18 November 2009

Save Failing Newspapers,

No way!

Newspapers are failing for many easily identifiable reasons. Among them:

1. The purchase and delivery is grossly over priced to the consumer. They should be free to the user.

2. Their ad space is excessively over-priced compared to its commercial and personal value.

3. It is old news, often two to three days slower than television or internet.

4. Biases annoyingly color and inaccurately report what little reporting they attempt.

5. There is little if any local news, unless you live in a major city.

6. Many papers are already subsidized to some extent by local zoning, property tax breaks, government notices and ordinances requiring use, and political ads.

7. Their journalistic ethics are abysmal.

8. They’ve mostly forgotten their mission and the contract with our culture.

9. The 4th Estate (the Press) implies nobility and honor, they’ve lost theirs.

Those papers that cannot survive without help should collapse under the weight of their own corruption, mismanagement and dishonor. The survivors may rediscovery their purpose, establish a new paradigm and some ethics, and perhaps earn some honor again.

We don’t need what newspapers once were or what they have become. We may not even need what they will become, but they should try to prove themselves in the free and unfettered marketplace of ideas.

Eliminate subsidies to all newspapers, especially the financially mismanaged.

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