three decades. Initially, we saw the soft stuff as a way to bring in ads that would fund the hard stuff. Then at some point it became soft stuff at the expense of the hard stuff.
     
  8. Biscayne

    Biscayne Guest

    And of course all the celebrity news. Pretty soon people don't want to read serious news anymore. And that just dumbs down our society. And it's been going on for years now.
     
  9. Joe Williams

    Joe Williams Well-Known Member

    As more and more newspapers arrive at this "strategy" so late in the game -- and throw up reminders that I "only have 15 page views left this month" without enrolling -- I consider it a challenge to simply find the information elsewhere.

    Too late, morons. Should have done this from the start. But now, with more options available for info than ever, you're trying to de-commoditize the news? After you've wrung so much value out of your product, in terms of high-quality reporting and writing? Bah! A fat percentage of the best sportswriters, for instance, have moved to Internet sites anyway. Don't need the local yokels.

    Good luck selling your MUCH smaller numbers to advertisers, when the full extent of the pay wall gets felt. A handgun, a noose or a running car in a closed garage would be just as effective.
     
  10. jr/shotglass

    jr/shotglass Well-Known Member

    I don't like this, either. But I don't know if you're considering what the "local yokels" provide. No, you can't get Podunk High's baseball details anywhere else. You may be able to find the Minnesota Timberwolves' full statistics 200 places, but not your hometown news unless you're in a metro area.

    One of our "local yokels" did go the pay route a month or two ago, and I missed what they provided that I couldn't get elsewhere. It's not all about the metros.
     
  11. Baron Scicluna

    Baron Scicluna Well-Known Member

    At least for a journalist, it could lead into a second career. Making coffee.
     
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