As if you needed any more signs that newspapers are in trouble, last week brought us these:
-- After 108 years, Editor & Publisher -- the trade publication that could be found in every newspaper office in the country -- announced it was folding its print and online products.
-- The Knight Center for Specialized Journalism announced it was closing.
-- American Journalism Review announced it would publish four issues in 2010, down from six in 2009.
The Web site "Paper Cuts" estimates that nearly 15,000 have lost newspaper jobs in 2009. That's a conservative estimate because I know that it has unintentionally failed to count cuts at every newspaper.
Watch for more industry-wide layoffs early next month as companies fine-tune their 2010 expectations or lack thereof.
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There are three Web sites that I frequent to keep abreast of developments in the newspaper business. Here they are:
-- Romensko: Jim Romensko of the Poynter Institute aggregates newspaper/media news.
-- Fading to Black: Another site that aggregates news (mostly bad) about the newspaper business.
-- Alan Mutter's Reflections of a Newsosaur, which provides thoughtful commentary about what the business ought to do -- or not do -- to survive.
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A number of people have asked me for the Web address of this blog. It is so named to allow the Google search engine to easily find it. You don't have to remember the address, just my name and the fact that this is a blog.
So, if someone asks you how to find this site, tell them to Google dickfarrell blog or dick farrell blog.
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Needless to say, I consume a lot of news from a lot of different sources. The sources that are located on or near Wall Street seem to think the worst of the Great Recession is over.
That might be, but how come it doesn't feel that way in Ohio? The people in business I've talked to lately aren't talking about any upturns on their ledgers.
If there are good signs in Ohio that I'm missing, please let me know.
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See you next time.
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3 comments:
Artificially inflating the GDP with borrowed money is like taking a cash advance on your credit cards to pay your bills. The recession may be over for the boys on Wall Street...but at the expense of the rest of us who are just trying to get by.
I have recouped some of my gutted 401 K but not before I drowned my sorrows in cheap vodka because I could no longer afford the good stuff. My once manageable debt has sky-rocketed out of control as the new rules came too late. Meanwhile, the fat cats are crying in their Glenfiddich because they couldn't give their nannies a raise this year, they had to lay off the gardener and they can no longer afford their three hundred dollar an hour whores.
Have you noticed how the demise of newspapers is going hand in hand with the demise of journalism in this country? Where is the media outrage over the quadrupling of the federal deficit? Where is the expose of on-going wars with no victory strategy? Why are the smarmy inhabitants of Congress exposed for the partisan hacks they truly are?
I don't have answers...only questions.
Wall Street and its numbers are tied to the Stock Market, which you'll notice is back above 10,000. They work in percentages. So 1% of an account with a market at 10,000 is more than 1% of an account with a market at 6,000. In addition they also scrape fees and other commissions for transactions and "services". Hence, Wall Street feels like it's good times again while the rest of us, even those who held on for the "long term" are left looking for hope and jobs amidst decimated local economies.
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