In my opinion, legacy media has been self-destructing by becoming nothing more than mouth pieces of the government and corporate propagand. Good riddance to bad rubbish.
This is one of the great silver linings of our New Abnormal times. Far more people know the true colors of the alleged "watchdog press." If they die (which they are dying), that will be a net positive development for the world. I'd rather get no "news" than non-stop lies.
I still think the definitive proof that the MSM covered up Joe Biden's dementia could prove to be an inflection point for many people. The hope is more people who now know this scandal was covered up for years, will next ask, "What else were they covering up or lying about?" And the answer is "just about everything important."
It would be really cool if independently people started to do real journalism once again at the local level and report unbiased news to their neighbors via a local community newspaper unattached to any corporate giant, and deliver it to doorsteps once again. Maybe I miss the nostalgia of it all, neighbors informing neighbors of the latest news and all sides of a story.
I know we prefer our “devices” and digital media, but I’m actually starting to order books in print again and less ebooks now because screens really are starting to cause eye problems, as well as other issues like insomnia due to the overstimulation screens have on
our basal ganglia. I use glasses with the tech for screens but I’m not seeing much of a difference. So I find myself enjoying things in print form more lately. Of course I look silly pressing a word over and over wondering why the definition doesn’t pop up 🤣 (spoiled a bit yes.)
The problem is the printing expense tho and we probably won’t ever see a neighborhood newspaper again. I think it’s sad. I’m hoping somehow it comes back around. Maybe there’s an old newspaper printing warehouse they want to sell off for parts and I could buy the whole thing and hire Bill. 😂
Thank you. I was once a publisher of a weekly print newspaper. Those seven years almost killed me So I don't want to go back there. Still, putting out a Substack newspaper - basically just writing a few interesting stories every day and then hitting "send" - wouldn't be that hard at all.
There is a group of us in Australia considering something like this. Unfortunately, electricity costs, inflation and cost of living is so bad that many of us are on the verge of homelessness at the moment. We are struggling to survive.
It's something to think about, AU. If your writers provided interesting content not being provided by the captured local press, you might generate some decent subscriber revenue.
My dad had glaucoma and was almost blind towards the end of his life, so his e-reader was the only way he could read books anymore (he wasn't a fan of audiobooks) and I love ebooks for the convenience. Having said that, I do buy certain books in print, such as reference books, especially anything controversial that might get censored, etc.
I can't remember who posted this, but it was something to the effect that humans haven't really evolved in milennia, yet now have to process so much more information to the point we easily become overloaded. That certainly resonates with me.
A while back, I wrote a column saying that the Socratic Method is now under attack. As I wrote this piece, the thought occurred to me that this has always been the case. The Greek leaders of Socrates' time killed him for using the Socratic Method.
I have great sympathy for the carriers but none for the mainstream media newspapers that all opted to be part of the propaganda arm of the left. And that’s the vast majority of them as we all know.
At the risk of sounding cynical, it stays the same because none of us have deep enough pockets to change it. And a lot of people have lost critical thinking skills and just believe what they are told.
Good point, Stephanie. The people who COULD change the rotten Status Quo - people and organizations who DO have "deep pockets" - won't use those funds and resources to bring about positive change. That tells me they are perfectly fine with the rotten Status Quo.
You may be right but I think the country is split about 50/50 based on population between Democrats and Republicans. The major problem is that women vote overwhelmingly for Democrats and I think that there are more women than men.
Dear CSFurious and Bandit - do you all realize your image is the same on SubStack?
Is that a coincidence or could it be the women's movement has gone too far with a pendulum swinging out of control and lost its sense of purpose?
As for boy babies and girl babies - my opinion simple is we need both genders - a boy meets a girl and then sometimes flames occur and then what happens happens.
I'm sure there are more women than men. Statistically, there are more female babies born than male. Female babies are usually more robust and survive childhood. Women live longer than men.
This is all sad, as a country we need more men to balance us out.
No - when a women becomes older she has no desire to be barefoot and pregnant - what the hell you suggesting Bandit!
~~~~~
Sorry for getting so off topic - just playing both sides here - and I find it ironic they both have the same moniker image on Substack!
~
I like a hard-headed women above all - sort of like this song from Cat Stevens and screw the Charlotte Observer - they are so biased tis evident and obvious - screw all the media these days - bunch of propaganda pushers.
These younger women who are refusing to get pregnant until they are too old to have babies without IVF are why Democrats can win a national election. This is not misogyny. It is reality.
Wow - this hits close to home. As a former newspaper delivery boy I am most offended by this, but we cancelled our subscription to the Charlotte Observer a long time ago!
ha, ha.
another great article Bill - keep em coming!
Ken
edit: I delivered the Tonawanda News on bike most of the time, but sometimes Cricket's mom drove us on the snowy roads early in the morning to get the news delivered!
