Perhaps they should have done more of these videos years ago.
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“unthinkable a few months ago”
Not for people who GET the internet, dude.
“After peaking in 1984, at 63 million copies, the daily circulation of American papers fell steadily at a rate of about 1 percent a year…”
The “decline” started WELL before the influence of the internet. Best if newspapers figure out WHY that was if they want to save themselves…
#2:
Isn’t 1984 around the time the LA Times went after some guys running classified ads on a BBS? Anyone remember this?
used to be funny when youd hear about a paper going under but watching the story the heartbreak and the sadness the people who really care about their job and the real people behind the story it is sad an maybe one day it will be one of us that cares about our job going through this no matter what our job is
#4:
All I saw in this video is a bunch of people who (still) don’t get the internet, can’t adapt, and expect their business model to be propped up simply because they *feel* that it’s valuable.
These people were lashing out at bloggers and craigslist, but they should be angry at the owners for loosing money on what appears to be a duopoly.
If you’re so married to one job, and can’t imagine ever doing anything else, be prepared for bad times no matter what the economy is doing.
Another look at print media, tech mags no more.
http://technologizer.com/2009/02/27/computer-shopper-a-magazine-no-more/
Sorry, John. Not pimping for Harry, but a good perspective…
#3 – good point. We can still blame the Internet. This was inevitable and we’ll see more of these going down. I only read a newspaper when I travel and get the paper for free at a hotel. Otherwise I get my content digitally.
If having a printed newspaper is such a good ting why don’t they form co-op of some sort and continue to provide such noble important and …. printed revelations separated from evil big business.
Good riddance.
#5
The thing here is the Rocky got the Internet and did more online then most newspapers. So don’t judge just one one video.
The issues with most newspaper is you just can change a business model over night. I worked for a newspaper and we had one of our biggest years ever in ’06-’07 and it all fell apart in ’08. Show me a business that can develop a new business model and Implement in one year.
#9
Hope you are shown more compassion when you lose your job.
#10
I don’t work.
The video is an amazing insight into the future all across all fields. As John and Adam have been saying for the last 6 months, we are heading towards uncharted territories. All business models will be blown to pieces and as the Rocky proved even grasping new tech is not a lifesaver.
As an American living n Italy I am starting to see this in my own company (web agency), clients holding back on payments, advertising revenues dropping, etc.
Thanks John for showing such a heart warming reality of what people of all nations are going through…
God, their choice of repetitive music playing again and again and again shows these guys needed to be closed down, for the sake of the children who might be listening.
People still read newspapers?
Trying to feel sorry for these guys is like trying to feel sorry for a typewriter repairman.
I thought it was interesting that all the furniture in those offices looked new and they had expensive chairs. Where I work we are using cubicles that are probably 20 years out and chairs almost as old to save money. Everything here looked clean, new, and coordinated. Wonder how much unnecessary spending they were doing.
I’d like to see more papers spun back out as small, independent companies. There isn’t much money in them to be made so the big companies are bleeding them dry. There are a lot of local people that would be happy to own and run a newspaper with the thin margins.
Liberal bias media is getting theirs now… sorry folks, you can’t tick off so many people for so long and not have it bite you in the arse.
Sad that their business has failed. Also that they still don’t understand.
Blame Craigslist, yes – but bloggers? Bizarre.
For a mere $75 billion, Obama could pay for a newspaper subscription for every person in the country, to the newspaper of their choice.
Problem solved.
After all, isn’t the government the solution to all our problems?
The end of the News was the joint operating agreement they went into with the Post, after this took place they were no longer in any competition and their content was the same in both papers. They were only diffrent in name.
Franky most blogs provide no original content except the spouting of opinions which is always free and forthcoming….but due diligence to actually pen an original piece via talking to people and doing things; almost never.
At what point will people or advertisers begin to pay for what they now expect for free? This blog DU is a great finder of stories, but very limited on original content. DU even started asking for donations to not have one advertisement. It has an interesting economic model, just to republish others content and allow people to comment on it.
That is why news organizations are failing, they don’t get anything from this blog doing a reposted link, but this blog makes money off of advertisements. (Granted not a lot..but bear with me).
Prediction: Since the transmission of porn is what fuels the growth of ideas and concepts on the internet…once they figure out a system to stop people from getting porn for free, look at other content providers to do the same and news organizations will again rise once people begin to pay for the service of original content.
That’s just my opinion…I could be wrong.
Amazing. A paper like the Rocky closes, yet my own local daily birdcage liner keeps on printing two-day old news.
blackman who works at rocky:
“I’m not worried I’m gona marry a rich white man……….O’h and there’s no such thing as white, it’s more like papaya smoothie”
http://techdirt.com/articles/20090224/0103083878.shtml
Very sad. It looks like all those folks, workers and management just put their hands up and surrendered. Where were the leaders who should have said “Hell no we won’t go”?
I just can’t fathom how managers couldn’t
figure out a way to stay in business providing
a needed and popular product. Perhaps giving
away product free on the internet is one cause.
The Chronicle in San Francisco will be going the same way unless they can sell their product
for a profit/operating funds to keep going…..
#10:
“The issues with most newspaper is you just can change a business model over night.”
Well, this is a problem.
If a factory can retool and stay competitive, a friggin’ newspaper should be able to do likewise.
I felt a little guilty cause of my lack of compassion… I’m apparently not alone. That guy who wanted to grow old in the same job–Err, creepy!
I love the amount of snooty tech elitism in this thread by people who lack the intelligence to differentiate journalism from news. Newspapers are important and necessary because they provide stories in a manner which is wholly different than what is provided on blogs and news websites.
Blogs like Politico and TPM have broken many stories over the past few years, but it is still newspapers like the Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times who break stories which are larger and more complicated than what can be fit into 400 words. Stories which require months of research and digging and tell a bigger narrative, not “guess what just happened.”
Who is going to fill that void when people won’t pay attention to anything that can’t be easily digested? But hey, enjoy basking in your holier-than-thou pseudo-intellectualism, you’ve earned it by purchasing shiny items from Apple.
BTW, the journalists over at BoingBoing copy-pasted the most amazing link on how to knit a Star Wars beanie that looks like R2-D2. It’s fucking groundbreaking.
I don’t get the argument of ‘hard to change’ business model aren’t all business models supposed to be give the customer value? Craigslist gives value. My current hometown paper gives me a page full of ads worst that a AAA baseball scoreboard. No obvious classified’s link to even try to compete with Craigslist… I have to page down 3 times to get to something that looks like a paper! abqjournal.com — these guys don’t get it.
#27, your first two paragraphs get it. The last two fall of the tracks a little. Print Journalism ( not rumor mongering as many bloggers do) has an important part in our society.Yeah , the world is changing, but take a break and enjoy a well done newspaper.
#27: “BTW, the journalists over at BoingBoing copy-pasted the most amazing link on how to knit a Star Wars beanie that looks like R2-D2. It’s fucking groundbreaking.”
What, no link?