Posted on 12/02/2019 7:49:05 AM PST by EyesOfTX
Great, but don’t go making promises you can’t keep. – Political fantasy writer Michael Wolff, the author of the anti-Trump fantasy “Fire and Fury,” promised in a Friday interview with Spectator USA that he plans to say no more about President Donald Trump.
“Every magazine I have ever worked for, and I have worked for them all, is dead or will die shortly,” he explained. “For another thing, Donald Trump is the one consuming subject, sucking all views and opinions into his void, and on this issue I have nothing left to say.”
“Still, even with the collapse of so many journalistic enterprises, many of my former colleagues still go on at great and constant unpaid length on social media or, scrambling for a pay-per-appearance contract, as desperately willing pundits on cable television. Why? People are afraid, it seems, to say nothing,” Wolff proclaimed. “I’m looking forward to trying.”
Ok, so, what this most likely means is the spinner of fables has a new book coming out early next year and has begun his promotional tour early. But really, who gives a damn? He’s a fantasy writer, and not a very good one.
What caught my eye about his comments, though, was this part: “Every magazine I have ever worked for, and I have worked for them all, is dead or will die shortly.” Bingo. And why is that?
Well, we had a wonderful example of why that’s the case just this past weekend, didn’t we? That would be the incident with near-dead Newsweek publishing a false report by Jessica Kwong that the President planned to spend his Thanksgiving Day “tweeting” and “golfing” when in fact he was in the process of making a wearying trip to Afghanistan for a surprise visit with the U.S. troops there.
Kwong was fired as a result, but the name of the specific reporter who filed this specific is not even relevant anymore, since her false report was just another in an unending procession of this kind of intentionally false report over the last four years, all designed to damage the President’s reputation. It is seriously as if every newspaper, magazine and TV outlet in America is in a competition to see who among them can abandon all pretense to journalistic ethics the most quickly and abhorrently.
In other words, the disgraceful hackery taking place at Newsweek is just a symptom of an industry on its death bed. Newsweek is just the magazine version of the New York Times and the newspaper business, or CNN and the TV “news” industry. They are all dying along with the profession of journalism generally
The journalist hacks like to blame the slow-motion death of their industry on the Internet, and the sucking up of all the advertising revenues by Google and Facebook, but that’s a cop-out, an attempt to deflect the blame away from their own failings.
The print industry awoke to the threat posed by the digital space a quarter of a century ago. It is incumbent upon any business that becomes faced with a sudden existential threat to adapt and work harder to improve its product offering and become more competitive.
But by and large, newspapers and magazines not by becoming more competitive and improving their product, but by repeatedly laying people off, cutting their product to shreds and raising prices. With every subsequent cut and price increase, the quality of the product grew worse.
Any sense of journalistic ethics were gradually tossed to the winds along with the jobs of researchers, copy editors and other quality control functions. Thus, we end up with today’s situation at most of these publications with a single person who was poorly-educated in some J-school to do one of these jobs trying to do all of them in a mad rush to get something, anything posted out on the website that might attract some clicks.
And that’s how you end up with a Jessica Kwong – although the name makes no real difference at all because it could have been any one of thousands of people doing the exact same thing every day – becoming the sacrificial lamb at Newsweek for doing nothing more than following that fake publication’s current business model.
The magazine industry is in fact dying a death by slow-motion suicide and Michael Wolff, a guy who made his living by penning highly-sensationalized fantasies in order to maximize clicks, is in fact one of the major culprits. If he can now really make himself “say nothing” on any subject as promised in that interview, he’d be doing his industry – and everyone else – a huge favor.
That is all.
“Every magazine I have ever worked for, and I have worked for them all, is dead or will die shortly...”
Oh, the tragedy. Almost as tragic as all the town criers who lost their jobs when the moveable-type printing press was invented.
I’ve not found one women’s magazine that isn’t pro-abortion and anti-trump. I still subscribe to Garden Gate magazine because it still offers useful information while avoiding nonsense about “climate change”. I don’t know how many of you receive magazines that you never ordered but we’ve gotten several at our home. They have to give them away in order to keep advertising revenues up.
We had been subscribers to Smithsonian for 30+ years. It was a great history magazine until the editors turned political. I have not paid for Smithsonian since 2016, but still receive the magazine every month. They must think it is better to give it away for free to keep their circulations numbers up.
I can sum up their conundrum in one short sentence:
We are in a post Dan Rather era.
I have not paid for Smithsonian since 2016, but still receive the magazine every month. They must think it is better to give it away for free to keep their circulations numbers up.
Thanks. I have posted about the two dentists who art.e neighbors on our cul de sac and their mag subscriptions.
One retired about 15 years ago and still receives “free mags” at his home and delivered to his office without dentist.
The other still practices a few weeks and every mag known to man at both his office and home. His 40 something adult kids attended the local community college, and they still get “free”mags and the WSJ and other crud they got for free as students.
Both are lucky in that our garbage people provide for free the big blue trash container. They feel up one at their homes each week and at the office where the who still works a few days per week.
I can understand that.
I am filled with such contempt for nearly every single printed media I encounter that I tend to lump them in all together even though I shouldn’t.
It has very little to do with politics. (Yes, I know that a number of FReepers refuse to subscribe to certain publications because of their editorial content.) It has everything to do with eyeballs.
Before the Internet, magazines would pay writers to create content -- and the magazines would reward writers that attract readers with more articles. Usually, the editors would choose a demographic to target, and select articles which would attract members of that target demographic. A number of magazines had focused on very narrow targets, but flourished by getting a major share of the target market.
Publishers can then take those eyeballs and offer ad space to companies wanting to promote their products or ideas. (Think political ads for the latter.) With a narrow focus, publishers can provide a targeted audience to advertisers.
We had magazines because the start-up cost was significant, as was the running cost. It takes money to buy, or hire, a printing press. This puts an upper limit on the number of players in a particular target demographic.
The Internet has lowered the entry and running cost. Some electronic publications run on a shoestring. (Like FR.)
The same can be said for newspapers.
Both magazines and newspapers are being folded into publishing companies, and for the same reason: reduce the running costs. The Associated Press started this shrinkage with their telegraph wire service -- newspapers didn't have to hire staff to write national and regional stories.
And so it goes.
I think the news magazines are going first...
The women’s magazine’s seem to be doing alright....
That’s scary.
30 years ago, I once had 19 subscriptions to various magazines. I now have 4 and when time comes to renew, it will go to 2.
Too damn many of them that are not supposed to be political have become increasing biased against Republicans, Conservatives, and gun owners. And this was before Trump. Trump Derangement Syndrome has killed off many a magazine to me forever.
Magazine stories are too much fluff. Look at the magazine rack and they mostly look alike too as there are only a handful of owners.
Also the font size is way to small. I need size 12 or greater. Having to use a magnifying glass and I will not buy the magazine.
#31 Air & Space is what I subscribe to along with Handyman and I buy Readers Digest at the store.
30 years ago, I once had 19 subscriptions to various magazines. I now have 4 and when time comes to renew, it will go to 2.
Too damn many of them that are not supposed to be political have become increasing biased against Republicans, Conservatives, and gun owners. And this was before Trump. Trump Derangement Syndrome has killed off many a magazine to me forever.
Our trend is not good for the left wing mags who hate our President and his 64 million deploreable.
My Granddad had a 8th grade education, and one that he added on to via the Smithsonian and National Geog..
Nat. Geog. was his way to see the world without leaving his reading chair in their family room. He loved the history that he got the Smithsonian.
Reader’s Digest Condensed Books were his other reading.
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