Posted on 02/04/2008 10:54:03 PM PST by Parody
In his 1842 classic "Morte d'Arthur," Alfred Lord Tennyson has the dying King Arthur say to his mourners:
The old order changeth, yielding place to new; and God fulfills himself in many ways, lest one good custom should corrupt the world.
Those Famous Last Words can now apply to two of the best-known and once widely read institutions in the United States, the Washington Post and the San Francisco Chronicle.
Along with almost all of U.S. daily newspapers, these strongly liberal – one of them a one-time toppler of a president of the United States – are beginning to lose, very seriously.
From its daily circulation in 1993, the Post has lost more than 194,000 subscribers or newsstand purchasers: a hair-raising drop from 832,000 to 638,000.
The Post Company reported that operating income for the company's newspaper division – largely the Post – dropped by an incredible 50 percent from the same period last year, to $8.8 million.
The Post itself reported that this newspaper's total income is "about $63 million in total income for this year." By comparison, in 1989, three years before the Post began losing circulation operating income was $176 million.
So what is the Post doing about this precipitous loss in circulation and income?
Are you sitting down?
They are raising this price of each copy of the paper from 35 to 50 cents.
(Excerpt) Read more at worldnetdaily.com ...
I might fall off my seat from laughing, you know...
Chicago Sun Times - and all related properties is up for sale.
>They are raising this price of each copy of the paper from
>35 to 50 cents.
Wow. A pack of liberal/communist/democrats are about to get ... an economics lesson!
LOL!
Hilary and/or Obama will see that they get an outright cash grant for their years of invaluable service to the party.
I don’t see the Democrats throwing good money after bad.
Tennyson's work was Idylls of the King.
Morte d'Arthur is the French collection of tales of Arthur which antedates Tennyson by several centuries.
Geez, no wonder these clowns are on the Death Watch.
Well Idylls wasn’t published in 1842 either—1880’s I think; but that stuff doesn’t really seem relevant to Kinsolving’s point about the death or the papers.
The numbers will not drop below the number of bird owners.
Perhaps such a complaint is not **strictly** relevant to the point, but, dammit, if a writer is going to enhance his article with a literary reference, it is (or SHOULD bloody well be) incumbent upon the writer to get his facts in a row, now shouldn't it?
Wow. A pack of liberal/communist/democrats are about to get ... an economics lesson!"
They figger only their hard core sympathizers are left. They consider it a political contribution.
yitbos
“Stupid hippies”—Eric Cartman
Hmmm. I wonder what they might be doing wrong.
Les Kinsolving is a conservative (more than slighty wacko) radio talk show host out of Baltimore, Maryland. He got himself accredited as a journalist and went to the White House briefings, where he livened the proceedings.
While I was at the Chronicle, we had Monday morning meetings every week. These might have to of been the most depressing things I had ever been involved in. Allow me to paint a picture for you - You’re sitting amongst people who have not made their goal in months, but can’t be fired because of the union. Naturally, they have been here since the 80’s (most still dress as if it is the 80’s), and at this point are almost to the point of jumping off the building (which people have done at the Oakland Tribune). Problem is, the Chron is only 3 stories high. If they do jump, then they might actually live and it’s just not worth it. Of course, at this point, they’ve gotten rid of anyone who could make a difference or have any fresh ideas. Newspapers don’t seem to want to do anything to change their massive decline. You get introduced to the meeting with a big, “Good Morning!” For some reason, they expect you to give a boisterous return salutation and are disappointed to get a half-hearted, “Sup” in reply. These people don’t care. They’re salaries are so high, they don’t have to care. This the point when the Numbers Guy, who probably has a better title than that, proceeds to tell us that we’re down in every category across the board except internet. It was honestly both sad and comical at the same time. “National advertising is down 10%. Local advertising is down 18%. Classifieds are down 30%. Internet is up 130%.” I’m not sure how that happened, unless they forgot to count SFGate the past year, SFGate was that bad last year or they’re fudging the numbers. Now, upon hearing that do you think people wanted to go out and sell the shit out of some newspaper ads? Hell no, they wanted to figure out what this “internet” was and how they could get in on it. Keep in mind, most of them are still in the 80’s and typing the classified ads on a typewriter and sending them down a chute. This is the point when the VP of advertising gets up and begins to lay the failure of the company on the sales reps. It’s our fault that journalist are getting laid-off, you know. (Update… she quit. Go figure.)
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