Alan Mutter offers a letter from a former newspaper owner who explains why he no longer reads the newspaper he once published. The essay tugs at your heartstrings just a little. This guy loved newspapering, but years of union intransigence, executive stubbornness and relentless competition from new media sapped his energy. Recently, his old paper called to offer a year’s subscription for $15.99. Sounds like desperation.
Note his comments about the early days of the Web, and how newspaper owners blew off online publishing as being, at best, a value add. Successful institutions rarely see the competitors that displace them until it’s too late. They’re far too wrapped up in their own success. The comments offer another interesting anecdote on that topic.
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This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 2nd, 2007 at 4:45 am and is filed under Fake News, Paywalls. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