One day I'm going to write a story about all the successful business people and community leaders I've known whose first job was as a newspaper delivery boy.
Bill - if you tell this story, then I will tell a story as well - another story your article has bought back to mind. So when my family moved to Charlotte, NC in 1978 from Buffalo, NY I was a fish out of water there in the hilly suburbs surrounding Charlotte. But in 8th grade a friend's brother up the road that had also moved there recently and the fella of the home car-pooled with my father and our neighbor Mr. Jones to their job every day with the same company - National Gypsum - and they had three sons - the fella whose brother was my friend. One of the sons who was one year younger than I had a job and he enabled me to get the same job - and here was what we did six days a week us young boys full of hormones and desire.
We were young teenagers and we went literally - door-to-door - to sell subscription to the Charlotte News newspaper I'm pretty sure (that was the other paper in town at that time - and as another poster indicated - one was issued in the morning and the other came out in the afternoon), if I am remembering this correctly.
Anyhow - we had a "sales pitch" - to keep it simple here is what the sales pitch was:
1. You could purchase a subscription with a guarantee that you could cancel it within 3-months and get your money back - but to get this you had to pay in full upfront. Preferably by check but cash was accepted as well. For each one of these we "sold" we earned $3. (later on we could lose that $3 if the customer decided to rescind the offer per the guarantee).
2. You could get "one month free" and pay for the other two months upfront, but there was no guarantee and if you cancelled - that was up to you. For each of these we earned $2.
3. You could agree to subscribe to the paper and not have to pay a penny upfront - a bill would be sent later - for each of these we earned $1.
~
So every afternoon a fella - his name was Sherrill, and I kid you not his wife's name was Sherrill as well - and every day - 5 days a week - and on Saturday as well so six days total - us kids went out there door-to-door and sold our asses off (so to speak) in order to increase subscriptions to the Charlotte newspaper. Typically there were about 6 to 9 of us kids - in the back of the big blue van and Sherrill would drop our butts off and say - go from here to there - and then we would knock on all the doors after which we would wait for him to come pick us up and then drop us upon the next location. We would do this for about 3 hours during the weekdays and maybe 4 or 5 hours on Saturday.
~
I've come to conclude it was this job that was probably the best job of my life from the standpoint of learning about business, customer relations, and working with teammates - I'm telling you I could make a sale and our "catch" was we told possible customers we were just trying to "win a trip to Myrtle Beach"......ha, ha.......oh my god - the memories! We did go to Myrtle Beach - two times for me I recall - what a bunch of shit-talking geeks we were!
~
After awhile it became evident who the best sales-boys were (I don't recall there being any girls in the van besides Ms. Sherrill and she was fine), and after every day there would be a summation as to who did what and what the total sales were. You would be surprised the variability in sales - those of us in the "top tier" typically would earn 20-30 dollars per day and 50% more on Saturdays, and for a kid in 8th and 9th grade back in 1979 and 1980 - that was pretty good pay.
In general after I learned the ropes it was me and two other fellas normally with top sales and it varied from day to day. Other fellas didn't have the spirit of sales about them often would make very little and I wondered - why the hell they keep doing this if they ain't making any money, but I made a shitload of funds when I was a kid back then - too bad I spent most of said funds at the local 7-11 on slurpies and the pinball machine, versus investing the money in microsoft or some such - think about it - if I had invested the funds I could of retired when I was 35!!!!!!
~
ha, ha.....
~
We always could sort of tell when a day was fixing to be profitable - the most profitable days were when we went to either upscale apartments recently constructed with tenants who had just moved in (I could tell stories about some of the ladies answered the door for a little sales boy.....) OR when we went into new neighborhoods similar of individual residential homes. In the neighborhoods the sale % was higher, but in the apartments you could visit more places.
~
One thing I learned quick was whether future time invested in trying to make a sale was worth it - it was just a sense one gets after awhile.....and so for some possible customers I would work down the ladder of possible agreements based on the assessed probability of a sale - for other customers I could sense early on whether it was worth it or not and I wouldn't waste my time nor theirs.
~
That is just another thing gone by the wayside being newspapers no longer seem to matter - but maybe on a small-scale some papers still have merit, and maybe newspapers will start to make a comeback. If so, I support that as long as the news is "objective" and of merit.
~
With that said I think I worked on this job for about two years and I suspect I am amongst one of the top sellers of subscriptions to the Charlotte newspaper that I recall went out of business about 10 years ago or so (wow - I was wrong on that memory - it ended in 1985 - but I think they still published just under common ownership).
~
Best to you Bill - keep these stories coming - if you tell the story above - I'll tell another.
