Monday, April 25, 2011

Newspapers deserve their doomed fate

I swear, the publishers and editors running today's newspapers are the biggest punch of morons short of Congress that I've seen in a long while.

And ironically, or maybe not. . . the majority of newspapers are liberal rags that shill on the editorial pages for whatever communist and socialist du jour they have a flavor for.

So is it any wonder that readership is down and subscriptions are plummeting?

Better yet, now the "thing" is for newspaper to try and hustle a paid subscription out of readers who wish to view their drivel on the internet.

A good example (of a bad newspaper) immediately comes to mind: The Dallas Morning News

The paper was barely tolerable a decade ago, but ever since getting this pinko feminist editor from somewhere in Arizona (who I'm sure is thrilled she's gone), The News has sunk faster than Al Gore's credibility with massage therapists.

Advertisers are demanding lower rates to match the declining readership. The paper has resorted to setting up shop in local Walgreens, Tom Thumb (grocery stores) and other small general retail locations and GIVING copies of the paper away in a last-gasp attempt to lure readers in. Of course, once they give you the paper, they then pitch you for a subscription.

I haven't cared to read a newspaper from front to back in years--not even when I find myself trapped on rare occasion in an airport with the inevitable flight delay. So internet versions of most papers work for me. I can scan the headlines, choose which (few) stories I care about, click and then read.

And now The Dallas Morning News braintrust wants me to pony up a subscription fee in order to do THAT. I asked them if I paid for a subscription, would I not have any internet ads to mess with.

They politely told me that no, that was how they made their money.

I responded by telling the sales guy he might want to update his resumé because DMN was about to go bust.

Don't know anyone who subscribes--paper version or internet version--to the Dallas paper. But I also make it a habit not to hang around idiots, either.

Not wanting to be left behind, my college hometown newspaper, The Lubbock Avalanche Journal announced that THEY were going to start charging online subscription fees.

Good luck with that.

Most folks who read online newspapers often enjoy checking out stories from locales where they don't live. We no longer endure winters in Kansas City, but I find myself occasionally checking with the Kansas City Star, THE worst excuse for a newspaper I've seen anywhere in the world. No word from the Star whether or not they're going to start trying to charge me for my occasional checking in. They can try and I'll just laugh.

The problem that these idiot newspaper people don't seem to get is that their product sucks these days. It just flat sucks. Even the online versions--in fact, I think they often suck even more. Typos, bad grammar, poor to no (AP) style, etc.

And they want us to pay for that?

We're already paying Congress and the Kenyan imposter for doing a lousy job. I'll be damned if I'm going to pay online newspapers for doing the same.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I agree with all of it Tex, every last word. Bugger the lot of those smarmy meat holes.

But:

One legitimate (in my opinion) problem posed by the pending (and justly earned) extinction of the press and the mainstream media is this: where will we get our news from once old world media business becomes obsolete?

Anonymous said...

I like how they used to have the papers 100 years ago where there would be 35 stories on the front page, and little political correctness. Today you get 3 or 4 stories on the front page, all bland stuff, just parroting AP mostly. If they lose money it's because they are uninteresting. Too much human interest stuff such as local kids eating popsicles to beat the summer heat. Pretty far from real news.

An Ordinary American said...

I'll go you one ever further--I remember when newspapers used to print more GOOD news than they did bad news, let alone all the world crap that's going on.

Small town newspapers still do that, and for the most part, the papers still remains somewhat healthy financially.

Nobody's getting rich off the Fishbite Falls Gazette, but then again, the Gazette is staying in business because the locals who read it enjoy it and the paper gives them a sense of community.

--AOA

JohnW said...

Uh, would that editor be Kevin Wiley? Yea, you're right - good riddance.