–

Ignorance, our most costly commodity – paraphrased from Rush Limbaugh.

Now if they’d drop the NYT, they’re going somewhere!

Losing clients is in large part what killed UPI because they lost news sources and it became a vicious cycle — they couldn’t provide enough news outside of the major metro areas, and clients dropped them because they wanted more than just news out of the major metro areas (I suppose with the Internet, AP could bypass their normal newspaper and TV station sources of local news and go directly to regional online freelancers, but my suspicion of what AP-New York would consider a credible freelancer would be someone just as likely to be posting a diary on Daily Kos as they are unbiasedly covering a regional story, especially if it involved politics).

With the ongoing collapse of the MSM, many “journalists” will land lucrative jobs in advertising, in that they can objectively show how they sold about half of our nation an empty suit.

Patrick S on October 17, 2008 at 11:07 AM

Ha ha! Maybe some of them can sell used cars! I’m sure they’d be able to sell some real lemons.

In fairness, the AP’s new rate structure

Ed, how did you manage to get “fairness” and “AP” into the same sentence?

But even automation won’t save the papers. Their product sucks, is 24-48hrs late and costs too much to distribute. Of course I view that as a feature, leading to thier ultimate demise.

Then I read the article and realized they are only dropping the AP because they want to cut costs (I wonder why?)

Double the fun: Tribune Company is also facing default.

JammieWearingFool on October 17, 2008 at 10:56 AM

That’s change I can believe in.

CC – BHO: “my Muslim faith”

They need it — every few months, the LA Times lays off another group of workers.

I’m still a subscriber to the LA Times, but only because they’ve cut the price about in half every time I phone them to cancel. I’ve gone from $12 per month down to $3.50 per month in a bit over a year. At $3.50, the coupons I clip more than pay the cost of the newspaper.

A dollar won’t buy you a cup of coffee these days, but it will buy you TV Guide. No, not an issue of the weekly mag — those go for $2.99 — but the entire publication.
Yep, $1. The eye-popping sale price was disclosed Thursday in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing from TV Guide owner Macrovision, which revealed it had struck a deal to sell the magazine to venture capital firm OpenGate Capital on Monday (Daily Variety, Oct. 14).

In fact, the deal is even sweeter for OpenGate because Macrovision has also agreed to give the firm a $9.5 million loan to help it run the magazine for the next few years. And who said the credit markets were tight? The loan comes with a 3% interest rate and is due in 2014 — not exactly stringent terms.

The $1 sale price for TV Guide brings to mind the sale of another once-venerable journo brand: United Press Intl., which was unloaded for a buck by Scripps to two private investors in 1982.

CC – BHO: “my Muslim faith”

CC – BHO: “my Muslim faith”

Good news that the Olde Media can’t afford them anymore….they are all going down the tubes.

Let’s roll.

Hilarious. Check it out before it’s too late.

Dorvillian on October 17, 2008 at 10:55 AM

Great find….I “Save as Web Page…Complete” whenever I come across these things.

Thanks. I have it if anyone will need it in the future (once scrubbed by the Obamatron Police).

Let’s roll.

Dorvillian on October 17, 2008 at 11:01 AM

I wasn’t sure that Stephen Fox was actually proud of Castro’s endorsement until I clicked on the reader comments and read this, which is a response to someone who complains the posts are too long:

Reply
By Stephen Fox, Contributing Editor New Mexico Sun News Yesterday at 11:38 pm EDT (Updated Yesterday at 11:38 pm EDT)
I wanted to make sure it all got in and that all of the recipients could at least read the raw endorsements, because they are brilliantly worded, even the wacky one from American Thinker, which nonetheless manages to quote Castro’s fine endorsement correctly.

If this really is too long for you, please be sure not read any of the ones in the future with the Obama endorsements: they will be even longer and more stupendous.

Also note that the story about the Castro endorsement links Rev. Jeremiah Wright to Castro, which is the real story, since anyone can post on Obama’s community blogs.

They are just making room for the new news source coming real soon if Obama gets elected. It wont be privately run, lets just put it that way.

Bookmark it, keep it flagged. It will matter later on.

And soon there will be the new organization OP for the media to use – Obama Press. News written by followers of Obama. There will be Obama reporters in every town around the world reporting on glorious Obama news.

Zell has a fantastic track record and fantastic business sense. If the Trib is dropping the mammoth wire service, it must be that AP does not add value. Look for other papers to follow suit.

Beyond costs, I think that papers need more local focus to remain viable. AP stories are repeated verbatim on radio, cable and local broadcast news, why should subscribers pay for content that is given away elsewhere?

Angry Dumbo on October 17, 2008 at 11:14 AM

That’s better