Who's to blame for the death of newspapers?

The thing that's really disheartening about that is, recently huffingtonpost had a story about the death of newspapers, and the comments were the same shit from the other side -- the corporate mainstream media didn't expose Bush's lies, so they deserve to die, etc., etc., ad nauseum.
So our death is kind of a Rorschach test ... people can see in it whatever they want, can find validation for whatever bullshit they believe.

 

Actually, I think the Walter essay blamed good eye-pleasing design, and said the long 1-column reads were great.
What was true back when newspapers realized they were being threatened, is still true today, they haven't had the balls to radically change their biz model for fear of turning off print advertisers and displeasing their corporate overlords.
Tiger Woods was king of the hill (damn, just nailed another one) and he realized he needed to change his swing for the long haul even if it meant losing some tourneys in the short term. That's boldness - something newspapers haven't had in a long time.

 

Me? I blame focus groups. Waste. Of. Time. And. Money.

 

Word, Kleeda.

For one thing, focus groups tend to steer people to answers that fit some pre-conceived slot, not bring in unbiased insight.

 

I blame the blacks.

 

Excuse me?

 

Who is this Craig? We should all take up torches and pitch forks and beat down his door.

 

Sarcasm not funny, eh?

 

I wasn't sure if that was your goal, since I had never seen you post before now.

My bad. Sorry. Carry on.

 

That was one, great article by the late writer.

 

That's the short answer -- classified ads traditionally made up about 40 percent of newspaper revenue, and what business could sustain a 40-percent hit?

But the bigger answer, I think, is a bunch of executives who were blind to what was coming. Newspapers had the infrastructure, the name brand, the staffing, the money -- newspapers could have been craigslist, could have been eBay, could have been wikipedia. No reason papers couldn't have offered those services.

Those sites started with nothing and had no advantage over newspapers except people paying attention. Meanwhile, we were busy holding banquets, slapping each other on the back and handing each other plastic awards for coverage of city sewer board meetings. Fiddling while Rome burned. A fucking shame.