Newspaper publishers cancel their annual convention

[EV_Ares]

The American Society of Newspapers Editors has canceled its annual convention for the first time since 1945 mainly because newspapers don't have enough money to buy the requisite packets of Splenda for the welcome breakfast, let alone book a hotel and buy plane tickets.

The event had been scheduled for April 26-29 at the Fairmont hotel in Chicago, and the cancellation will likely result in some fees.

Link: http://www.bloggingstocks.com/

[SoCalDem]

1. Maybe some kind soul will throw them a wake instead

:(

[marshall]

6. They need to face facts

They are going the way of the town crier and the telegraph.

[Demeter]

2. Our Local Fishwrap is Down to 16 Pages

I'm ashamed to deliver it. You can't even throw a paper that small, especially in a high wind (which seems to be the only kind of weather we are getting around here). Even as a paper airplane it wouldn't hit the porch!

I'm thinking of including a complimentary rock so the damn thing doesn't blow off the porch before the customer retrieves it...if only my aim were good enough so I didn't take out a window.

And there's no advertising, natch. They took the news out years ago. Now it's all fluff.

[MorningGlow]

3. Alas, they did it to themselves

I've watched my local newspaper careen steadily down the ramp of the shitter for years. They've replaced actual reporters and decent stories (and photogs) with crap--wire feeds, fluff stories, stock photos. I don't know what they were charging advertisers, but if was anything like what they were charging average folks for ads and announcements, it's no wonder the lost their advertising base.

All the corner-cutting has denigrated not only the quality of reporting, but also has made for some Very Special Gaffes And Misspellings, including my recent favorite in the real estate section: price on a lakeside house? "Expensive." Way to call 'em like ya see 'em! (I think if it was noted as "expensive" they were supposed to understand that no price would be printed under the photo and to take the damned word out!)

But my favorite desperation move was the "Best Of..." awards, with half the categories skewed toward their advertisers. Like... "Best Vinyl Awning Company" and "Best Sausage Restaurant".

:rofl:

Out-of-touch losers. They Just. Didn't. Get. It. They can try to blame the intertubes all they want, but they're trying to jump on that bandwagon and missing just as soundly. I hear the thuds daily.

[roseBudd]

4. I guess you will take up the slack & start covering city hall yourself?

[MorningGlow]

5. ...What? I have no idea what you mean.

But I will say that I'm a writer and editor by trade, and I never was interested in venturing into the cesspool that is our local paper. Infighting, egos, power trips, and the like, which I saw up close and heard more of second hand, made it quite unappealing, even a couple of decades ago when I was trying to figure out what to do with my English degree.

[roseBudd]

7. My point is that if we celebrate the demise of newspapers, whose model was advertising not

subscriptions, and whose online revenue has not been enough to offset the declining revenue of the core product, what are we celebrating?

If just one medium sized paper sends reporters to the BoE of 7 counties on election night to cover the elections until whatever time it takes for all precincts to have reported, how exactly are unpaid bloggers going to cover government and still make it to their day job the next morning.

I am saying your lack of appreciation for the legwork that goes into covering that which would attempt to remain uncovered seems too critical. I find it hard to believe your town has never benefited because of something that did not go unreported by your local paper.

[MorningGlow]

8. Well, would it make you feel better if you knew

that I still subscribe to the paper? My husband has nagged me for more than a year to cancel our subscription, but I refuse. Why? Because I feel sorry for my fellow journalists in this town and don't want to see them out of a job. I'm not criticizing the reporters--they have to play the hand they're dealt. I'm blaming the publishers who can't figure out how to modernize their business model.

[roseBudd]

9. The only way to modernize is to charge, but the netizens refuse to pay :(

for online.