Archive for December, 2009

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Will Page Views Pay forJournalism?

December 8, 2009

Not likely, according to Brett Arends in Marketwatch today.  His math is worthy of the &;dismal science&; of economics, saying that at 2 cents per page view (apparently the advertising value) a reporter would need 11,000 page views per day in order to be paid $40,000 a year, hardly a princely sum.  To earn $100K a year, you&;d need 27,000 page views. &;So long as news tries to live off online advertising alone, the future for journalists is not bright. Journalism may become like acting or being a musician: There will be fewer full-time jobs, and they will pay poorly. A lot of news writing will end up being done by amateurs, those with day jobs or by kids just out of college, sharing rooms in Brooklyn, N.Y., before they go on to &;real&; careers. &;What that may portend for the quality of reporting is another matter. If we end up living on a content diet of propaganda, celebrity gossip and free blogs, too bad.&;

Tags:death-of-journalism, Marketwatch, page-view-journalism Posted in death-of-newspapers, Journalism | 1 Comment &;

The LastPontiac

December 7, 2009

The last Pontiac, a non-wide-tracking G6, rolled off the assembly line just before Thanksgiving.  After 82 years, the company that &;built excitement&; went out with a whimper, not a bang, run into the ground by the geniuses of GM.

Tags:American-cars, American-muscle, death-of-GM, Pontiac Posted in Automobiles, Automotive-industry | Leave a Comment &;

Daily News GetsNarrower

December 3, 2009

The Daily News (motto: &;Serving the San Fernando Valley&;) is getting narrower.  No, not culturally or politically; it&;s hard to imagine a newspaper more parochial in its worldview and outlook.  For example, the AP stories that dominate the sports and news section are edited only to reflect its quaint home town focus/bias: &;Dodger Randy Wolf (El Camino Real of  Woodland Hills) denied arbitration.&; It&;s getting physically narrower; the trim size is an inch narrower and an inch shorter than the Wall Street Journal.  Written on a fourth-grade level, the Daily News is a broadsheet in name only. No more calls for Valley secession for this rag.  One more round of editorial cuts should finish it off.

Tags:Daily-News, San-Fernando-Valley, Wall-Str Posted in death-of-newspapers | Leave a Comment &;

Barack, Tiger and AmericanAmnesia

December 3, 2009

The day after: today&;s top story was Tiger Woods&; &;transgressions.&; Not Obama&;s nationally-televised speech on the surge sending 35,000 men to Afghanistan.  I may have a hard-to-treat case of Internet addiction.  But America&;s addiction is to trivial pursuit&;and willful blindness. The press, too, must get some &;credit&; here.  Twenty years ago, I was vilified for working for the Enquirer.  Now the rest of the press has jumped down in the gutter with it&;and no one says a word.

Tags:Afghanistan, Barack-Obama, National-Enquirer, Tiger-Woods, trivial-pursuit Posted in tabloid-journalism, uncritical-press | Leave a Comment &;

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