US media in deep financial crisis (Dinosaur Media DeathWatch™)

Times of India ^ | December 9, 2008 | Staff

[Tribune7]

They like the word “popular.”

[abb]

http://californiauncovered.typepad.com/index/2008/12/tribune-bankruptcy-points-to-new-business-mode-.html
What a Tribune Company bankruptcy could mean for California

[abb]

One blogger last night opined that now that the dam is broken, we can expect other bankruptcies to follow rather quickly.

I predict McClatchy within the first quarter of next year.

[abb]

http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/081209/sf50620.html?.v=1

McClatchy Presents at UBS Media Conference Today

[abb]

http://cancelthebee.blogspot.com/
Did the Miami Herald’s $190 million land deal collapse?

[bert]

A common theme is denial.....not our fault.

[abb]

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/Economy/story?id=6421397&page=1
Over-Zell-ous? Real Estate Mogul Felled by Media Biz

http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7013334861
Journalism Expert: Tribune Bankruptcy Indicates Print Media’s Failure As Economic Model

http://www.baltimoresun.com/business/bal-te.media09dec09,0,2405285.story
Tribune is latest to feel sting of bad economy

[abb]

http://www.contentbridges.com/
Sam Zell’s Plan D: It’s All About Buying Time

[bert]

The interesting thing to me is that Zell apparently bought the Tribune with the cash in the pension fund and loans from banks.

The employees are now pensionless and the bank debt is merely part of the overall unfathomable bad debt aggregate. Zelll’s loss turns out to be time.

[BCW]

outstanding...hopefully they will go out of business and people will be forced to read and research for themselves for once...this is good thing - no more spoon feeding the public...

[abb]

Back when this was all going down 1 1/2 years ago, I emailed every business reporter I could and pointed this out. To my knowledge, only Theo Francis of the WSJ wrote very much about it. I even talked with one of the biz reporters at the LAT, but all he ever said was that he was “concerned” about it.

Watch for a slew of stories in the next few days about how the employees were screwed out of their retirement.

Finally, a couple of months ago, several retirees filed suit.

http://www.laobserved.com/archive/2008/09/extimes_reporters_sue_zel.php
Ex-Times reporters sue Zell

[Mangia E Statti Zitto]

And yet, talk radio is doing just fine.

I remember reading a Grishman novel a few years ago where the central character ran a small town weekly newspaper. He made plenty of money because he knew what his readers wanted: he covered all the local goings-on and made sure lots of people got their names in the paper. In the small town where we previously lived, EVERYONE read the paper, and the first page we all turned to was the Police Blotter.

My point is that the NYT et. al., have lost all notion of how to sell newspapers. The average reading American doesn’t want to pay to be lectured by a bunch of prissy liberals.

[abb]

http://www.philebrity.com/2008/12/08/breaking-brian-tierneys-message-of-christmas-cheer-see-ya-wouldnt-wanna-be-ya/

MORE LAYOFFS PLANNED

The company informed Guild leadership this afternoon that it intends to eliminate 35 bargaining-unit jobs at the Inquirer and Daily News effective Dec. 31.

[Texas Fossil]

They cannot figure it out, we buy papers to read about what is happening in the world. Not for propaganda.

They need not cut staff to fix the problem, but probably would have to hire “other” staff to fix it.

They simply need to report the news as it happens, unbiased.

“They just don’t have a clue.”

[abb]

http://www.timesdispatch.com/rtd/business/local/article/RTDD09_20081208-212852/145952/
Times-Dispatch lays off 18 employees

[abb]

http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=96145&art_type=10
Barclays: ABC May Be Next To Wield Job Cuts

[Strutt9]

"The Socialist media has been trying to control the people with its biased reporting."

They do control people and proved it this election. All this dnc/media in the dumps is preparing the sheeple for a bailout. GE/msnbc got thiers now its' the nyt, la and all other Pravda will be lining up for a bailout... once O gets in the office.

They helped him & liberals get elected and they will be looking for a payback sometime after Jan, 20th. Especially NYT just holding on untill the new administration takes over with all three branches in the liberal column.

[xzins]

I guarantee that they are setting the stage for a government bailout.

However, in this instance, I believe that government involvement is a violation of the 1st amendment.

My logic is as follows:

***Congress shall make no law ...abridging the freedom ...of the press; ****

1. By assisting media companies, Congress is ENABLING a particular press versus other more viable competitors. Therefore, they are injuring (abridging) those forms of press that are successful.

2. By underwriting media companies, Congress is siding with that message just as much as they would be siding with a bible company that would be in hard fiscal times.

[abb]

http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.san&s=96263&Nid=50168&p=910982
NBC Considers Fewer Prime-Time Hours

[Raster Man]

I was a long-time Chicago Tribune reader, and I recently cancelled my subscription. The paper had become completely unreadable. The paper had a change of strategy and decided to go after the more “hip” younger urban reader. They completely changed the format to where it doesn’t look anything like the old Trib. There was a change in the editorial board, and the paper went from a conservative paper to an everyday Obama love fest. There is only one reporter, John Kass, who ever questioned anything about Obama’s past, but the rest of the paper was pro-Obama. For the first time in recent history, they did not endorse the conservative candidate. Their reporting of world news is now a little map of the world with one-word sentences in boxes that point to the particular country. In the front section, they usually have one article (usually about Obama) and the rest is advertising. Bottom line: the paper sucks.

One more complaint: their Soduku puzzles are usually unsolvable by logic and requires simple guessing. It is irritating to spend time looking for the logical conclusion when there isn’t one.