OK, this is getting pathetic

[deskslave]

An offshoot of the hyperlocal discussion, I suppose, but it's so ridiculous I felt like I needed to make another thread.

This is, as of about midnight Eastern, the front page of AJC.com, the home page of the largest, and theoretically most important, newspaper in the Southeast. Apologies for any primitiveness in the image, but I think you get the point.

How far are we going to go in dumbing down our newspapers?

 

[pressboxramblings07]

I could have sworn that was a screen shot of my old paper's Web site. Sad, very sad.

 

[clutchcargo]

I bet their single-copy sales, subscription renewals and starts, and ad revenue just went through the roof.

 

[SixToe]

How ****ing sad.

 

[chilidog75]

I'm just glad to see that buffet restaurant in Duluth didn't score a 15 again on its latest inspection. Wow.

 

[thegrifter]

At least it's not the front page of their paper. yet.

 

[PeterGibbons]

At least it's not the front page of their paper. yet.

Give it time

 

[Clerk Typist]

Hey, coulda been a sequence of Furman Bisher head shots over the decades.

 

[wisportswriter]

But the hit counts! Can you imagine the hit counts?!

 

[ColbertNation]

But the hit counts! Can you imagine the hit counts?!

And just wait until they get to the costumed cats. I mean, what's cuter than a regular cat? Why, a cat in a costume, of course.

 

[Van Lingle Mungo]

Midnight isn't exactly a huge news hour. If you want to push some online-only, low-to-zero-news-value content that you can sell to advertisers, that's as good a time as any.

 

[Starman]

But the hit counts! Can you imagine the hit counts?!

And just wait until they get to the costumed cats. I mean, what's cuter than a regular cat? Why, a cat in a costume, of course.

 

[sportschick]

Stan says he's cuter than all those cats combined.

Guess AJC.com is appealing to the crazy cat lady demographic.

 

[deskslave]

Midnight isn't exactly a huge news hour. If you want to push some online-only, low-to-zero-news-value content that you can sell to advertisers, that's as good a time as any.

And if I'm an advertiser, I'm falling for this why exactly? And low news value? No, this does not have low news value.

 

[dargan]

Maybe they can feature these fellas on the sports page ...

 

[Van Lingle Mungo]

Midnight isn't exactly a huge news hour. If you want to push some online-only, low-to-zero-news-value content that you can sell to advertisers, that's as good a time as any.

And if I'm an advertiser, I'm falling for this why exactly? And low news value? No, this does not have low news value.

1. It's part of their pets channel. Clicking around the pages, I don't see any house ads. It's getting sold, somehow.

2. I was speaking of reader photos as a whole as "low-to-zero." This would be zero, but in other occasions (like a great HS sports shot of a game the paper couldn't cover, or a 3 a.m. fire), they are sometimes of great use.

 

[NoOneLikesUs]

Ceiling cat would approve.

 

[hankschu]

If you have to put pussies on your homepage to get clicks, your business is in trouble.

 

[BYH]

Iz on ur homepaige, jenarating clicks and revanew.

 

[Moderator1]

The front right now is reader submitted photos of vacations. Your Weekend Away. Wonder if I should send some pix of The Queen in NYC?