Senile fudge and solemn:
Spare, editor, to condemn
These dry leaves of his autumn.
Robertson Davies (1913–1995), Canadian novelist, journalist
I canceled my subscription to the Los Angeles Times and I miss my newspaper, but I also miss my baseball team (the Dodgers), but that is a story for another post. The times (and the newspaper) continue to change and not for the better.
The LATimes fired 85 reporters because revenue was down. My little protest of this fact was canceling my subscription that I had since high school. Yes, I realize this creates a catch-22. Well, I’m sure it didn’t help that the tax judge ruled against the newspaper's parent company the Tribune Co. to the tune of $1 billion, which is why it is eliminating sections, firing columnists, and cartoonists. It is a perfect example of why conglomerate media ownership is a bad idea.
Tribune Co.'s (owner of the L.A. Times) appeal of a U.S. Tax Court setback that could cost it around $1 billion in federal taxes and penalties for a 1998 divestiture. Tax pros generally don't believe that the media giant can erase that huge bill in appealing the decision to the Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, but they are keeping track for possible clues on how far businesses can go in engineering deal structures to sidestep taxes on often-huge sell-off profits. (Mergers and Acquisitions Journal, December 1, 2005)
I still have my Sunday subscription to both the LATimes and the New York Times, but if I had my choice I would take the Washington Post, but they don’t have a national edition.
Newspapers have been a dying industry for some time. I was talking to a friend who is going through the USC MBA program, he has only the foggiest notion what is transpiring in the world, the nation or in his backyard, but he’ll be able to make a fortune soon. Current events or being connected means nothing in our capitalistic society. The only thing that matters is how you can get others to buy your goods.
My prediction for newspapers is that they will eventually disintegrate similar to Marty McFly’s picture of his parents in the movie “Back to the Future,” to a Sunday only production. There will be internet versions of the newspapers, but the tradition of reading the newspaper with breakfast will disappear, just like time for breakfast.
2 comments:
Whe I used to read a daily paper it was The New York Times -- my family just takes the Sunday LA Times, just like the Misanthrope. And that's just for Calendar, comics, and coupons (the three Cs of publishing).
I grew up with the NY Times as my "local" paper. Now, I read it online, if at all. For a while I didn't even get the Sunday edition, though I have reinstated it.
As far as who as "the foggiest notion of what is transpiring in the world," I would say that reporters are included in that description.
And I know -- because I know way too many people who work at the Times, and I know that every time a reporter covers something I know a lot aboout, s/he is lucky to spell anything right.
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