How can newspapers be saved? First, fire the journalists.

Examiner.com ^ | Nov 22, 2013 | Bruce Deitrick Price

[BruceDeitrickPrice]

Newspapers are losing circulation and advertising revenue. Many old-time publications are going out of business.

There’s no question that selling newspapers has gotten more difficult because of the Internet. Fifty years ago people settled down for an hour every day with their newspapers. That pattern is disappearing.

Equally, there is no question that newspapers have made their situation worse. They insist on being politically correct, liberal, progressive, or whatever you want to say. What they don’t insist on doing is telling the facts and letting readers think for themselves. Perish that thought

The problem across America is that the so-called mainstream media is not mainstream at all. It’s liberal media, and they produce a predictable, flat, boring product consisting of roughly 85% politically correct views mixed with a scattering of 15% non-politically correct views. And that’s on an adventurous day.

There used to be people called reporters who would knock down doors to get a story. We don’t have those people anymore. Now we have political operatives called journalists. They are trained to package and manipulate the news, not to report the news.

On a day (Oct. 9, 2013) when Obama’s approval rating dropped to 37% (which is the real story), liberal media were screaming that the public’s approval of Congress had dropped to 20%. But that second statistic is almost meaningless. A big block of people are mad at Congress for opposing Obama. But probably a similar number are mad at Congress for NOT opposing Obama. So why would any self-respecting journalist emphasize the 20% number and ignore the 37% number? Because they are journalists.

The Far-left (a.k.a. “Commies”) always try to seize control of education and media. They do a great job of seizing control. So now a degree in journalism means a degree in progressive ideology...

[joe fonebone]

printed newspapers cannot be saved...

they hate conservatives and republicants in general..

any business plan that calls for alienating over half of your potential customers right off the bat is doomed to failure..

[ops33]

I have to disagree with the premise that the decline of newspapers is because of the bias of their reporters. Newspapers and reporters have always been biased. What is killing newspapers, regardless of their political leaning, is technology and the internet. Twenty years ago I took the daily and Sunday paper wherever I lived. Now I get no paper but still read the news. Everything I used to get from the paper by subscribing to it; news, editorials, want ads, advertisements, comics, etc., I can get in spades from the internet for nothing.

[MV=PY]

"The thing is, it is the structure of having the ritual of going down the street at lunchtime to the newsstand and getting the paper... going back and giving the sports section to one guy, the front section to another and then doing the sudoku in the classifieds... I can always return tothe break room on my way out for an afternoon smoke and grab the cypher and usually nail it... or not. If I can't, no big deal... tomorrow is another. I think, for me, it is about not being on a stupid computer. "

Agreed! The rituals are important.

A lot of our subscribers are elderly folks who print out the daily email and solve it with coffee. When we miss a day for some reason we get inundated with emails about how they can't start the day without their puzzle. ;-)

[Popman]

Every major paper (maybe all papers) in this country will be gone in 20 to 30 years....except for small local flyers you get for free in the mail...

This generation doesn't read newspapers...the next one won't either...

Everybody under 30 has internet access via iPad or smartphone...

Horse and buggy whip syndrome...

I haven't picked up a newspaper in 10 years and I'm 54...

[yldstrk]

it’s the progressive claptrap people no longer want

[OldMissileer]

Why, exactly , would we want to save them?

One of the great comforts in my life was to sit down in my chair in the Family Room with a fresh cup of coffee and the newspaper.

While I do most of my news reading on line now that is because there are no more conservative newspapers left. I used to get The Washington Times delivered but they decided to cut their print edition to the county just north of us. For some reason I hate reading newspapers on line, even if they are the PDF version of the hard copy.

I use a 37 inch HDTV as my monitor but the endless scrolling and zooming in and out pains me. I also love the feel of the paper in my hand. That goes the same for books. I love the bound editions and eschew Kindles and such.

[GoldwaterChick]

We subscribed to the Washington Times by mail in PA but they stopped that service a few years ago; now we only get their weekly edition. Can’t even begin to compare. We get the Philly Inq—mostly ads now. Only useful parts are tv schedule, crossword, comics and Krauthammer’s column once a week. Not a peep about Obamacare problems...

[slouper]

are you drunk?