Wednesday, April 08, 2009

Why newspapers are going under

You can tell that newspapers are run by democrats.

Why?

Because their solution to any financial problem is to simply raise the price of their product; just like democratic governance.

Never mind that everyone who's ever taken an Econ 101 class knows that when prices increase, demand drops. I guess it's never occurred to a newspaper owner that maybe if they actually produced a product that more people wanted to read, maybe more people would buy it.

The Boston Globe said it will raise the newsstand price of the newspaper to $1 from 75 cents in the city zone, and to $1.50 from $1 outside Greater Boston, effective May 4. The newsstand price of the Sunday Globe will rise to $3.50 within Greater Boston and $4 outside the region from $2.50.

Home delivery prices remain unchanged.

The higher prices, aimed at generating additional revenue, are part of the strategy to improve the paper's financial position, as noted by Globe publisher P. Steven Ainsley in a memo sent to staff Monday.

Many newspapers have raised prices over the past year. The Boston Herald raised its newsstand price to 75 cents from 50 cents in the summer, following a similar increase by the Globe last year. Globe spokesman Robert Powers declined to comment on whether the price increase might result in fewer newsstand sales.


For you dip shits who graduated from J-school; let's go over this again. Here is the news food chain....

Internet
Radio
TV
Newspapers
Magazines

Newspapers have to realize that they are down towards the bottom of the chain. The further down the chain you go, the more depth and accuracy you need your information to be.

Unfortunately, even though I used to be a local newspaper junkie, I started realizing that nearly all the "news" in the thing, I had already read on the internet a day or two before. In addition, since most newspapers are filled with nothing but AP clips, there usually is no new information in the things at all. So I quit buying them.

When you guys figure that out, call me.

More....

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