People Still Get Most of their News from t.v.

[random3434]

Does anyone read a newspaper anymore? Or just get their news online or on t.v.?



TV remains top source of news even as online grows | KPIC CBS 4 - News, Weather and Sports - Roseburg, OR - Roseburg, Oregon | Business

 

[AllieBaba]

Newspapers are a dying business. Believe me, I was a reporter and they are in their death throes.

 

[random3434]

My hometown newspaper, The Indianapolis Star, just sent me a letter offering me 75% off their subscription price.

Odd, they just laid off 27 employees last week.


I do love reading the paper though, there's no replacement for it imo.

I hope they never die, though I have a feeling they are on their last legs.

 

[Denny Crane]

I think the internet is what is killing the newspapers. I haven't read a newspaper in years.

 

[AllieBaba]

The internet is killing it. I still read our small town newspapers...but I had actually quit reading it before I started working there. Then I started reading it again because, well, as one of the reporters I sort of had to. I wasn't even there a year the last stint, and they went through two publishers, 2 reporters (this is a small paper, only 4 regular reporters and maybe 4 sports reporters..and actually, we lost a couple of them, too, so I guess the number was higher) and shortly after I left, the editor and another reporter left. The ad people were living their lives with the axe over their necks all the time and it was just basically like working on a sinking ship.

They have been losing readership steadily (possibly because the area is conservative, and they insisted on hiring elitist liberal publishers and publishing the most lefto wacko weekly commentary you can imagine) for years, and just can't compete with the internet. They finally realized they weren't effectively making use of it, and making the transition from paper to internet....and started, too late, to utilize it. But they made stupid, stupid mistakes. For one thing, you can't access it unless you have a stupid subscription...this is idiotic because the $$ in newspapers comes from advertisers, not the readership...not at the that level.

Anyway, the owners are always looking for someone to blame. The ones they don't fire and replace quit in a huff.

 

[midcan5]

The way we live and work has changed as well. People used to have time to read the paper, it was part of the evening, before or after dinner. We received the Evening Bulletin till it went out of business. With so many today having long drives and so few taking public transportation it contributes too. The work day used to have boundaries, it no longer does for many. And I think TV is like an opiate, many simply cannot be bothered to read, and the functional illiteracy rate in America today us amazingly high for an industrialized nation. TV flashes through complex ideas in seconds making life seem so simple who needs to read.

 

[AllieBaba]

Actually, I think local newspapers may be contributing to the illiteracy of America instead of alleviating it.

You wouldn't believe some of the idiotic arguments I had with our copy editor over his particularly incorrect use of the English language.

 

[manifold]

I read the online versions of newspapers, does that count?

I also get my local newspaper delivered at home and read that for local stuff. Plus my wife says it pays for itself in coupons.

 

[AllieBaba]

I generally read the paper so I can underline all the glaring errors in red ink. We were supposed to do that in the newsroom, and it's a fun hobby now I'm no longer there....

 

[manifold]

I generally read the paper so I can underline all the glaring errors in red ink. We were supposed to do that in the newsroom, and it's a fun hobby now I'm no longer there....

I know what you mean. My local newspaper get's printed with so many typos and grammatical errors that I don't think anyone actually proof reads it. If someone does, they totally suck at their job.

 

[AllieBaba]

They suck at their job.

Shortly after I left, our sports writers wrote a big spread on some female golfer calling her "notorious" as if that was a good thing.

My sister wrote them a lengthy and hilarious letter effectively humiliating them all, which resulted in the news editor sharing the information with the newsroom and making all the idiot sports writers (and particular the fat stupid copy editor) feel like complete yahoos.

Which of course they were. You expect it from sports writers, really, they have a different sort of job which I wouldn't trade and you expect a certain amount of grammatical errors, typos, spelling issues....but the copy editor has no excuse.

 

[Epsilon Delta]

I alternate between online versions and real versions. In Costa Rica I read La Nacion cuz we get it delibered, and read the Globe and Mail online, and when in Canada I get the Globe and Mail and read La Nacion online. I usually read the NY Times online in both places. Newspapers are nice, I like reading them better than watching the news on TV.