The News Americans Need (Dinosaur Media DeathWatch™)

The Washington Post ^ | August 9, 2009 | Dan Rather

[abb]

You don't have to care about media companies or reporters to care about the state of the news, because if it's in trouble -- and it surely is -- this country is in trouble. That's why, while speaking recently at the Aspen Institute, I called upon President Obama to form a commission to address the perilous state of America's news media.

Some might scoff at the notion that a president and a country occupied by two wars and a recession should add the woes of the news media to an already crowded plate. But the way the news is delivered, and the quality of the information the American public receives about what's going on here and abroad, has and will continue to have a profound effect on these very issues and on the overall quality of government by, for and of the people.

I am not calling for any sort of government bailout for media companies. Nor am I encouraging any form of government control over them. I want the president to convene a nonpartisan, blue-ribbon commission to assess the state of the news as an institution and an industry and to make recommendations for improving and stabilizing both.

Why bring the president into it? Because this is the only way I could think of to generate the sort of attention this subject deserves. Academia and think tanks generate study after study, yet their findings don't reach the people who need to be reached.

We need a real and broad public discussion of the role news is meant to play in our democratic system of government and a better public understanding of the American news infrastructure's fragile condition. We need to know how things got this way and what we need to change.

snip

[abb]

Breathtaking...

[abb]

ping

[bert]

......I called upon President Obama to form a commission.....

The old man is desperately searching for relevancy and a job.

[abb]

http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20090809/FREE/308099971#
Pay up or the newspaper gets it

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/EW-Scripps-posts-2ndquarter-apf-2100150163.html?x=0&.v=6
E.W. Scripps posts 2nd-quarter profit
Revenue fell 23 percent to $193.9 million from $250.9 million.

http://newsosaur.blogspot.com/
How long should dead paper linger on web?

[Pietro]

Is there a more discredited voice in the MSM?

Dan is Exhibit A on what happened to the MSM and why they fully deserve the struggles they now face.

[hoosier hick]

The situation in print media is very simple: they have alienated half the country, and the other half doesn’t read....

hh

[Nathan Zachary]

"I called upon President Obama to form a commission to address the perilous state of America's news media. Some might scoff at the notion that a president and a country occupied by two wars and a recession should add the woes of the news media to an already crowded plate."

No, we scoff at the notion that you'd think Obama would tell media to quit covering up who and what he is, report the truth instead of conspiring to deceive the nation so that Obama can destroy it and turn it into a Marxist wonderland.

[abb]

http://www.gannettoid.com/dm0810.html
Des Moines meeting begins today

[Caipirabob]

Ol’ “Discredited Dan” is still applying for Baghdad Bob’s job?

[abb]

http://adage.com/article?article_id=138358
Why Ad Industry Won’t Recover in Second Half

http://adage.com/mediaworks/article?article_id=138365
TV Upfront Tally Slips to $8 Billion as Networks Take Their Chances on Scatter

[abb]

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/10/business/media/10carr.html?ref=todayspaper
For Murdoch, It’s Try, Try Again

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1004001604
For Newspapers, Small Is (or Can) Be Beautiful

[Melchior]

The American public holds the used car salesman in higher regard than the journalist. Put another way, who is more likely to tell the truth, Dan Rather or a used car salesman?

[Melchior]

The American public holds the used car salesman in higher regard than the journalist. Put another way, who is more likely to tell the truth, Dan Rather or a used car salesman?

[AlphaOneAlpha]

Oh Danny Boy......well, you know the rest.

The current media is guilty of dereliction of duty and deserves to fade away. Had they done just 10% digging into the hidden background of the candidates last year, I would have more respect for them. Instead, they had their favorite and go him elected.

And now we have Junior and the Punks totally screwing up the country

[Zakeet]

TV Upfront Tally Slips to $8 Billion as Networks Take Their Chances on Scatter

This is not good for the Nitworks.

Media ads are like seats on an airliner. They can't be sold after the plane leaves the gate -- or in network parlance, after the program airs.

Your media buddies are essentially betting they can get more by selling standby seats later than they can by selling regular full fare tickets now. This is always dangerous. But right now, we are mired in a deep recession with no end in sight. Ad rates are dropping faster than ever before. Competitors are becoming more and more desperate.

