My (crocodile) tears are flowing
Just out this morning is a circulation report for the nation's top 25 newspapers. It continues to show a decline in overall newpaper readership.
Our own Red Star, the 15th largest in the nation, fell 4.1% to 358,887 for Q2/Q3 of 2006. Yet with these falling numbers, they lean ever left. I'm starting to think that this should not be a surprise. In hard times, one runs to the base. It happens in elections, so why are we surprised that it happens in the newspaper business? If the natural tendency is to move to alternative sources like the web, they have to make extra effort to give their base a reason to buy those dead trees instead of hug them. What better than this and this and this (oh, and this, perhaps the most egregious in my opinion).
I also shed those same tears for the LA Times, another left wing rag, whose circulation fell 8% in the same period. Hugh Hewitt must be having a serious attack of schadenfreude.
Our own Red Star, the 15th largest in the nation, fell 4.1% to 358,887 for Q2/Q3 of 2006. Yet with these falling numbers, they lean ever left. I'm starting to think that this should not be a surprise. In hard times, one runs to the base. It happens in elections, so why are we surprised that it happens in the newspaper business? If the natural tendency is to move to alternative sources like the web, they have to make extra effort to give their base a reason to buy those dead trees instead of hug them. What better than this and this and this (oh, and this, perhaps the most egregious in my opinion).
I also shed those same tears for the LA Times, another left wing rag, whose circulation fell 8% in the same period. Hugh Hewitt must be having a serious attack of schadenfreude.
posted by festivus | 10/30/2006 09:03:00 AM
At least the shreds of tree make good fire starter when in need of kindling.
It would be interesting to find the average age of the current subscribers. I bet it is over 60.
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