That's the subject of a panel discussion that will be conducted at Northampton Community College this Thursday, March 25, at 11 AM. The program has been put together by Journalism Professor Rob Hays, with a little help from Adjunct Professor Eric Chiles, who was a member of the Morning Call's editorial board.Who are the panelists?
1) State Senator Lisa Boscola, who knows how to get ink better than any LV legislator I know, except maybe Ron Angle.
2) CACLV's Alan Jennings, who represents those who would otherwise have no voice.
3) Democracy Rising's Tim Potts, one of Pennsylvania's biggest civic activists.
4) Express Times Editor and columnist Jim Deegan, who will be selling subscriptions cheap.
5) Morning Call Publisher Tim Kennedy, who will introduce the paper's brand new, one-page, format.
This discussion will take place in the Reed Community Room, College Center Room 220. That's the main building on campus. Questions are welcome, and I believe both pols and bloggers will be on hand to provide them.
23 comments:
No news is good news, unless it's Bernies news, and, you're enraptured by his whaleshit diatribes that espouse from his utterly disgusting reeking being.
And here you are, at 12:40 AM, commenting away.
What the Hell is Deegan going to talk about? How much whiskey you can drink at lunch?
It says alot that for a second or 2 I thought you were serious about the Mcall rolling out a new 1 pg. format.
Truth be told, the economic model of newspapers (as we know them) is irretrievably broken. In the future, the Mcall and Express Times will have several local reporters covering local news and sports.
Anon 12:40, why don't you simply not read these whaleshit diatribes? you're a moron
Quite the pinko panel, to discuss the future of newspapers.
Not even a token conservative, who might offer evidence that, on a local level, their bias drove away a significant market segment that otherwise would still be with them, despite the "broken business model in the worst economy since the depression" excuses.
The industry is in the natural market decline stage, but they would be much healthier today if they had just produced a fair and balanced product, provided outstanding customer service, and put some of their previously massive profits back into the business rather than in the pockets of stockholders/ownership and the executive class.
Boscola's no pinko. She's pretty much an opportunist, willing to be very conservative if the wind is blowing that way. Potts is a right wing activist. Deegan and kennedy strike me as somewhat moderate. Jennings is a liberal.
But do you think that ideology has something to do with the turmoil? I don't. Right leaning papers are in just as much trouble s left leaning papers.
potts is no right winger bernie. he works well with the reform minded righties, but potts is an old school liberal. he used to work for the house dems but jumped ship before the corruption became illegal. now he spends his days pointing out the corruption.
I stand corrected.
The WSJ, the definitive right leaner, is actually doing better and expanding. They are launching a new NYC edition any day now. Lefties USA today and the NYT, are going the other way, the NYT rather rapidly.
That said, it's not all about the bias locally, just that it likely played a much bigger part than anyone will admit. They'll probably have some self-serving stats that will dispute that, but I can tell you that I, and more than a few I know, simply canceled when we got sick of it.
And any bias is bad unless your market is targeted, like the WSJ.
A debt laden industry, struck by new and more nimble competition, couldn't afford to lose a single paying customer, left or right, due to a self-inflicted wound like bias.
Of course, connecting your customers to another country, (eliminating local jobs while you railing against everyone else who does it) when they have a complaint is another self-inflicted wound that probably did some damage as well.
No conservatives and no members of alternative media are listed as panelists. This is a head-in-the-sand discussion.
Newspapers distributing 6-hour-old hardcopy information makes about as much sense as TV news broadcasts teasing the weather forecast coming up in 20 minutes, when weather info is one click away on the internet.
And don't get me started on the waste of resources and carbon footprint of physically producing and distributing the paper.
But forget the business model. More to the point - newspapers are producing a product that not enough customers want any more (and never will again). It's a losing proposition - like producing a TV show that nobody wants to watch, so it gets canceled.
Isn't it interesting that the liberal democrats who ran the Morning Call editorial department (Kranzly, Chiles) ran right to the local colleges and universtities for jobs upon collapse of the paper. Makes sense really, they can teach a whole new generation of journalism majors how to disguise their support of full allegiance to the Democratic Party through partisan editorials. I'll never forget the glowing accolades the Morning Call editors gave Roy Afflerbach in their endorsement. Well at least they are smart enough to live outside Allentown.
No matter how you slice it, newspapers are obsolete.
The funeral procession has started, and will be complete when the last of the pre-computer generation (say born before 1950) passes away.
I think you'll still have newspaper organizations reporting news, but it will be 100% online.
"No conservatives and no members of alternative media are listed as panelists. This is a head-in-the-sand discussion."
I'll not your observation ans see how the panelists feel.
"That said, it's not all about the bias locally, just that it likely played a much bigger part than anyone will admit."
My view is that a papaer reallt should have a bias. I think it's more important to be fair than it is to be objective.
"the liberal democrats who ran the Morning Call editorial department (Kranzly, Chiles) ran right to the local colleges"
I know both of these guys. Whilr they may have beards and are reasonably intelligent, I would not call either one of them a liberal Dem. I suspect the reasons colleges ran after them is because they have something to offer.
I think you'll still have newspaper organizations reporting news, but it will be 100% online.
12:36 PM
That can't and won't happen, here's why:
The advertising dollars generated by the newspaper websites is a very low percentage of overall revenues, and has begun a decline at many papers. Web ads are priced at roughly 10% of print ads and are usually throw-ins for buying space in the print product. And,the Pew Center just put out a report showing 79% of visitors to news organization websites never click through on ads, not a good sign when you'll need those advertisers to pay even more.
Newspaper web sites are really parasitic, surviving from the editorial and financial resources of the host print infrastructure.
General interest newspapers will never get the "Digital" generation to pay for subscriptions, those folks are conditioned to get the product for free. Newsday, on Long Island, tried it and got a whopping 35 customers to pay in the first three months of promoting it. The NYT tried before and failed, they'll try again in 2011.
Without the print product, they'll never be able to maintain the content creation that gives them what value they have now.
Colleges enjoy hiring retreads who don't require a lot of money. It's a tried and trusted match made in hell.
Bernie,
Frankly I have a hard time getting worked up over the imminent extinction of the newspaper. If they had been an honest broker of the news perhaps I might care a little. If they put any local news in the paper I might miss that, if they put real news on the front page again I could buy the paper and maintain my self-respect.
We conservatives won’t miss the paper; let the liberals wring their hands over this.
Scott Armstrong
There is no representatives from the weekly papers in the Lehigh Valley which are experiencing growth at the expense of the dailies.
There ARE no representatives from the weekly papers in the Lehigh Valley which are experiencing growth at the expense of the dailies.
Good point, and I will pass this along during the forum. I suspect Eric Chiles may check in on these comments as well.
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