If the market doesn't reverse itself radically in a few weeks, a lot more Nitwork guru's will join Gunga Dan Blather on the bread line.

[abb]

On the conference call last week CBS’ Moonves said they were deliberately “holding back” the inventory in anticipation of higher prices in scatter. One of the analysts asked him if that was so, why weren’t advertisers taking advantage of the cheap prices now available and buying? He wasn’t able to answer that one.

[Zakeet]

On the conference call last week CBS’ Moonves said they were deliberately “holding back” the inventory in anticipation of higher prices in scatter. One of the analysts asked him if that was so, why weren’t advertisers taking advantage of the cheap prices now available and buying? He wasn’t able to answer that one.

Exactly!

Incidentally, Did you see where SeeBS broke $10 per share a few days ago. It's a good short, IMHO.

[abb]

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/press/financial-decision-times-1769862.html
Financial decision times
As Rupert Murdoch says his newspapers must charge their online users, the Financial Times plans an iTunes pay-per-article service. Ian Burrell reports on a pivotal moment for the press

http://adage.com/mediaworks/article?article_id=138369
Before You Base Your Business Plan on Paid Content, Read This
Not Everyone Will Enjoy the Spoils of Murdoch’s Favorite Online Revenue Model

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/sns-ap-us-small-newspapers,0,5415749.story
Community newspapers still see bright future amid financial gloom at big-city dailies

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/aug/10/interview-claire-enders-analyis
‘I’m not an advocate, I’m a sceptic’
The tough-talking media analyst predicted the dotcom crash, the decline of Project Kangaroo, and the 2009 advertising downturn - and now she’s prophesying doom for the national press

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/326854-The_Model_Is_Broken_Now_Where_Is_the_Fix_.php
The Model Is Broken, Now Where Is the Fix?
Media bigwigs bemoan problems, but solutions are few

[Liberty Valance]

Never fear Danny boy ... help is on the way ...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2312242/posts
AP to distribute Soros-funded ‘journalism’

The AP announced last month it will allow its subscribers to publish free of charge work by four nonprofit groups, the Center for Public Integrity, the Investigative Reporting Workshop at American University, the Center for Investigative Reporting and ProPublica.

---

Got Propaganda?

[abb]

http://www.reuters.com/article/reutersEdge/idUSTRE57658U20090807
CBS leads media rally; too much, too soon?

http://www.nypost.com/seven/08082009/business/channeling_for_ads_183480.htm
CHANNELING FOR ADS
AFTER LOUSY UPFRONT, TV BETS ON FALL UPTICK

http://www.adweek.com/aw/content_display/news/agency/e3i111888fc4afd5a6ab960a11e3632bd43
Shops Spend Less on Traditional Media

[abb]

http://savethemedia.com/
What if newspapers charged for ad-free sites?

[abb]

https://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=111326
News Analysis: Upfront’s Shrinking Dollars Hurt Cable

[Richard Kimball]

[Richard Kimball]

I want the president to convene a nonpartisan, blue-ribbon commission to assess the state of the news as an institution and an industry and to make recommendations for improving and stabilizing both.

Utter nonsense. Nonpartisan means 9 leftists and one bozo with poindexter glasses and a bow tie (Geroge Will.) Will is included because he's always been willing to lick the hands of the leftists and be satisfied that they let him sit at the table like big folks. Blue ribbon means nothing. It's media speak to make something sound important.

If Zero does convene one of these, the focus will be talk radio and the importance of the fairness doctrine.

[martin_fierro]

I'd like to suggest a new title:

^The News Americans Need (Dinosaur Media Dea^thWatch™)

[abb]

http://www.knightdigitalmediacenter.org/leadership_blog/comments/perils_of_the_pay_wall/
Pitfalls of the pay wall

http://www.johntemple.net/2009/08/newspapers-should-emulate-comcast-not.html
Newspapers should emulate Comcast, not put up pay walls

[Landru]

"Why bring the president into it? Because this is the only way I could think of to generate the sort of attention this subject deserves."

Awwwww c'mon, pal.
Couldn't be because zerO's an infinitely better liar than you ever were, huh.

[abb]

That the WaPo saw fit to give this fraud ink to spout this crap is really amazing.

