Journalist Majors

For my journalism majors you may like this. For those interested in doing their final paper on this industry this may be a good start.

Books as an Infant Industry

For all of my Journalist majors out there (I have quite a few in my Tuesday Thursday class) this is a post for you. Basically the issue is: how so you go from the invention of the printing press to a thriving industry for books? This is an interesting read.

New Business Model Needed for Newspapers

Newspapers are a dying industry. The latest from the link: "Average daily circulation at 379 U.S. newspapers plunged 10.6 percent in the April-September period from the same six-month stretch last year..." Competition from the internet has created an incentive to put articles online, and anyone who charges does so alone thus driving down viewership. Someone has to come up with a business model that will work. So how about this idea:

Allow the newspaper industries to collude. Basically grant them an Anti-trust exemption like the one sport leagues have. Instead of the Phillies and Yankees acting together to figure out ticket prices, advertising, etc... we can allow the Inquirer and NY Post to act collectively on advertising, and most importantly a collective requirement for payment for its online content. Just as the Phillies and Yankees compete on the field the papers can compete with its content. Otherwise there is a classic prisoner's dilemma (like our OPEC studies in class). Any thoughts?

Print News on Life Support

Print news is in trouble. There are many reasons for this that I will not bother getting into (just think of the costs associated with providing papers to residence). The question is what, if anything should be done about it.

The idea of a ‘newspaper bailout’ has been brought up, but quite frankly this makes even less sense then the automakers bailout (and look how that turned out). In many people’s opinion the greatest loss to a society without traditional newspapers would be the loss of investigative journalism (if there were no newspapers, there would be no Watergate uncover). And any financing by the government may cause a conflict of interest (from the organization that should be investigated the most).

Here is a good piece that follows up with this other previous posting.

Print Media on Life Support?

When I was younger I recall my grandfather telling me stories about how they would get TWO papers every day… one morning and one evening edition. I was astonished. Maybe someday we will tell stories to our grandchildren about what it was like to get a paper at your house every SINGLE day.

More evidence that supports the hypothesis that print media is dying.

Philly Print Hurting

More evidence that the newspaper industry needs to find a new way to generate revenue (probably involving the internet). Any ideas?