I used to deliver for them - and we were responsible for collecting fees due as well - we got to know all the folks in the neighborhood - it was a great way to keep "miscreants" out of trouble as us young boys in Buffalo had a tendency to be - and we got paid for doing what was nothing but fun for us on our bikes most of the time.
I think tis a shame kids nowadays don't have the opportunity to deliver the news like it was when I was growing up in Tonawanda.
I read once that future Alabama Governor George Wallace's first job was as a paper boy for his local, small-town newspaper. Wallace was famous for his photographic memory. If he met you once, he never forgot your name and probably knew all of your family members as well. Once an interviewer talked to him about his childhood and teenage newspaper carrier job. Wallace could still name every single customer on his route!
Russians and everything in that story - and I remember riding bikes with Cricket delivering the Tonawanda News - I must of been blessed to have such a wonderful childhood.
~~~~~
I reckon in a way this is why folks don't read newspapers anymore - but thing is media these days - tis nothing but propaganda - so I don't watch the news on TV, I don't subscribe to the NY Times or the Washington Post online - eff them - they are just tools of propaganda - and it is a shame to put it simple. Tis ignominious.
Your last sentence - I totally agree. My dad was born in 1920 and started delivering newspapers when he was 6 y.o. in Los Angeles, Calif. Wyatt Earp was still alive in L.A. then! I'll soon be 70 y.o. and remember young boys delivering newspapers when I was young. It was a great way for kids to learn how to hold a job, work and be responsible. It's very sad this is disappearing and I have no idea what will happen to journalism now.
You grew up in Buffalo - I remember when I was a kid, this would be about 1966, one year there was 50 ft of snow in Buffalo - WOW! I can't imagine being a little kid and delivering newspapers in 50 ft. of snow. You're a real trooper!
It was Cricket's mom really who was the "trooper" - I could tell more cause you have triggered some memories of her but it is sad these days kids with ambition don't have many outlets to contribute beneficially.
And yes I grew up in Buffalo - but as I recall it took more than six inches of snow to deter us on our bikes, but when it was fearsome cold and windy and icy, Cricket's mom usually came to our "rescue"....ha., ha. My guess is she enjoyed it as well.
We had a system and I'm telling you - Cricket and I - we could work together well - not only delivering the paper and collecting dues - but on the field of pee-wee football as well, but I digress!
Agreed - and it's also sad that there aren't more kids with ambition! And you're right, the ones who do have it don't have many opportunities. Nor do many kids work at anything these days, not even in high school, it seems.
Sad world we live in when kids with ambitions have nothing to pursue. But if one is really ambitious opportunity presents itself maybe.....I don't know for sure. Twas easier when kids could deliver papers had news worth reading - that ain't the case nowadays - and that is proven.
Sad state of affairs within media - speaks to big changes on the way I reckon.
I should have included this excerpt as well. As noted, The Charlotte Observer has only 10,700 paid subscribers - residents who receive the print newspaper at their home (delivered by carriers). However, the story points out:
"Paid digital circulation, by comparison, is just under 21,000 on Sundays and just over 23,000 on weekdays. The Observer prefers to describe its reach using other measures, such as the number of unique visitors to its website — a figure that is several million a month."
My take-away: "Paid digital circulation" is still only 21,000 t 23,000 - which is 90 percent lower than paid print circulation 19 years ago. Also, when you click on the Substack link to The Charlotte Ledger (the fairly new Substack newspaper), you learn that this email newspaper has "22,000+" subscribers - which is the same as The Charlotte Observer! I don't know how many of the Ledger's total subscribers are "paid" subscribers, but if this Substack newspaper has a a couple thousand paid subscribers, its proprietor is making a very good living with this small news shop.
The Charlotte Observer's "unique visitors" - "several million a month" remains very impressive ... so people are still visiting the Observer's website. It just seems that very few of these visitors are paying for a digital subscription - which explains the massive layoffs.
I think they have a good SEO firm, play the algorithm game well (suck up to the Google woke Cabal narrative). And have some sort of link agreement with larger sites.
I'll read Citizen Free Press for quick Drudge Report-type headlines before it went woke Cabal. As much as I will use CFP I don't trust them. Most links are to Twitter and MSM stories. There's something fishy about it so I use it with caution and won't be surprised if they go Drudge/Fox one day.
What I notice on CFP is an unusual number of stories out of Wyoming, all from an online "Cowboy State Daily." The stories are usually just color, a break from politics, but sometimes political. And when you read the political stories they might as well be written by a cross of Kevin McCarthy and Nikki Haley and Chris Christie and Liz Cheney. As they cozy up to "moderate" D's in the state. Definitely not Hagerman or Trump lean. Why does CFP link to CSD all the time? Kane is feeding them "unique visitors" for some reason. That I don't trust.
But it demonstrates how a Charlotte Observer can get a lot of visitors with friendly sites linking to them.
