“We need more budget cuts. Call it 10-15 percent. And a couple of bibs.”
When Lean Dean says you’ve gone too far, you’ve gone too far.
Dean Singleton, who once mused about consolidating, outsourcing and perhaps off-shoring the various MediaNews copy desks, says the owners of The Denver Post have “cut the heart out” of the once-mighty newspaper.
Undeterred by bad press, senior staff departures, and even the resignation of Lean Dean, the hyenas at Alden Global Capital continue gnawing away, taking comfort in the knowledge that there are plenty of toothsome tidbits left on the stinking carcass.
I know, I know — it’s a new world, information wants to be free, adapt or die, etc., et al., and so on and so forth. Doesn’t mean it’s pretty to watch.
Tags: The Denver Post
May 7, 2018 at 2:10 pm |
Really sad. But I’m the only person I know that still has home delivery to a big city daily. And I subscribe to NYT. However, nearly everyone still gets the local town twice-weekly paper and it’s a good source of information. But even it struggles because despite still having a pretty good paid subscriber base, it’s lost much of its classified and ROP advertising. I wonder if the future of news will be non-profit foundations. And that’s kind of a worry if they have some sort of an agenda and not unbiased. Plus, no way they can cover all of the geography. People have to 1) Want to know the facts and the story behind the story and 2) Understand they will need to contribute financially for that information to be known.
May 7, 2018 at 3:05 pm |
Newspapers have been their own worst enemy since before they screwed up and let me in.
Most people have no idea of the degree to which they depend upon newspapers, even ones they don’t support financially.
“I can get everything I need to know from Charlie Pierce.” Well, yeah, you can get Charlie’s spin, additions, and deep insights based on knowledge accumulated over years of experience. But Charlie needs The Observer, WaPo, and Mother Times for intel to formulate his opinions. Plus he actually has to go places and do his own reportáge, which reminds me, I need to subscribe to Esquire.
When I was a young scribe the TV “news” types would simply liberate our stories and read them on air, sometimes verbatim. For this reason and many others, I used to argue against printing a TV guide, saying that it was like handing your assassin the knife he’d use to kill you.
Now we have the Innertubes, God help us all. The first newspaper to give away its only product for free online drove the first nail in what eventually will be their coffin.
I’m just venting here. I don’t know what the solution is, or even if there is one. The Linotype operators in the composing room never saw the end coming, but you’d think the newsroom would have.
Meanwhile, here’s an interesting read: The “golden age” of newspapers was the exception, not the rule.
And here’s another: The biggest brains and bank accounts in the battle for local journalism.
I don’t subscribe to the local daily because it’s so feeble. Incredibly, they throw us a free Sunday paper every week. I can only assume it’s a strategy to keep circulation numbers up. I do, however, subscribe to The New York Times and The Washington Post. And we support two NPR affiliates, KRCC-FM in Bibleburg and KUNM-FM here in the Duke City.
May 7, 2018 at 3:13 pm |
I worry sometimes about the solvency of the local fish-wrappers, Abq Journal and Fanta Se New Mexican. We get both (and the e-NY Times) in part because I want to toss in my dead presidents to keep them afloat, as in put my money where my reading glasses are. Plus, this way when I sent an e-snark to Inez Russell Gomez or D’Val Westphal, they know its from a paying customer. The only news I get over the Innertubes is the electronic version of reputable papers.
May 7, 2018 at 3:35 pm |
The Urinal and New Mex are both locally owned, which helps. No Noo Yawk vampires draining their lifeblood from a distance.
I only know one person at the Urinal and a couple at the New Mex, so I don’t have a solid idea of their health. I’d be more worried about the Urinal, given the dire state of the Duke City. I should subscribe for a month just to get a feel for the quality of the print edition. The website is woeful.
May 7, 2018 at 4:05 pm |
The only person I knew very well at the Journal was John Fleck, who bailed for the academy. They miss him in the science journalism dept.
I just offered to write some screed, cheap or for beer funds, for the New Mex once I retire. Let’s see if they are that gullible….
May 7, 2018 at 3:50 pm |
Opinion is cheaper that journalism. That’s what Ailes used to say. You get what you pay for. That applies to almost anything, except this blog of course, which is priceless..
May 8, 2018 at 12:33 pm |
Quite a few years ago and a couple of jobs past; I traveled a helluva lot – sometimes into small cities and towns that I hardly knew. I would always buy a local paper or two (if there were two) and read them to get some sense of where I was and what people thought and talked about. I always relied on the letters to the editor and the classified ads for the real feel of the place.