This time it's a paper that's been publishing since the Civil War... The Rocky Mountain News will publish it's last edition tomorrow. )-: I know, I know, join the club. The car companies are bleeding so much there may be NO American made cars soon. The banks may have to be nationalized. But my years as a broadcast journalist make the newspapers shutting down more painful. And once they're gone, you see how much mischief elected officials will get into.
The demise of the RMN does have some disconcerting overtones.
ReplyDeleteYet in a broader sense, the FREE PRESS will continue. It was the FREE PRESS that Thomas Jefferson praised, not a publicly traded Multi-National Corporation.
Remember, many (if not most) big newspapers are BIG BUSINESS, and they operate for the benefit of, and are beholden to their stockholders, not the readers or the employees.
Free Press newspapers will continue to flourish.
Avarice and mismanagement is to blame for business failure(s), not our present national economic conditions. Economic conditions have only amplified poor mangement.
Frankly, if newspapers exist primarily to profit by selling advertising, let them become an advertising agency, or trade circular, NOT a newspaper that serves community interests!
Regarding this comment: "they operate for the benefit of, and are beholden to their stockholders, not the readers or the employees." Yes, but at the same time they must satisfy both (OK, more so the readers). It's a symbiotic relationship, no? Of course if they can make a profit with ZERO readers they'll stay in business, but if they have a Zillion readers and NO profit, they're gone.
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