[Landru]

"That the WaPo saw fit to give this fraud ink to spout this crap is really amazing."

Really, think so walt?

Hmmmm, funny.
That a known liar appeared yet again IN a WaPo publication was, to me, the ONLY thing that made sense. {g}

[abb]

Yes. Your analysis DOES make more sense.

[AmericanVictory]

Gee Dan, we obviously need a noose czar.

[abb]

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1004001655
‘Indy Star’ And Guild Reach Contract Deal for 10% Pay Cut

[N. Theknow]

We need to know how things got this way and what we need to change.

Does the name Kinko's ring a bell?

[abb]

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=111724595&sc=emaf
In Rush To Reinvent, Media Rivals Become Classmates

[Surtur]

Hey media! It looks like you backed the wrong horse in the culture wars. You jumped on the liberal bandwagon and cheesed off the 50% of the American public, the conservatives, that cares enough to read and watch “the news”. Liberals get their news from talking heads like Olbermann and Matthews and from “comics” like John Stewart and Bill Maher. So, as Nelson Muntz would say, HA HA!!!

[catnipman]

The newspaper “business model” consists solely of a local monopoly marketplace for print advertising, primarily facilitated by having bought the biggest printing press in the area.

Unlimited, ubiquitous, instant, and almost-free Internet publishing permanently broke this model forever by eliminating the local monopoly publishing marketplace. There is no way to fix it.

Furthermore, attempts by these publishers to move to the Internet are 15 years too late. New websites by the old publishing monopolies are now just a few more web pages out of billions of pages that are already well established. Their advertising revenue streams have already been permanently subsumed by craigslist, ebay, Google, and a few others.

And finally, Internet revenue-per-ad is orders of magnitude
less than what newspaper publishers charged for ads in their monopoly marketplace because local advertisers now have billions of Internet pages to choose from rather than a couple of dozen printed ones, so there is no way to come close to replacing existing ad revenue should their web sites manage to attract a few advertisers.

With the possible exception of a few national newspapers, including new ones started by the political parties as house organs, newspaper publishing businesses are doomed, no matter what they do.

[RJL]

LOL... Dan Rather telling us the news America needs is the best laugh of the week!

[abb]

Correct. Newspapers were never anything more than a distribution system for delivering information via an ink-on-paper format to a physical address on a regular schedule.

With the internet, there is now a technologically superior format coupled with real-time and world-wide distribution.

[abb]

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ombudsman-blog/2009/08/posts_national_weekly_edition.html?wprss=ombudsman-blog
Post’s National Weekly Edition to Close

http://irjci.blogspot.com/2009/08/rural-newspaper-publishers-who-have.html
Overby says newspapers should charge for online content; sets goal of million Newseum visitors/yr.

http://www.commonsnews.org/776/
Region jolted by newspapers’ bankruptcy

http://www.johntemple.net/2009/08/rockys-web-site-shouldnt-be-treated-as.html
Rocky’s Web site shouldn’t be treated as junk yard

http://www.wwd.com/media-news/fashion-memopad/memo-pad-sales-preview-simon-cowells-new-style-2233271?src=rss/media/20090810#/article/media-news/fashion-memopad/memo-pad-sales-preview-simon-cowells-new-style-2233271?full=true
Memo Pad: Sales Preview... Simon Fuller’s Style...

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

We need a real and broad public discussion of the role news is meant to play in our democratic system of government and a better public understanding of the American news infrastructure's fragile condition. We need to know how things got this way and what we need to change.

Dan Rather calling for " a real and broad public discussion of the role news is meant to play in our democratic system of government" is about Barak Obama calling for "a dialogue about race." Whenever a race hustler calls for a dialogue about race," he then immediately lays on the liberal guilt - and demands that any conservatives must shut up.

And when Dan Rather calls for "a real and broad public discussion of the role news is meant to play in our democratic system of government," what he means is that journalists should make demands - and conservatives should shut up.

No sale. A real public discussion about the role of news must start from the understanding that "the freedom of the press" is a right of each person to communicate with any of the public who will pay attention to him. And must consider the fact that the Associated Press reduces the freedom of its members by imposing political correctness.

[GAB-1955]

Rather? Rather!