The Oregonian Newspaper is changing
Guest Opinion,The Oregonian, with daily circulation of over 700,000, now has an advertising sleeve that takes up half the front page. Even when you visit the Oregonian online you will sometimes see the new type of ads. This follows on the heels of the paper raising their newsstand price from $.75 to $1.00.
These appear to be smart moves for the Oregonian as they try to beat the times. The latest numbers show that nationwide the average newspaper circulation is down 7%, Sunday newspapers are down 5.3% and newspaper ad revenue is down an incredible 29.5%.
Watching the Oregonian make these changes is watching them at their most aggressive salesmanship. This will pay off in the end, but not before this recession and internet have fully run their media-changing course.
The Oregonian seems to think this is the future of print advertising. Here are two probable difficulties with this belief:
1. It's annoying. Seriously, who wants to pull of an insert to see the full front page?
2. It's eye-catching, for now. One year from now it will be just as old as regular newspaper ads.
Their promotion piece for the new advertising venue declares;
Available 7 days a week, this innovative new package gives a one-two punch that will jump-start customer demand regardless of what business you're in. Spadea combines impossible-to-miss, front-page positioning with full-page merchandising.
What's your thought, is this the future of print news advertising?
P.S It might be just my computer but the Watchdog website seems to be loading up significantly slower than in the recent past.
But the new ad sleeve is tawdry and smacks of desperation to replace lost ad revenue. Print news is in trouble, and it will be our loss no matter our personal politics.
What will I do without the voter guide if they go under???
Newspapers now almost universally represent little but a cheering section for one side of almost any given issue. The spin on any candidate, the hang time of any scandal, the outrage of the editorial board can all be predicted with virtually 100% accuracy in terms of the reporting even before the event occurs. All that needs to be known is the party affiliation of the scandalous politician and the life span and emphasis of the story are determined. On major ongoing issues should the newspaper actually do a balanced reporting job it becomes an event, something that is talked about. Should gun ownership, for example, be treated in any way fairly, it would be so notable people would talk, the NRA would make special mention of a newspaper actually reporting the event, not editorializing it. On an issue where the vast majority of Americans and courts agree, newspapers continue to push a contrary agenda. Editorial boards universally decried expansion of shall issue concealed carry laws in the past two decades. None of their dire predictions came true and in fact the opposite of what they almost universally predicted would happen, falling crime rates, occurred. Did any of them change their stance? Of course not.
A newspaper with obvious bias, even if it simply is catering to the political tilt of an area, does no one any favors. Reinforcing of political views is the job of editorial content, not news organizations and that's what newspapers long ago had become. In that regard the death of these organizations as news outlets happened some time ago. The disappearance of the actual print version of the sham that they purport to represent, an actual news organization, represents a mere formality.
If the O is goiing to survive it needs to migrate to the internet, possibly keeping the Sunday print edition, shift back to the center and go back to reporting local news instenad of just reprinting wire stories.
It would, however, be good for corporations out-of-control legislators who by off or who are bought off by business interests, labor interests, or special interests of many types.
Who will unearth and cover these corruptions? Your local neighborhood blogger?
You are correct. It would require actual reporting, not just the parroting of Democrat talking points and reprinting wire service and syndicated content.
far too much.
Frankly, I see very little evidence that any of you here engage in independent thought, and not just what Fox News tells you to think.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/08/28/senate-president-emergency-control-internet/
There's something wrong with you, really.
The Oregonian doesn't uncover corruption. It obscures it and defends it.
Just like I'm sure you want them to on a vriety of issues,
As for independent thinking, if what you do is a demonstration of independent thought (your label)you better try and cut the AGW parasite tenacles from your mind.
Do you have a Keith Olberman calendar.
And that, in a nutshell, is why the Oregonian is failing. They're trying to get the PDX enviro crowd to buy their product when those readers are all on Oregon Live, Facebook, Twitter, Daily Kos, Keith Olbermann etc and may never have or ever will hold a print newspaper in their hands. That's not your demographic, O! I am your demographic. I've subscribed for years. I read your rag because reading the newspaper every day is in my blood. I guess the O hasn't heard that it takes ten times more money to attract a new customer than keep an existing customer.
I actually PAY to have your paper delivered daily to my door (and sometimes under my car, which is annoying as hell at 5am and it's raining.) I sometimes even look at the ads in your paper. Your adwrap doesn't impress me. It makes me want to call that advertiser and tell them I will never ever shop at their store because the adwrap is a pain in the early morning riser.
But I've just about had enough of you, O. Your lack of objectivity (big cheer story today in the O about 200 or so single payer plan fans at Pioneer Courthouse Square, but only condescending sniping disguised as a news story by Rick Mapes earlier this week about the 1000+ who attended the Tea Party Tax Fairness rally on Monday), your abandonment of east county news coverage, your higher prices, and your marketing ad wrap gimmick, maybe it's time for this newspaper junkie to go cold turkey and kick a bad O habit.
Is there a Schick Center for old paperboys?
> to the leftwing MSM reality distortion machine
Please. the right-wing distortion machine is no less egregious than the left's, no less extreme, and no less committed to stirring up controversy and manipulating emotions for political gain. That you think it's the left who is somehow more guilty than the right just shows on which side you've been brainwashed. Learn to think for yourself.