July 29, 2008
Re: ProJo Watch
The news of buyouts at the Projo reminds me of this item, from Glenn Reynolds, on a major reason why he believes newspapers have fallen on hard times…
I've said for years that hard-news reporting is the killer app for Big Media, but they just don't want to do it. They want to tell people what to think, instead of telling them what's happening.In most industries, when you're losing business, you assume that people don't like the quality of your product (or at least don't like the quality compared to what they have to pay for it) and adjust accordingly. So I don't understand how cutting reporting staff, making news reporting even more sparse, is going to lead to a turnaround in the long-term health of the Projo.
At least on the surface, the attitude on the business side reminds me of one those old Dilbert cartoons, where the pointy-haired boss wonders if he can cut costs enough to to make a profit without selling any products.
Another Instapundit item has more detailed thoughts on the general decline of newspapers, here.
You are correct, sir. When competitive pressure came along to improve the product, the newspaper business chose instead to lower the quality of its product. I'm no MBA, but that's no way to run a business.
For a long time, newspapers racked up profit margins (20-30 percent or more) that most American industries would kill for. The cuts were made initially to maintain those ultra-high profit margins. When the quality of newspapers went down, customers and advebrtisers voted with their feet, so the newspaper moguls responded with more cuts.
They can cry about the Internet and the recession all they want, but the moguls inflicted much of the damage upon themselves.