Newspapers need to get back to their core product--local news. I can get national news just about anywhere, so why is the local newspaper bothering? The one competetive edge the local rag has is its news-gathering resources, i.e. reporters that beat the streets and gather the local news. Bloggers can't compete with that--they're mainly into news analysis (and they do that better than the local editors). I would gladly support my local paper if they focused on local issues WITHOUT EDITORIAL COMMENTARY! But until they change, they're just another special interest group with a newsletter.
Yes local papers should have local news, but you must remember that for millions of Americans, the local rag is their only source of news. Not as many people get their news off the internet as you think. My own experience is that very few people I know get their news off the internet. Most of their "news" come from the same disreputable lib (Ny Times, WaPo, AP) sources as they've always come from.
My local rag has changed from very conservative when I was growing up forty years ago to ultra-liberal today. They print fluff local news stories on the front page and hardcore national and international news in little paragraphs in subsequent sections. And that's only some hard news...which are virtually all from lib sources. The internet is great, but don't overestimate the numbers of Americans who use it for news.
VERY good insight. Indeed, that's the only thing keeping, say, the NYT and the Globe from imploding completely. The Globe still has a good sports page (not as good as an obsessed fan can build for himself online, but good enough). The Times still has ads people are looking for, like "what theaters is United 93 playing in?" The front sections of both papers are a mixture of their own cant and opinion masquerading as national/international news, and wire stories that are outdated compared to what you can grab on Google News or Yahoo.
If you're a newspaper manager and haven't asked, "why should someone who disagrees with me buy our paper?" you're being measured for the tar pits right now.
until they change, they're just another special interest group with a newsletter.
Yep, and a dirty, smelly newsletter at that. My fingers aren't black after checking through my morning array of news and opinion sites, and I'm a lot better informed (especially about the war) than Globe and Times readers will be.
For the newspapers, it's a perfect storm: they've alienated roughly half of their readership, right as an alternative looms large in the firmament. Nuclear dumb attack.
d.o.l.
Criminal Number 18F
PS: I'd love to see the ABC circulation trends of TIME and Newsweek. Geronimo! -C18F