'Are Newspapers Dying?' Thread

[The Baron]

Circulation Is Still Declining

[Emerkeith Davyjack]

...My trip up to San Francisco has allowed me to see a newspaper in this Bay Area News Group around here ( Come on --- I've explained them here before , haven't I ??????? ) I wasn't aware of - the TRI-VALLEY TIMES claims , upon its front page , that it incorporates Tri-Valley Herald , The Valley Times , and San Jonquin Herald , but it , in SF , fills the space that the BANG's Contra Costa Times used to in vending machines .

  This day , the TVT , and the Oakland and (main one) San Jose papers all owned by BAN/Knight-Ridder and sold up here had absolutely identical news selections on their machine-visible upper halves !

  Buying the TVT , its comics selection and layout does differ slightly from " my " San Jose one...

[Mark S. Ogilvie]

I'm taking an introduction to criminal justice course and the professor wants us to read the news. The high profile murder cases and such. I'm not sure how to tell her that high profile murder cases and their coverage is one of the reasons I stopped reading the news papers years ago.

[Emerkeith Davyjack]

...Taking the wrong course , then , Mark ??????????? Hehehe :-)

Mark S. Ogilvie said:

I'm taking an introduction to criminal justice course and the professor wants us to read the news. The high profile murder cases and such. I'm not sure how to tell her that high profile murder cases and their coverage is one of the reasons I stopped reading the news papers years ago.

[Mark S. Ogilvie]

It's the one I need to get an AE in digital forensics, after the heart attack I've got to find a new career. But when I think of high profile murder cases I think of sensationalism. Many people die each day and attention isn't paid to them, yet when someone important (important here being a standard of curiosity that is above the ordinary) the press goes all out. I think I started to loose faith when they split the screen between the OJ verdict and the state of the union address. One was definitely something I needed to know and the other was not.

[Emerkeith Davyjack]

...What was the heart attack ? I'm glad you're better , of course...Where do you live ?

  Where did you live at the time you gave up papers and where did you live at the time of the O.J. verdict ?????????

[Mark S. Ogilvie]

The heart attack was last year, November. I lived in Boston at the time and I didn't give them up right away. But I'd been reading the Globe and the Herald since I was old enough to read and as the old columnist retired and new ones came on I began to realize that each paper had a particular ideological slant and while that had always been true on the editorial page it had leaked through to the stories. What kind of coverage a political candidate or event got depended on what side of the political isle they were on. That also seemed to decide if the story got page one, page five or was covered at all. I stopped reading the columnist because I could predict what they'd say on any issue based on what their political ideal was. I just didn't consider them reliable anymore and then tv news went the same way and I pretty much gave up on all of them. I still try to pay attention and because of the class I'll have to pay more attention than before, but I don't really trust the media anymore. Especially after partially reading "This town".  And today with so many sources I have no way of knowing who is telling me the truth.  I can read something in the Wall Street Journal and find almost the exact opposite of at the Huffington Post or any other sight like that.  Who know's which is telling the truth?

[Emerkeith Davyjack]

...Is the Commercial Appeal one of the newspapers which runs a " MOVIE GUIDE " - ?

A type-only listing of the theaters about town , and the movies playing at them , I guess?? a cheaper-than-a-spot-ad paid listing...? Perhaps both smaller cities/areas , and REALLY mega-areas' newspapers , tend not to run them.........

[Mark S. Ogilvie]

Sports pages are still a good draw. I know my father keeps up with when the Red Sox are playing through the Boston Herald.

[Travis Herrick (Modular Mod)]

The only thing I have used a newspaper for the past 10 years is for coupons on Sunday. Heck the free weekly paper (Dallas Observer) here has had the longer, more compelling stories for years. Which you can either pick up or read online.

Anything else the Morning News can provide I can find online for free.

[ClarkKent_DC]

It doesn't help that USA TODAY plans to double its newsstand price at the end of the month ... 

[The Baron]

Mark S. Ogilvie said:

Sports pages are still a good draw. I know my father keeps up with when the Red Sox are playing through the Boston Herald.

 

 

A Herald man, eh? He doesn't read the Boring Broadsheet?

[ClarkKent_DC]

Frightening news for the industry, from The Huffington Post: "Newspapers on Track to Lose $1 Billion in Ad Sales This Year: Poyn...