It's The Quality, Stupid!

by: huntsu

Mon Jun 09, 2008 at 05:51:54 PM EDT

A couple news items crossed my desk today, and in my never-ending quest to snark, I could not resist.

Gannett Co. Inc will take pretax write-downs of as much as $3 billion in the second quarter, as the publisher of USA Today contends with a slumping newspaper market.

The MyCentralJersey.com site (owned by Gannett, publishing the "reporting" from the Home News Tribune and Courier News) had this headline today (emphasis added):

Update: No relief as heat wave continues

Followed two paragraphs later by this sentence:

And while similar conditions are expected Tuesday, there is some relief in sight.

Gee, I wonder why that chain is losing billions? It couldn't be that they've gutted their local news staffs so badly that their headline writers can't even read the articles?

What's happened to local media in New Jersey and this country is a shame. Media consolidation is a disaster.

huntsu :: It's The Quality, Stupid!

Tags: Gannett, courier news, Home News Tribune, (All Tags)

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It's The Quality, Stupid! | 3 comments

its the same sad wong we hear from the record industry (3.00 / 1)

whoa is the record industry. the internet cuts into our profits! downloading must be stopped!

never mind that the industry has refused to adapt to a new technology. never mind that the major labels have long ago stopped investing in their artists, and instead focus on one hit wonder pop brands. its all the internet's fault.

so it is with the print media. they don't get the fact that the reason they're doing so poorly is only partly caused by online competition. they're oblivious to the fact that their losses are a consequence of the death of hard journalism, a loss of credibility for playing into war fever, and editorial analysis that is at odds with the sentiment of the majority.

by: wesley.hanna @ Tue Jun 10, 2008 at 12:55:03 PM UTC

by: you @ soon

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I'd love to jump on the bandwagon... (4.00 / 1)

...but I distinctly recall the Home News Tribune being a crappy paper even before it was bought by Gannett in the mid-90s.

by: dennisl @ Tue Jun 10, 2008 at 15:04:56 PM UTC

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The Asbury Park Press (0.00 / 0)

The Asbury Park Press wasn't a crappy paper before Gannett. It was the best paper in the state, competing head to head with the Ledger for readership even though geographically it was less advantaged in population density. It covered everything ... every local town's planning board and zoning board meetings, even.

How quickly a great paper can fall when the strip-and-flippers come in.

by: Jim33 @ Wed Jun 11, 2008 at 02:25:17 AM UTC

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