Quote:Don't Bail Out Newspapers--Let Them Die and Get Out of the Way

So why on earth are people talking about a bailout for newspapers? Why is President Obama saying he'd consider it? Why is Congress holding hearings and considering "The Newspaper Revitalization Act" in a bid to save these ailing old rags with tax breaks and other handouts? It's like introducing legislation to save horse-drawn carriages, or steam engines, or black-and-white TV. It's stupid. It's pointless. It won't work.

The fact is, all this hysteria has nothing to do with saving the news, or saving jobs. Nor is it about saving democracy, which is what the red-in-the-face newspaper lovers always get themselves huffed about, as if newspapers and democracy were inextricably linked. Democracy existed long before newspapers did, and it will survive without them. And plenty of countries that don't have democracy do have newspapers. Nor would a bailout help readers. In fact, it would only slow down our shift to the Internet, which is a far better medium for delivering information.

The only beneficiaries of a bailout would be a handful of big newspaper companies that used to be profitable and powerful and now, well, aren't. Those companies saw the Internet charging toward them like a freight train, and they just stood there on the tracks. They didn't adapt. Why? Because for decades these companies enjoyed virtual monopolies, and as often happens to monopolists, they got lazy. They invested their resources in protecting their monopolies, using bully tactics to keep new competitors from entering their markets. They dished up an inferior product and failed to believe that anything or anyone could ever take their little gold mines away from them.

It's hilarious to hear these folks puff themselves up with talk about being the Fourth Estate, performing some valuable public service for readers

(10-01-2009 09:41 AM)Lord Stanley Wrote:  Consumers should force the print media to concentrate and really report on local issues, and make all national and global news electronic only. I'm talking real reporting from City Council meeting, neighborhood groups, library board meetings etc, with a smattering of feel good stories about puppies and kittens.

I'd certainly buy a paper copy Stribune that had the above business model. I get my national and global news from the internet, but I still can't get good local reporting.

(10-01-2009 09:56 AM)DrTorch Wrote:  It's not necessarily glamorous,

(10-01-2009 09:41 AM)Lord Stanley Wrote:  Consumers should force the print media to concentrate and really report on local issues, and make all national and global news electronic only. I'm talking real reporting from City Council meeting, neighborhood groups, library board meetings etc, with a smattering of feel good stories about puppies and kittens.

I'd certainly buy a paper copy Stribune that had the above business model. I get my national and global news from the internet, but I still can't get good local reporting.

(10-01-2009 11:00 AM)I45owl Wrote:  

(10-01-2009 09:41 AM)Lord Stanley Wrote:  Consumers should force the print media to concentrate and really report on local issues, and make all national and global news electronic only. I'm talking real reporting from City Council meeting, neighborhood groups, library board meetings etc, with a smattering of feel good stories about puppies and kittens.

I'd certainly buy a paper copy Stribune that had the above business model. I get my national and global news from the internet, but I still can't get good local reporting.

Very few papers would survive with that business model, and you may never again see reporting on local city council meetings, etc, outside of TV News coverage of the big cities in the local market.