Monday, September 5, 2011

Darker Days Ahead for the Newspaper Industry

Well I'm afraid old news, isn't very good news. The problem with "news" is it is a fragile thing. And reading old news is sort of stupid, because odds are, you already know about it. This goes for the BT and the Bluffton Packet. And if I don't feel compelled to read it, and I just throw it away... Like the Sun, that comes out monthly, then advertizing is pretty much useless. Because that is what makes the whole thing possible right?

So tell me again why I should read your useless news and useless advertizing if there is nothing of value in its contents? Basically, the paper goes right from curb to garbage can, maybe I'll see if there is any coupons, but otherwise... why bother?

Maybe I'm jumping on them to quickly. But somehow they have to find a reason for me to read what they are putting out, and it can't be news, at least not the kind that we have been getting, because its limited self life won't permit that.

I could think of some things they might do... but I'm not the editor and it really is not my job. But think for a minute, what is hyper-local, who can we count on the paper to cover? And I really don't mean press releases. I'm talking about one on one interviews with the police chief, council members, high school football coach, school principals. I know that that inherently means it will contain some fluff. But it doesn't have to be all fluff.

Something has to happen BT and Bluffton Packet, otherwise, I will continue (as will others, if not most) to drop it off at the trash can and thus your advertizing will suffer, and more people will be let go. Think about it. I wonder if I could get them to stop completely... because I'm basically picking up litter deposited on my front yard every Wednesday.

Oh... Happy Labor Day, I hope you have lots of BBQ and Beer or some other variant on this day.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Many papers start with a one to two day a week printing and evolve to a seven day print run.(IP for example)
BT is going the other direction and will likely die in less then a year.I quit reading it when the online edition died months ago.Haven't missed much but the humor of VOX and Mattys absurdly slanted left wing cartons LOL