I'm having a heck of a time putting up posts on my blog. It was much easier when I didn't spend so much time on the computer at work & reading newspapers .I guess I should post about what is occupying my all my time...which is Newspapers.
Part of my new job at the local newspaper office is doing the classified ads. I haven't been able to build the classified pages to my liking yet, but I've been spending time checking out other comparable small town Weeklies esp. their classified ad sections. Small weekly papers are not that difficult to go through as they don't have that many pages.
So in my research ... I run across a paper comparable to the one I work for except it's complete right wing butt wipe! Embedded in the masthead under the names of the editors & publisher is this statement:
"The Roseburg Beacon is printed on recycled news print. However if we had any choice in the matter it would not, as we believe in promoting the wood products industry. If we had our choice it would be printed on paper from old growth timber."
Pretty shocking statement to make a part of the masthead, but that's not all of it. The whole paper is full of commentaries defending the right & slamming the left.
You wonder how a medium which traditionally holds its self to a high standard of ethics could survive by being so blatantly biased.
Interestedly, I was able to find out how this newspaper is doing as my editor is a partner of a past owner & edited that paper at one time.She told me, It's actually growing & increasing in subscribership!
Small town weeklies don't compare to larger daily publications in many ways, but there are some similarities. For instance, with all newspapers it's not subscribers per say that contribute the cold hard cash, it's the advertisers. Of course it all works together as advertisers want the most bang for their buck, meaning they want to be assured that their advertisements are getting out to the most people possible.
My smart blogger friend Regulas over at regulus star notes was ranting about certain large newspapers, (which he does periodically) so we discussed among things, the ramifications of biased newspapers.
I said regarding this newspaper: "I'm afraid their blatant lack of objectivity will be their downfall, because they will lose advertisers & that is where the money is that keeps a small paper afloat."
Regulus said: "Papers like that are not really meant to be taken seriously, although one shouldn't underestimate the degree of support for the strain of thought they represent. In the end, though, they are fundamentally reactionary and while such a view of the world never goes away, particular issues fade in time (such as old growth logging) as the economy changes (the movement of the center of the timber industry from Oregon and Washington to the American South)."
So why is this paper thriving at the moment ? I see a few reasons. One reason is embedded in regulus's comment...
" although one shouldn't underestimate the degree of support for the strain of thought they represent."
It's true, I've noticed many people can have rather radical or even bizarre views, that you wont always hear from their lips because of political correctness, mixed company, etc...but will subscribe to those views & listen to others rant on.
I think another reason for this papers current success is, I've identified at least 3 very successful business's that are main advertisers that hold basically the same right wing fundamentalist ideals. Also population wise, this small paper has a pretty big pool to draw from for subscribers. (their community is able to support a daily paper & two weeklies) & they are able to capitalize on a current controversy in their community that is pitting the right against the left.
It will be interesting to follow how they hold up as everyone knows the newspaper business is struggling.
posted by Rita @ 5:27 PM
24 Comments
24 Comments:
A lot of newspapers have lost revenue from lack of classifieds ads - Craig's list has destroyed newspaper classifieds in larger cities, but they now have categories for outlying regions,. In Oregon they have a section for Oregon Coast and Roseburg - are you not losing ad revenue from that?
Oh, here's one for ya (Coos bay)
http://oregoncoast.craigslist.org/m4w/1057644600.html
Hi Ms.Rita!
What was a lil shocking to me about this is the part where the Roseburg Beacon made such a statement about using "old growth timber", especially in that part of the country. I visited Oregon once a couple year's ago...and the beauty of it's tree's and nature is incredible. Texas has much beauty because of so many different terrain's, but Texas in my opinion has been an enviromental nightmare, and much too under-regulated if anything! But to make a statement like that in Oregon,is about as arrogant as when Bush went to visit and said his solution to the fires in Oregon at the time was thinning out the forest's. I am not one of these enviromentalist's or nothing...I mean I dont protest in the street's or whatever...but I am very strict about folk's who decide to destroy forest's or such. It's remarkable the Roseburg Beacon is still in business. During some arson set forest fires in the LA area year's ago..I said that the one who set the fire should be executed to some folk's, they said I need to see a psychiatrist and get help for such a statement. That's just my opinion though...I'll shut up now. Thank You Ms.Rita..and best wishes for you and your new job.
Isn't there profits in recycling though?
At least it gives the local left a concrete base on which to put their soapbox.
Democracy, pffft!
rev I didn't get to see the link, because it was flagged. :(
The truth is, small town weeklies are doing much better then daily papers at the moment. Weeklies cost of production is of course not as high for the same amount of subscribers & small towns like mine that traditionally don't have a daily paper rely on the weekly for local news & things like reporting high school sports, showing pictures of local people, letters to the editor from the wackos down the street...& don't even get me started on the police report.
ranch chimp It is shocking but it also has political overtones because it pits the right against the left. A person could look deeper into the implications of that statement & see the influence of the big timber corporations that would like to turn every forest into a tree farm. Big corporations like Weyerhauser & Georgia Pacific have traditionally been main employers in the timber industry here. They have literally raped the forests & contributed greatly to the demise of species of flora & fauna.
QF Of course there are profits in recycling. Reusing a resourse is much better then plundering or depleting one.
G3T Well, duh. You know what Sir Winston Churchill said, "It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried."
The printing media is hardly thriving as everything is happening on the net nowadays and many [especially the youth] read no more newspapers...it is more visible for the small scale newspapers, mostly locally based local newspapers. The most thriving printing media is the ones which give people gossiping and shocking images....so bad !
