wicked said:
Scoop returns said:
I hate saying this, but you are true idiot.
I hate saying this, but you didn't proofread your post, Dude! There's an article missing.
HTH.
Scoop returns said:
I bet you when the Plain Dealer sales its ads it takes advantage of the African-American demographic, as well as others. White males over 50 aren't who the advertisers are trying to reach. Remember that!
Also, don't know if you are journalist or not, but the charge of any good newspaper is to be reflective the community it covers. The Plain Dealer once again comes up way short, Dude!
Sells, not sales, btw.
HTH^2.
Think it should be "reflective
of the community" too. Thanks for the help, wicked.
Actually, though, what does that mean? We need to match demographic percentages within newsrooms with the community? Are you sure that "the community" then will embrace the paper proportionally?
Advertisers can covet certain groups all they want -- 18-to-25 year olds, blacks, senior citizen Republicans -- but that doesn't mean members of those groups are going to adapt their lifestyles to buying and reading a newspaper if they already aren't doing so. Having a representative newsroom, with the "youth" voice, the "black" voice, the "aging" voice and so on, doesn't assure the paper of drawing in those groups. (Frankly, it also smacks of tokenism, as if a few young reporters somehow can speak to all youths or having a few black reporters covers the paper for somehow speaking to all blacks, simply by virtue of membership in that group. I'd rather take my chances with smart journalists of any age, race, gender, etc., striving hard to practice the craft in the right way.)
Young people may never embrace the paper. They're the group most adept at surfing the Internet, and they've been getting their news for free. Good luck selling subscriptions to them, at least before they age out of the advertisers' most desired target group. By the time the 18-to-25 year olds purchase homes, care about school districts, vote in local elections and become more likely (maybe) to want a general-interest newspaper on their doorsteps, they'll be 30-to-40 years olds. Doh!
Meanwhile, the newspaper very much risks alienating and losing the customers who have paid the bills for years or decades, if they feel that this very familiar product, coming into their homes, suddenly has changed, dismissing and abandoning them. Yet you KNEW they were customers, while you are only guessing about the groups you're chasing. Not smart business.
Yeah, they're "dying" anyway but maybe not as fast as they're dropping their subscriptions.
Terry Pluto is darn good at what he does. I suspect lots of sports fans across the demographic spectrum enjoy reading him. But he shouldn't have been hired because he's too old, too white, too male? That sure seems bigoted.
I realize I've gone on a bit here to respectfully address your rather disrespectful post, Scoop returns. Because something tells me you didn't really "hate saying this."
