Newspapers

Trump’s 2023 New Year’s Wish: Hopefully American Newspapers Will Go Out of Business

Posted by on December 31, 2022 at 11:11 am. 8 Comments :

As 2022 winds to close, Donald Trump finds himself in an accelerating downward spiral of legal, political, and personal distress. His mood is decidedly dour and consumed by hate. And true to form, he is handling it like a colicky infant who thinks his whining and tantrums will deliver relief from the misery that is plaguing him from all sides.

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Donald Trump, Newspapers, Baby, Hate

Trump’s 2022 tribulations are bound to torment him well into 2023. They include disclosure of the financial fiascos revealed in his tax returns that were just released after years of fearful defiance; the criminal charges stemming from his incitement of the January 6th insurrection and his theft and hoarding of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago hotel/home; the ongoing probes by Special Counsel Jack Smith and the Department of Justice; and his plummeting political prospects of returning to the White House in 2024.

RELATED: Trump’s Dreary Campaign Announcement Speech Drew Dismal TV Ratings

On this New Year’s Eve Trump is fixated on the media that he despises for daring to report what he actually does and says. He is an avowed opponent of of the First Amendment. His assaults on the free press were a hallmark of his presidency, and they have continued uninterrupted in the months since his defeat for reelection.

Consequently, no one will be surprised by the yammering on his floundering Twitter ripoff, Truth Social, where he posted a link to an article in the Washington Post about the hard times that American newspapers are facing. He said that…

“Many of these newspapers are going out of business because they only know how to report Fake News. Hopefully the Amazon Washington Post and the Failing New York Times will soon be among the group! Nobody will continue to sustain such losses, especially for a product undeserving of our once great Nation.”

Trump is veritably giddy that American businesses are hurting. So much for “America First.” And it’s ironic that he’s citing the Washington Post, that he thinks is “fake news,” as his source. Apparently when he sees a headline that he likes – in this case “Newspapers are disappearing where democracy needs them most“ – WaPo becomes a reputable news enterprise. However, It’s unlikely that Trump read beyond the headline, because this article laments the failures of small, conservative newspapers that mostly serve rural communities that are largely populated by Republicans.

Trump did once say once that he “loves the poorly educated,” so his aversion to the availability of news would be consistent with achieving that state of ignorance for his cult followers. Trump went on to post more attacks on the media, digging into his kindergarten bag of insults to say that…

“The Failing New York Times is Fake and Corrupt News. Their motto should be, ALL THE FAKE NEWS THAT’S UNFIT TO PRINT. They are the Enemy of the People!”

It’s nauseating how Trump is so eager to trash American businesses and so full of hope for hardship for American workers. But it’s no less than what is expected from him after establishing himself as the nation’s most anti-American politician. It’s notable, though, that Trump also took a swipe at his Ministry of Propaganda (aka Fox News), whining that…

“Wow!!! So while Trump Hating CNN & MSNBC (MSDNC!) RATINGS are both at record lows, numbers that they have never seen before (‘they’re toast’), Fox News Ratings are also way down because they never say ‘Trump’ or TRUTH, never talk about the Rigged Presidential Election, and is a Fake Polling Network. Our giant MAGA base, much bigger than anyone knows, does not like watching Fox play their games. Their Ratings will continue to sink. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”

For the record, Trump has predicted the demise of CNN, MSNBC, the New York Times, the Washington Post, and most other news organizations, for years. And as usual, his predictions have failed to comport with reality. For someone who worked on television for fourteen years, he is profoundly ignorant of how it operates. Ratings are down for virtually everything on TV due to increased competition, such as that from streaming services and the return of patrons to movie theaters.

However, Trump’s animosity toward Fox News is particularly curious considering it’s the home of devout Trump-fluffers like Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson, Laura Ingraham, and the “Curvy Couch” potatoes of Fox and Friends. But he is known for disparaging anyone who is less than totally worshipful, so even his toadies at Fox News are targets of his wrath. Which is endlessly entertaining for the rest of America.

RELATED: Trump’s Year of Vicious Bashing – and Devoted Sucking Up To – Fox News

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Newspapers Conspiring To Hasten Their Own Demise

Posted by on May 29, 2009 at 11:43 am. NO Comments :

James Warren of The Atlantic reports that a bevy of newspaper executives gathered yesterday in Chicago for a clandestine discussion about “Models to Monetize Content.” Amongst the participants are the New York Times, Gannett, E. W. Scripps, Advance Publications, McClatchy, Hearst Newspapers, MediaNews Group, the Associated Press, Philadelphia Media Holdings, Lee Enterprises and Freedom Communication. The unadorned agenda of this cabal of publishers is to figure out how to make news consumers pick up the tab that advertisers have traditionally paid.

Setting aside the obvious appearance of a violation of anti-trust laws, the main problem with these old-media relics is that they still don’t understand the problems confronting them.

First of all, they aren’t losing money because subscription receipts are declining. Subscription revenue, while not insignificant, was never the foundation of the industry’s financial well being. It is advertisers that keep newspapers (and most media) in business. The value of subscribers is due more to the fact that higher circulation brings higher ad revenue than to the value of the actual subscription price.

Secondly, subscriptions aren’t declining because newspapers cost too much. They are declining because too often the product isn’t worth paying for. That would be true whether it were delivered to your doorstep or your browser. The state of the economy cannot be overlooked as a contributor to the subscriber exodus either. But when newspapers respond to tough economic times by cutting newsroom staff, they have to expect that readers will notice the falloff in quality. Once people perceive that they aren’t getting their money’s worth, they will be no more likely to pay for an online subscription than the dead tree variety.

Warren astutely notes in his article that newspaper executives are not the brightest inks in the well. Many of them are holdovers from an era that hasn’t kept up with modern competition. Others are transplants from TV or radio who lack experience in a medium that has little in common with its electronic cousins. The evidence of their shortcomings is observable in their haste to alter a business model that has worked fine for a couple of hundred years or more. To respond to current financial woes by shifting from a model that relies on advertisers to one that pinches readers is profoundly shortsighted. The economy, and advertising revenues, are bound to recover, but dimwitted decisions by panicky publishers could aggravate and prolong what would otherwise be a temporary setback.

There are challenges facing the newspaper business, to be sure. But there is no reason to presume that the sort of broad distribution model that has led to success in virtually every form of media has suddenly become inoperative. Newspapers need to adapt to the digital world in a manner that promotes access and ubiquity. Walling themselves off by erecting subscription barriers can only make matters worse and result in further isolation and debt.

Finally, if they think that by colluding with one another to set the terms of doing business with them will endear them to their customers, they are even stupider than I thought.