I hope not! Some will remember Ward and Ozzie of the 50’s, they sat in their tufted chairs and read the paper in almost every episode. If you go on mass transit today in N.Y. everyone stares into nothingness or reads the paper. Papers remain alive with mass transit.
I can’t imagine life without a newspaper and black ink on fingertips. I love newspapers and I want the Miami Herald to be a better newspaper, so imagine my surprise yesterday when someone from the Herald called me and said this blog was going to hurt readership.
I beg to differ.
It is people like my brilliant 18 year old niece that are hurting the paper. The same niece who called me all excited about being able to vote for the first time – and then asked me who to vote for. Be mad at her Herald. I have a host of other friends who do not read the paper and it pretty much makes me as angry as it does you Herald. Except I don't care about profit, I am angry that they care so little about what is going on in the community. I often wonder what these people do while drinking their coffee...stare into nothingness? I will have to ask them.
It is also the Herald hurting the Herald. Trying to be all things to all people.
So Herald staff, don’t blame me, I read the paper, I quote from the paper. I have black ink etched into my bathroom door. Is it too much to ask that the Herald should be a lean, mean fighting machine instead of trying to appeal to 18 year old Sabrina who will never, ever read your pages on or off the net?
Newspapers are never going to return to the glory days of Ward and Ozzie, nor will they regain the readership lost. The paper has to adjust to the times and the reality of less profit. The newspaper is a craft that a segment of society values (and will always value) beyond measure. Unrealistic profit projections will hurt the paper and lead to its exit from the planet.
It is a hard pill to swallow: newspapers won’t make people rich except in the intangible value of the service they provide.
15 comments:
I hope you got a call from a real Herald rep. You are right on about the Herald. I read the paper every day, both the Herald and the WSJ. I find the Herald reporting, with some exceptions, shallow with no digging for facts. Community reporting is extremely shallow. I find I get more local community information by picking up, as many as I can, the Miller community newspapers distributed in the area. One article that comes to mind is one about how MD Water & Sewer pumps millions of gallons of water on the ground in the area of Tamami Airport to purge the pipes. You would think that with all the concern about water usage the Herald would have had an article on it also. With that said the Miller community pubs are also full of nothing more than advertisements written as columns but I find that each and every paper has one or two good local community information articles.
There is so much not reported in the Herald, more depth on MD-BCC meetings, school board meetings, etc. Maybe your Blog will have a positive effect on the reporting at the Herald, keep up the good work. I know people who read the Herald every day but are considering dropping it due to the poor coverage of local news.
I agree 100% with Anonymous 1. Lately the Herald brings more advertisement in its pages than anything important enough to bring me to read it. Most of the time I only read the Opinion page as I find more interesting data from its readers than those reporting from the Miami Herald.
Maybe I'll drop my subscription and buy The Herald on Sundays only, in order to get all the sales inserts that are included on that day. Ah! and I shouldn't forget the comics page -very important!
yes anonymous 1 it was a real Herald person that I know to be a real Herald person. One, I might add, who never was even remotely interested in anything I had to say before. I guess blogging is power - getting under the skin and grating on people.
Gee. Since when do the newspapers call actvists and whine that they are "hurting" their business? As an activist, I have always wanted the newspaper to be a positive force in creating change in the community.... I don't see them wanting to partner. Well, I do not see the editors wanting to partner, the little reporters want to do their jobs!
In fact, rumor has it that at a recent meeting, some reporters in the neighbors realm were told that told that the current open slots in the ranks would not be filled and as people left the positions would be left open. That doesn't bode well for us, the public...
The Community Newspaper Group may yet end up growing into more than fluff. Somewhere we need facts.
Hey wait. Are you all saying that if we get metro-rail all over the county that will save the Newspapers?
last anonymous: You said if we get metro rail all over the county will it save the Herald (you said newspapers but we have only one to choose from).
I did say people who use mass transit in NY read the paper.
I say here, maybe not. South Floridians may be content staring into nothingness. We are a strange breed. I keep running into people in Miami who don't know we have a county mayor...
Staring into nothingness is more likely.
When Genius of Despair said...“We are a strange breed. I keep running into people in Miami who don't know we have a county mayor...” Genius of Despair was right. Most of the people in Miami-Dade County do not have a clue about how the county government is structured. Most of the people don’t understand the 2-teir government we have with county wide government vs. Unincorporated Municipal Services Area (UMSA).
For those of us that live in unincorporated Miami-Dade County UMSA our “city government”. Our “city” is huge, about 1.5 MILLION residents. That’s right up there with the largest cities in the country. It’s larger than some countries. Our county mayor is also our UMSA mayor. I wonder how one person can represent the interests of a city and a county at the same time. How do you handle something that may be “good” for the “city” of UMSA vs “bad” the county. We have Miami-Dade County Commissioners that represent a handful of UMSA residents and some that almost all their residents are in UMSA yet their vote counts the same for UMSA issues.
Thanks repeal. Never really thought about it like that. Looks like the worst possible place to be. At least most city dwellers are insulated somewhat from the godawful county commission. UMSA people can't get away from the County!
Re: the staring into nothingness vs. reading the newspaper, I mentioned I would ask someone what they did in the morning with their coffee --
I asked my sister, who does not get the paper, what she did while she drank her coffee in the morning. She said she tries to read a book, however, her husband insists on talking to her so she can never get any reading in. She seemed annoyed just talking about it.
Then I realized that I was spared conversing with my spouse in the morning by the newspaper and visa versa. Maybe the Herald has saved countless marriages? Yet another service they perform!
Everybody thinks the Herald is crap and yes verses WSJ, NYT, FT it is, however, what about the Atlanta Journal Constitution, Boston Herald, New York Post, Washington Times, dare I even say the LA Times coverage of local events? Just in case no one noticed, most newspapers including the NYT lost about 50% of their assessed value in the last year. Just ask McClatchy they are an even worst investment than real estate right now. Without the Miami Herald dare I say there would be even more corruption and most wouldn't even know even if they cared.
I read the herald headlines with my coffee... I do my own version of the 5 minute page and I have my hub trained to tell me about the content that affects me before I have started searching...Team effort saves time.
Newspaper reader
SO..Then you are one of them that talks to your spouse in the morning, not using the paper as an excuse?
Just a follow up om my comment "Our “city” is huge, about 1.5 MILLION residents. That’s right up there with the largest cities in the country." The city of UMSA would be the in the running as the 5th largest city in the US. See http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0763098.html for the list of the 50 largest.
Well, yes, the news is the morning topic. The kids are grown and work tales are routinely the same for us, so, we do the paper as a conversation starter.
That always makes us get into the political news. Which may be a depressing framework for the start of a day.
Just want to set the record right, acording to the Miami-Dade County 2006-2007 BUSINESS PLAN, ADOPTED BUDGET,AND FIVE-YEAR FINANCIAL OUTLOOK Volume II page 374 the population of UMSA is only 1,091,421. Thank goodness we are not the 5th largest, we would only be the 9th largest city.
I'll shut up on this now, just want to make sure I speak with facts.
repeal
i appreciate your checking your facts... corrections are warmly received.
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