Next up: Chicago Tribune

Somebody should file suit against the suits.

 

Back in the day newspapers controlled pricing. There was a limited about of ad space and newspapers could charge a lot for ads. On the internet ad space is infinite. Infinite supply sharply depresses pricing of advertisements. That is why the number of financially successful on-line only publications close to zero.

I say that having already signed up for the Denver Gazette. If it is half-way decent I will dump my Denver Post subscription that I get through Kindle.

Good luck tot he Gazette and Arkansas Online for that matter.

 

I really hope something like the Denver Gazette can succeed. Good luck, MileHigh, to you and your comrades.

Everything people have posted here about the demise of print is on the money, but that trend has been true for at least 25 years, and we still don't have a viable alternative to deliver local news.

 

is that the only online content? I mean our paper makes any e-edition available (also Gannett but the e-ed was there before) but it's in addition to a more regular website. I'm not opposed to the e-edition being up there, I'm not sure how many people are interested in it.

 

E-editions are far less costly to produce than actual print products. And they don't have to be delivered. It's a good compromise for newspapers to save money but still offer a product to the elderly.

 

Hedge fund Alden looks to buy Tribune Publishing and go private in deal valuing newspaper chain at $520 million

 

You and I disagree on a couple things. I'm saying the print product is dead because the news in there is old and all the great reads are gone because all the excellent columnists and beat writers are long laid off or bought out. The product is way too expensive for the trash in there. I'm saying if the physical product was what it was 15 years ago (blanket coverage of all sports) the business would still be thriving. Also it's an insulting relationship with the consumer. Newspapers cannot deliver the product reliably and frankly don't care to. Delivery is disgraceful.
b.) As far as The Athletic is there really a model for long, long, long pieces? I thought nobody wanted to read lengthy stories. That was another take of the suits. Write short stories with clickbait headlines.

 

The print product is dead because Craigslist gutted all of the classified advertising and many businesses don’t want to buy print ads anymore because they’d rather spend ad dollars reaching a younger demographic. Even if the print product was at the same level it was at 30 years ago - which it couldn’t be because there’s not enough revenue coming in to pay all those salaries - the revenue from print would still be declining by double-digit percentages quarter over quarter.

And if you subscribe to The Athletic, you know it’s not just good long form stories. It’s that, plus a lot of quick-hit analysis that appeal to the online reader. But there’s no waste-of-time game stories or fluffy features just to “fill space.”

 

How many of the elderly are sitting down in front of an iPad, a laptop, even a desktop to read it? My mom has a hard enough time reading one book on her Kindle Fire.

 

Phase it out because it's 2021. News organizations need to shift their focus away from print-reading boomers to the very online millennials and gen z readers.