The first thing I do in the morning is to read the local English Newspaper in Hong Kong... I realize that in my office, I am the only one who does it. The rest of the crowd reads the newspaper only when they get time or think when they are 'free'. They also tell me that they read flash news in the tv or in the internet and that is sufficient. What about those essays ? and opinion articles ? I am subscribed to Financial Times, Newsweek and Economist... I have friends who think I am subscribed to these magazines just because I can tell everybody that I am an intellectual ...[or like this in this blog, to gloat about it]....crazy world !~
sorry for ranting here ...
prash One function the small town weekly newspaper serves up is also a bit of gossip. The police report is one of the most popular features...a sample off of the police report:
An 18 year old female called police 7:15 pm saying her boyfriend had gone crazy & started breaking things. She stated he had left in a black Toyota pickup with missing rear window. Jeffery ***** age 24 was arrested for domestic menacing.
I was reading(on the net) something about the difference between reading a newspaper & reading a computer screen. Apparently some people like the tactile feel of a newspaper in their hands & find them far more engaging & easier to read then a computer screen.
well whats the news ;) ?
In fact now that you mention it, the only newspaper that has grown around here is the Highland Villager. I comes out bi-weekly. It was once the neighborhood rag for the Highland Park neighborhood in Saint Paul, but it has overshadowed the smaller ones that have shrunk or turned into pamphlets. Problem is it represents mainly that area and is full of wholesome family stuff - it's incredibly dull.
When I worked at Home Depot way back when, they didn't recycle their tons of stretch wrap that were used for pallets because "it was too expensive".
I love reading newspapers and magazines (and not online!). It is a pleasure...that is the I was brought up. When I was a kid in India, we had three subscriptions and in our family, everybody wants to read newspapers while having coffee and breakfast...I still remember the fights we had with our brothers to see who is having the main-page and the sports page etc...little by little, that fight was extended to the living room for the remote control and then later one to the computer and our parents had to buy laptops for all the kids ! But this happened because there was no internet when I was kid.
But nowadays, these kids are learning everything throught internet...they don't know the pleasure of reading it in real...what I say is just a cliche, of course because I have seen several families who encourage their children to read magazines and newspapers in real.
Saying all this, at work, it is so convenient for me to read newspapers through internet!
Vishesh Hi there! I'll go check out the news on your site. :)
rev I sorta checked out the Highland Villager...you are right it's dull, but not to some people obviously. It's about finding the right niche & capitalizing on it. Our newspaper office has the advantage of being centered in the middle of the downtown district. I want to make our newspaper the center of attention. I'm working on drawing the local folk in by making them feel this is where the important stuff happens. Like, this is where to get the scuttlebutt...The editor has done a very good job of creating a welcoming walk-in environment. Part of my job & the justification to keep me on the payroll, is to draw the subscribers & advertisers into that environment. So far so good.
QF The only thing I'm worrying about recycling is newspaper. I'm going to start making colored fire newspaper logs as soon as the weather warms up a bit. i hope to post pics on the net of my spectacular colored fire one of these days.
prash There does seem to be a lot of tradition & nostalgia associated with newspapers...I must capitalize on that. :)
I didn't understand why Home Depot would waste a ton of that plastic (per store) each day, I think the store manager was lying to me when he said it wasn't economical to be recycling that stretch wrap material. Seriously, that stuff could be melted and remolded at extremely low temperatures, I'm sure there were probably many people in manufacturing who would pay big money to have that trashed material.
qf From what I understand there are problems in the cost of recycling plastic. But, I am not qualified to understand any of the science of it all. But, being able to recycle plastic would seem to be such a boon for the environment???
Perhaps I am oversimplifying things from a cost feasability or scientific perspective then, I guess I should look into that recycling of plastics in more detail. But, as for now, I'm at least thinking that plastic recycling should be beneficial all around, not to mention if it were ecconomical then that huge oceanic trash heap will start looking like a goldmine.
Of course. I could reconcile myself to capitalism if it solved problems instead of creating them.
Please come kill me now Rita. I'm completely disgusted with the world.
Capitalism works poorly when there are no limits on usury.
Like hell it works poorly! Also, limits are a disgusting tromp on yours an my freedoms! Anarcho-capitalism, survival of the fittest, come on Rev you know that!!! That goes for huge floating garbage heaps in the ocean, discarded NAVY reactor grade uranium, and especially with gigantic piles of Chinese mercury too you know. Perhaps nature will find a way to take our trash and make a treasure out of it, but if we just decide to clean it all up then we'd be disservicing the human race as a whole by spending all of our money. Hey, money is key you know, if it is broken then let the other countries of the world deal with it, heck it isn't even in our jurisdiction unless you want to go to war with the other polluting countries such as Europe or China where I don't think they even bury their trash properly or clean their wastewater.
China or European trash and Sewage
I just wanted to say that I find the comment's of Quantum Flux as interesting. They seem so straightforward and unbiased. Alot of good point's actually, whether one agree's with them or not. I am one that likes to stay in the shadow's and observe select blogger's ....un-noticed..and this is one that I have observed for some time. And at the same time, my complimant's to Quantum Flux. Thank You.
Actually, to be fair, it is taxpayer dollars that go into burying our trash and cleaning our wastewater. There aren't any businesses that run the city dump or the municipal water plants. Also, the USA was just as horrible as other countries with our waste handling processes until the invent of the EPA and such, Canada has a good waste program too. I'm not sure if waste cleanup is a human rights issue or a liability "sue the shit" issue. I guess it just depends on what country you live in, if the USA then businesses are largely motivated by not getting the shit sued out of them (designated EPA Superfund Sites whereby industry must clean up it's own mess), but in a communist or socialist country it is entirely up to the government how waste is managed (screw the taxpayers and business owners).
Churchill didn't say that, it was his wife and he pinched it just to sound like he had something intelligent to say.
I wish she was around now... I could use a good ending to this comment... nup... I'll stick with this lie then.
this is getting WAY too complicated
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