Bad News Buffet
Suddenly, reporting on the demise of the newspaper industry is all the rage, especially among newspapers. Here are today's scribblings about the ominous handwriting on the wall (presented without comment):
Black and White and Read by Fewer, L.A. Times: " 'They say Knight-Ridder doesn't have a plan. Actually they do. ... They are going to jettison the old, shoot the young and … torture the survivors, which, come to think of it, seems to be an industrywide plan.' "
At Newspapers, Some Clipping, New York Times: " 'The basic newspaper, when you take out the Internet and all the other targeted publications that people are starting, is just not growing,' said P. Anthony Ridder, chairman and chief executive of Knight Ridder, which owns The Inquirer. 'Newsprint costs are up significantly. Wages and health benefits are up. So you have the cost pressure on the one hand and the lack of revenue growth on the other. That's really the problem, and everyone is having essentially the same problem.' "
Forget Blogs, Print Needs Its Own IPod, N.Y. Times: "The newspaper business is in a horrible state. ... In an attempt to leave the forest of dead trees and reach the high plains of digital media, every paper in the country is struggling mightily to digitize its content with Web sites, blogs, video and podcasts. And they are half right. Putting print on the grid is a necessity, because the grid is where America lives. But what the newspaper industry really needs is an iPod moment.
Tags: Journalism, Newspapers, Media
Posted by Tim Porter at October 10, 2005 08:03 AM