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Crisis In The US Newspaper Industry
BBC News ^ | February 27, 2009

Posted on 02/26/2009 6:50:53 PM PST by Steelfish

Crisis in the US newspaper industry

By Max Deveson BBC News, Washington.

If the economic crisis goes on much longer, will there be any newspapers left in the US to write about it?

The Chronicle's owners are set to decide whether to shut down the paper America's newspaper industry has been badly hit by the downturn, and a number of titles face closure.

The latest casualty is the venerable San Francisco Chronicle, whose owners on Wednesday announced they were planning to cut a "significant" number of jobs to meet cost-cutting targets, and that if the targets are not met, then the paper would be sold or closed down.

The Chronicle, which was founded in 1865, soon after the gold-rush hit California, lost more than $50m (£35m) in 2008, and so far 2009 is looking even worse for the title.

Circulation fell by 7% in the six-month period running up to 30 September 2008, and advertising revenues are plummeting.

The Hearst Corporation - the Chronicle's owners - last month proposed similar measures for another of their titles, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

And the owners of Denver's Rocky Mountain News announced on Thursday that the newspaper would publish its final edition on Friday. The Tucson Citizen also faces the axe.

(Excerpt) Read more at news.bbc.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society
KEYWORDS: dbm; dnctalkingpoints; pravdamedia; stuckonstupid; waronerror

1 posted on 02/26/2009 6:50:53 PM PST by Steelfish
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To: Steelfish

Savage offered them a hundred bucks.


2 posted on 02/26/2009 6:51:57 PM PST by SpaceBar
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To: Steelfish
Let's all quote the infamous "Dr." Dean!

ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!

3 posted on 02/26/2009 6:52:22 PM PST by FlingWingFlyer (Just being a "U.S. citizen" does not make one an American.)
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To: Steelfish

Maybe they should stop insulting 70% of the literate population?????


4 posted on 02/26/2009 6:53:26 PM PST by cookcounty ("We'll post bills on the internet........", --excerpt from the Vast Collection of Obama Lies.)
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To: SpaceBar; Steelfish

We will probably get something like the BBC. Gov’t run crap.


5 posted on 02/26/2009 6:54:30 PM PST by dynachrome (Barack Hussein Obama yunikku khinaaziir)
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To: Steelfish

Excellent news!
I want everybody associated with the liberal Democrat newspapers to lose their jobs, their homes, and their families. For what they have done to this country they deserve nothing less. (spit) Screw ‘em all.


6 posted on 02/26/2009 6:55:02 PM PST by Lancey Howard
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To: cookcounty
Maybe they should stop insulting 70% of the literate population?

My thoughts exactly.

You should always leave the dance with the date who brung ya.

Maybe if these publications simply reported news events without any bias...ANY bias, eliminated the dripping Liberal opinion pieces and threw in an advice column a daily almanac and a comics page, they'd see an increase in readership over time. Seems like that formula got them pretty far in the past. Time to chuck the pride and run a newspaper.

7 posted on 02/26/2009 6:58:10 PM PST by Bloody Sam Roberts (Despite all my rage, I am still just a rat in a cage...)
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To: Steelfish
If the economic crisis goes on much longer, will there be any newspapers left in the US to write about it?

Who cares? I don't own a parrot or a birdcage.

8 posted on 02/26/2009 6:59:30 PM PST by Travis McGee (www.EnemiesForeignAndDomestic.com)
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To: Steelfish
If someone gave me control of one of these dead newspapers, I would turn it around in a year. It's easier to print the news than to make up fantasy stories nobody believes anymore. I could pick up stories on the wire services and use FR and Drudge and a few other sources and have the readers drooling to get the next paper. MSNBC keeps Mathews and Olberman and they know as a fact no one is watching, but continue to lose money anyway. Hollywood knows family movies are hits but keep making the same old drivel. It isn't because they don't know,........ it's their religion.

The only reason we are talking about the "Fairness Doctrine" is not because they think it's fair, it's to get the Radio stations to go back to Gardening shows instead of hard politics because they know if they put "balance" on, the knob goes off, so they just play garden shows.( not that there is anything wrong with killing aphids)

9 posted on 02/26/2009 7:01:02 PM PST by chuckles
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To: Lancey Howard

Right on! I’m praying that all New York Times employees end up begging for money in Manhattan. Ditto ABC, NBC, and CBS employees. I’m fed up with the MSM sucking up to Obama. They couldn’t be any more abjectly servile. A pox on them all. They’re responsible for fast tracking this nonentity into the White House. His JD from Harvard doesn’t fool me. And he’s been cosseted his whole life. I’m Obamed out!


10 posted on 02/26/2009 7:03:25 PM PST by donaldo
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To: Lancey Howard

Hooray! great post.


11 posted on 02/26/2009 7:04:20 PM PST by Steelfish
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To: dynachrome

We will definitely get something like BBC. Government run and Leftist in pitch.


12 posted on 02/26/2009 7:19:18 PM PST by a fool in paradise ("Do you know the website number?" - VP Joe Biden)
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To: Steelfish
How about we get someone in Congress to propose a TAX!

A TAX on NEWSPRINT!

Whereas a large portion of every landfill is used for discarded newspapers and

Whereas the production of newspapers causes trees to be cut down, hauled by polluting trucks to polluting paper mills, and hauled from paper mills to publishers and

Whereas the production of newspapers requires toxic ink and solvents and energy wasting machinery and

Whereas the distribution of newspapers requires the use of dirty internal combustion engines Therefore:

Be it resolved that a Newsprint tax, of $1,000.00 per pound, be charged to EVERY newspaper with a daily subscription, within the United States!


We should get some Republican to propose THIS as an amendment to any “cap and trade” or “carbon tax” proposal that comes up!

What do you think?

13 posted on 02/26/2009 7:25:28 PM PST by Kansas58
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To: Kansas58
A TAX on NEWSPRINT!

The SF Chronicle is inserted in double plastic bags before it's tossed on subscriber's lawns. That plastic ends up in landfills! My neighbor has me picking up his Chron while he's out of town this week. I would never subscribe. The Chron is looking mighty thin this month, and the front page looks like amateurs put it together. It needs to die!

14 posted on 02/26/2009 11:09:54 PM PST by roadcat
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