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The evolution of newspapers can be traced to two meteors
St. Louis Post-Dispatch ^ | 09/28/2007 | Bill McClennan

Posted on 09/28/2007 5:46:43 AM PDT by rwa265

The barosaurus did not see the meteor hit. That's because he was at a watering hole on Tucker Boulevard. But even from inside the saloon, he could hear it. Kaboom! It was like thunder. The glasses on the bar shook. A little beer slopped out of the glass that the bartender had put in front of the barosaurus.

"Hey, Athena. I ought to get a free beer," said the barosaurus. "Hahaha."

Later, the barosaurus went back to the newspaper. From a fifth-floor window, he could not see the actual point of impact, but a dust cloud was visible, rising slowly just this side of the horizon.

"What was that?" the barosaurus asked a colleague.Advertisement

"Something called the Internet," the colleague said.

(Excerpt)

(Excerpt) Read more at stltoday.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: deathwatch; dinosaur; newspapers
An inside report on the dinosaur print media death watch.
1 posted on 09/28/2007 5:46:46 AM PDT by rwa265
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To: rwa265

Couldn’t have anything to do with the content. Nope, its all about the technology of delivery.

They just don’t get it.


2 posted on 09/28/2007 5:52:26 AM PDT by chrisser
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To: chrisser

Our hometown newspaper has gone through all sorts of changes in the past three or four years. First it cut out weekend papers. Then it changed the page size to tabloid. The latest move which was implemented last month is to publish only three times a week and expect the readers to rely on its internet site for the rest of the week’s news. This is a city of some 80,000 with only one newspaper and no local tv news station.

I don’t mind the internet issues but reading the comments to stories drives me crazy as I see the horrendous grammar and spelling (not to mention logic and manners) of those readers.


3 posted on 09/28/2007 6:10:46 AM PDT by caseinpoint (Don't get thickly involved in thin things.)
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To: rwa265

I disagree with the premise that newspapers going public is a bad thing. The article implies that family owned businesses were not as driven by profits as shareholders, which meant that the papers were better and more accurate when family owned. I think that a paper is more accurate and less biased with a stronger focus on improving profits by retaining readership, instead of on advocacy journalism.


4 posted on 09/28/2007 6:12:24 AM PDT by sportutegrl
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To: chrisser
Back when newspapers were less efficient, they were better. More interesting, fewer errors — just better.

Reminds me of something Ann Coulter said last year, when someone complained that there is too much "noise" in the media industry. She said back when the Soviets only had one channel, it was always polite and quite. Then she compared it to the three networks - CBS, NBC, ABC.

Like you said - they cannot understand it is the content.

5 posted on 09/28/2007 6:17:12 AM PDT by 7thson (I've got a seat at the big conference table! I'm gonna paint my logo on it!)
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To: chrisser
They just don’t get it.

Willing suspension of disbelief.............

6 posted on 09/28/2007 6:24:43 AM PDT by Red Badger (ALL that CARBON in ALL that oil & coal was once in the atmosphere. We're just putting it back!)
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To: caseinpoint
Our hometown newspaper has gone through all sorts of changes

We still get the local on weekends for the adds and comics. Tradition I guess. Lately I've been thinking we don't even need that.

On the rare occasions I do open the news section, I find two to three day old stories and an editorial page that might as well be direct from SeeBS or a parrot of the NYT.

Not worth the frustration or blood pressure meds to read.

7 posted on 09/28/2007 6:30:18 AM PDT by kAcknor (Don't flatter yourself.... It is a gun in my pocket.)
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To: 7thson

Lordy, some ponce with an accent was on Tavis Smiley last week, going on about how the Internet was basically “cheapening our media culture.” You know, people doing vids on Youtube was taking bandwidth from SERIOUS artists, like the next Great American Novel was never going to be made because all the public’s attention is sucked up by handmade cartoons. What an arrogant sot. What may happen is pompos professional ar-TEE-sts will have to learn to handle new media or lose government money they shouldn’t have been paid in the first place. You know only REAL professionals should be allowed to make art.


8 posted on 09/28/2007 6:37:38 AM PDT by 50sDad (Angels on asteroids are abducting crop circles!)
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To: kAcknor
I still WRITE Letters to the Editor because I have the finely hone knack of doing a pithy conservative irony in under 200 words, but you know what? I hardly ever READ them in the paper. Usually, old folks at church read them and tell me they got in, because I never buy a paper. And the paper has finally started publishing the Letters online if I did have the time or the interest to read it.

We get a community paper from the little girl down the street because she is a friend of my youngest daughter. And I throw them out after we pay her. The Dodo's just don't understand that in our Modern Age, news is like a box of tomatoes. I can get the stuff a dozen places, so why should I buy rotten ones? When I can see the News of the World here, with commentary that would NEVER be printed in the dead tree edition, why would I want the rotten tomatoes they provide?

9 posted on 09/28/2007 6:43:31 AM PDT by 50sDad (Angels on asteroids are abducting crop circles!)
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To: 50sDad
Read your reply to kAcknor. Rotten tomatoes! That's good. I will have to remember that and use it in the future. Thanks.

Concerning what you posted to me, that was the main complaint against Drudge many years ago. He's not a "journalist." These people are afraid of the interent because it is a new style of printing press, except the costs is peanuts. Anyone can jump in and post. If it's trash, it gets discarded. If the site is good, more and more people flock to it.

10 posted on 09/28/2007 6:51:12 AM PDT by 7thson (I've got a seat at the big conference table! I'm gonna paint my logo on it!)
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To: rwa265
The problem the dinosaur newspaper is facing is that with the INTERNET, their stories are now subject to rapid fact-checking and review. They could lie before and get away with it. Now, their lies are called out virtually instantaniously and their credibilty is shot.

Pity.

11 posted on 09/28/2007 7:20:12 AM PDT by Redleg Duke ("All gave some, and some gave all!")
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To: rwa265
evolution of newspapers

Uh...wouldn't it be more accurate to label this the de-evolution of newspapers (as in dust to dust, ashes to ashes)?

12 posted on 09/28/2007 7:30:34 AM PDT by Colofornian
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To: rwa265

This article made me realize that I can’t remember the last time I bought and read a newspaper.


13 posted on 09/28/2007 7:44:43 AM PDT by rllngrk33 (The RATs and Media are the enemy.)
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To: 50sDad
I have the finely hone knack of doing a pithy conservative irony in under 200 words

Arrgh. Envy rears it's ugly head! I can occasionally get in a good one liner, but otherwise will normally go on far too long.

I like the Rotten Tomatoes metaphor. News has become a commodity, and stale commodities just stink.

14 posted on 09/28/2007 7:51:24 AM PDT by kAcknor (Don't flatter yourself.... It is a gun in my pocket.)
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