As someone who did a certain amount of work in this area in the not too distant past, the really scary thing is that for a very large part, news is no longer money maker.
In TV, CNN and Fox News are both profitable, but it's not clear the extent to which CNN domestic supports or is supported by CNN International. Further afield, you have state broadcasters like the BBC (although BBC World News does have to pay its way - hence advertising), and that's about it. Services like Al Jazeera or Sky News, are basically there for other aims. Sky News almost certainly loses money, but it provides a useful outlet for Rupert Murdoch beyond the US. Fox News isn't really an international brand (it's available outside US shores, but it's content is almost 100% domestic). Then look at newspapers. The Guardian still loses money - the online ad-funding model isn't enough, with only Google and Facebook winning. The NY Times may be doing better with a strong subscription base, but advertising rates for papers are falling through the floor. Papers all around Europe and US are struggling. It's particularly bad at a local level. I started by career in a local newspaper, and despite being a paid-for title, up to 80% of revenues came from advertising. The key categories were jobs, property and cars. All of those have gone near enough completely online. Reporting staff are cutback; dailies become weeklies; weeklies shut down. In the UK there's a real problem of news going unreported. Nobody shows up at every court session or every council meeting. Corruption isn't uncovered. Some places might have good local online news gathering services - but they tend to be driven by individuals. It's a real concern for democracy - actually having a press to hold our leaders to account. If the Washington Post has found a business model that works for them, then I'm all in favour. I bought a cheap Amazon tablet last year, and that gave me six months' free subscription. When that ended, I was allowed another six months for just £1. Those are limited time deals, but, yes, if the price is low enough, I'll carry on my subscription. (I used to have an online only NYT subscription, but the need to *phone them up* to cancel it really annoyed me. I'm not ready to go back yet). If Bezos can keep the WaPo above the lowest-common-denominator crap that is the Daily Mail and especially its online cousin, then I wish him well in making the project work. The natively digital style of their site is good, and the journalism level still seems to be high. They're not slavishly copying the look and feel of the paper (NYT - I'm looking at you), and it doesn't feel as though entertainment is driving out everything else. They're not grubbing around creating pages called "What time is the Super Bowl on?" as the Huffington Post and others do. And there are no paid-for "recommended" reads at the foot of their articles - surely the most obnoxious thing anyone can put on their site. Good luck to him! Adam On Fri, Dec 30, 2016 at 2:56 PM, Bob Jersey <bob.in.jer...@juno.com> wrote: > > Kevin M., to Steve Timko: >> >> One of the best things that could possible happen to print journalism is >> if USA Today went out of business. >> >> When I go do my food shopping today, I'll pick up a copy... things I know > used to be in its Friday edition, especially around New Year's, early in > its history may or may not still be there... it was a fallback in case I > lost my internet, which for unexplained reasons I actually still haven't... > > B > > -- > -- > TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People! > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google > Groups "TV or Not TV" group. > To post to this group, send email to tvornottv@googlegroups.com > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > tvornottv-unsubscr...@googlegroups.com > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en > --- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "TVorNotTV" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to tvornottv+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > -- -- TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TV or Not TV" group. To post to this group, send email to tvornottv@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to tvornottv-unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TVorNotTV" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to tvornottv+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
