Postmortem for a Dead Newspaper

Techdirt points out a great postmortem for the Rocky Mountain News, a newspaper that ended up shutting down because they couldn't adapt to a world beyond print. While long, the talk (in both video and print) is incredibly candid coming from someone who lived through it and shares at least some portion of the blame. "It seems like pretty much everything was based on looking backwards, not forward. There was little effort to figure out how to better enable a community, or any recognition that the community of people who read the paper were the organizations true main asset. ... The same game is playing out not just in newspapers, but in a number of other businesses as well. Like the Rocky Mountain News, those businesses are looking backwards and defining themselves on the wrong terms, while newer startups don't have such legacy issues to deal with."

Comments

Re:BS

[Archangel Michael]

The self righteous sanctimony and distain you have of what is CLEARLY more people than ABC/NBC/CBS and probably CNN combined is interesting. I'd love to compare the literacy of say those that watch what is on those channels to that of what is on Fox News.

The problem with people such as yourself, you can't imagine anyone having an opinion that is different than you, and when you even try, you end up saying that they are ignorant(and racist, and sexist ....)

Take for example the recent march on Washington, who covered it with any depth? If you watched the "main stream" (Urine Stream) news, you may have got a tidbit here or there, with one of the more radical signs of Obama as Hitler or whatever, and if that was the sole source of your "news", you would come away thinking that it was just "20,000" (or a "few") "right wing" cranks.

The problem is, the left does WAY more to marginalize news they don't want reported than say "Fox" does. It isn't just reporting something, it is HOW it is reported. Yeah, it is easy to say "Don't watch Glenn Beck" and then say "He's a racist"(having never watched or heard him) than it is to watch his whole show and take the quotes in context.

And now we have a president that has DUBIOUS connections and continues to surround himself with all sorts of "radical" people who are far outside even Democrat mainstream, and now when people finally realize how RADICAL he is, something only FOX actually reported, people are leaving those other news shows in droves.

And all you can do is insult the "people" thinking your views are superior. Guess what, you're nothing more than an elitist snob, just like the rest of the LEFT.

I don't need a government to rule over me. Sorry, you can take your views and shove it. I'm a libertarian, and a Libertarian, and government is NOT the solution to any problem I know. It is a necessary evil, and does more harm than good.

I'm reminded of the quote by George Washington ...

Government is not reason; it is not eloquent; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master.

Yeah, I'm one of the "right wing bigots" who think all men are equal. I don't presume to know what is best for someone other than me and my family, and I resent anyone who thinks otherwise!

So, take your elitist crap and shove it. I get plenty of news from a variety of sources, and I don't listen to just PBS, and I happen to like Fox News. I also like PBS, BBC, and Bloomberg.

Your whole premise is that people watch Fox News because it fits their views is so elitist and ignorant, and I'll prove it. Do you watch Fox news, and why not?

The funny thing is, you probably don't watch Fox News, because it doesn't fit your views. The very thing you are accusing others of.

Pot, meet Kettle.

Re:BS

[TomTuttle]

"In fact, the actual data shows that newspapers almost always turn out to be very well matched in political slant to their readers. (As should be obvious, since if they weren't, they'd lose readers even faster than they now do.)" Hmmmm. And yet most large news papers are failing. Would this perhaps be some indication that *maybe* a certain type of political slant is not being represented well? I believe it was the philosopher-king Ernie Anastos that said "Keep f***ing that chicken".

Re:BS

[zulux]

>>Conversely, most informed audience: The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Oops.

I'm a Daily Show viewer here.... and I don't read too much into "being informed."

Sure - knowing the triviality of short-term world events is great and all.

But raising a family, working hard, being kind, helping your friends and neighbors, looking around for love and perhaps spirituality are worth so much more in the long term.

I have more respect for a man who can drop a transmission than one who knows the top three reasons why Chavez is an awesome leader.