Comments on: An Example Of What Is Killing Newspapers

By: Fred

Fred — Sun, 02 May 2010 09:14:37 +0000

Jason,

Glad you enjoyed the article – non KY focus and all – and that you brought up this issue.

You might appreciate that as a writer, producer, artist, etc. I had NO ink on me until the Wall Street Journal article came out. By this I mean local weeklies, dailies, heck, even college papers.

Literally the college newspaper where I graduated, and where I was putting on a show (on their campus, with their students, on their radio station) would not even print what I was up to.

I'm not about to go into deep speculation about why this was the case but I'll assume at least part of the blame is due to limited budgets – understaffed, overworked reporters who resort to wire content since it's easy. BUT oh so disservicing the audience.

Local papers really need to turn themselves into customized email pieces sent to local readers

Fred Greenhalgh
FinalRune Productions

By: Fred

Fred — Sun, 02 May 2010 02:14:37 +0000

Jason,

Glad you enjoyed the article – non KY focus and all – and that you brought up this issue.

You might appreciate that as a writer, producer, artist, etc. I had NO ink on me until the Wall Street Journal article came out. By this I mean local weeklies, dailies, heck, even college papers.

Literally the college newspaper where I graduated, and where I was putting on a show (on their campus, with their students, on their radio station) would not even print what I was up to.

Local papers really need to turn themselves into customized email pieces sent to local readers

Fred Greenhalgh
FinalRune Productions

By: Daniel_Honigman

Daniel_Honigman — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 16:12:57 +0000

It's really startling when you look at the daily ratio of original reporting to wire copy. Sometimes less than 50 percent of what you're reading is actually written by people at the publication you're reading.

By: Alan Haft

Alan Haft — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 14:40:08 +0000

I read these comments…. There are interesting……

By: JasonFalls

JasonFalls — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 08:41:23 +0000

Thanks, my man. We'll have to trade radio war stories one day. That was my
thing in high school and college.

By: Jacob

Jacob — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 23:29:23 +0000

Great piece. As another former radio guy, you hit the nail on the head. There are a few more reasons this progression has continued with newspapers (and radio) but I will save that for another venue.
Nice post.

By: JasonFalls

JasonFalls — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 11:28:01 +0000

Thanks Juan. I can certainly see how many papers have produced that reaction
in folks.

By: Juan

Juan — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 08:30:15 +0000

That is the reason I never read the local paper as everything is old copy-cat stories from other papers. It is sad; but other then sensationalist stories (robbers , killings) there is nothing of value.

Sad in deed but that's reality.

By: JasonFalls

JasonFalls — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 23:56:43 +0000

Good thoughts, David. Thanks for chiming in.

By: davidcarroll

davidcarroll — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 23:03:24 +0000

I believe that newspapers whether local or national or going the way of the buggy whip. The eyes are going to the internet in droves and advertisers are following. Good local content will help but that is not the real problem. Some newspapers will survive for a time as they are the medium of choice for many people my age and older but as the younger and older generations grow older and readership drops much further only the strongest and best managed newspapers will survive and then only in a much smaller capacity.

By: JasonFalls

JasonFalls — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 22:14:41 +0000

Thanks for the perspective from down under P. Interesting that it's so very
similar. Appreciate the comment.