I've noticed that RealClearPolitics will link to some Substack writers. Not even really big subscriber ones. More mid-level. Those RCP links undoubtedly helped boost those writers, they go up in subscribers each time they're linked. So that's how the game is played.
As with all games that are played to drive income it entails negotiations of some kind. Where the line is drawn between a man buying a woman dinner and just leaving money on the nightstand is that negotiation.
I've never had one of my articles linked at Real Clear Politics, but John T. runs my stories on Real Clear Markets quite often. John thinks like I do. I always get a big boost in "reads" when he links to one of my stories.
For some reason, Citizen Kane no longer runs any of my stories. He's run about 20 in the past. I don't know what changed, but no longer having my stories published at CFP has dramatically reduced my "total reads."
I went from 27 new paid subscribers/month to about 3 or 4 month.
Yep. There's something fishy there at CFP. Like I said, 95% of the links are MSM/Twitter. He writes headlines that are catchy to freedom-inspired readers, who click and are led to sources and stories that aren't what they'd expect. It's not necessarily bad to get exposed to MSM sources, ones that highlight how insane they are or are sort of mea culpa's about how wrong they've been. But that's pretty much what its become.
Your/our plight is not all that different from Kane's in a sense. The need to be compensated for the time and work, our brainpower, analysis, is real, life ain't free. What is done for the "clicks?" I suspect Kane is doing more negotiating principles for the clicks than you or I would.
And I smell an element of controlled opposition in that site, and wouldn't be surprised to watch it go Drudge in November. Same for Newsmax going Fox around the same time. There's definitely another set-up in the wings for those who are desperate to trust information sources instead of doing their own diligence. To make us willing to accept the results of another stolen election? "Well, CFP and Newsmax say it was legit, too, not just Fox and Drudge, so it must be Trump lost, I trust CFP and Newsmax!" Or something like that.
Maybe even Bannon's War Room goes limp? Nothing outside the realm of possibility. Our reason and common sense, our discernment is about to be tested in ways we've only begun to be tested.
This might be the worst - or scariest, or consequential - trend in the world. We all focus on the captured MSM and how they "cover" national and international stories. What gets little attention is the death of local newspapers and local coverage.
AFAIK, our daily newspaper has gone completely digital. I was told this by a friend. I haven't subscribed to a newspaper since the late 1980s. The only thing I ever missed was Garfield.
My boys deliver the local "Free Press". In one neighborhood close to half refuse to receive the free local newspaper! A couple neighbors even threaten to call the police if one is placed on their driveway. I'm not joking. It is left biased paper and the area is concervative. The paper covers some local news but usually only has articles about the schools needing more money (they don't), left leaning polititians and public announcments. Usually less than a 5 minute read. The boys were offered the route when they were selling popcorn on the street. (Then COVID hit.) It's been nice for them. We've thought they would be out of business by now but the boys keep working at it as we receive a new DND (Do Not Deliver) most every month. The boys now are transitioning to better jobs but still love to deliver the route since they know the route so well and my oldest turned 16 years old and now has his driver's license! (Who would turn down any opportunity to drive at that age!) I think the public announcements are the only thing keeping it afloat.
I'm glad to see some younger people can still get this job. When I was the publisher of my own weekly newspaper (The Troy Citizen), I took a paper route every week to save money. I threw about 900 papers at 2 a.m. - after pulling an all-nighter to write most of the stories and sell most of the ads. I got pretty good at flinging newspapers at 30 mph and coming close to the mouth of the driveway!
... Yes, many papers survive on "legal notices." Those are ads that, by law, people, banks, organizations have to run. In Alabama, you can't run those unless you are a "paid subscriber" newspaper. That was one of the main reasons I switched The Citizen from a free newspaper that went to every home, to a paid subscriber newspaper. To make a living with those free newspapers, you really need full-page ads every week from all your local grocery stores and some car dealers, etc. I never got those key advertisers ... so I had to switch to a paid subscriber paper. But we reached 3,000 paid subscribers within a month of switching over.
This is a great article. I certainly have sympathy for these people losing their jobs. Maybe newspapers could survive if they represented the center of America rather than becoming so fringe propaganda. I grew up with a dad that read five newspapers every day! The Morning Democrat, Davenport Daily Times (later merged into the Quad City Times-Democrat), Rock Island Argus, Moline Daily Dispatch, and Des Moines Register.
When I was a very young man (many, MANY years ago), my first real job was a paperboy. I had delivery routes and also a wagon/cart selling papers outside the Catholic Cathedral after mass on Sundays (in those days, they started at 6 am and had a mass one every hour on the hour. I was there every hour selling our three local papers, plus the Des Moines Register, Chicago Tribune, and New York Times!
I was very entrepreneurial as a paperboy. I had two routes for two different papers, a morning and afternoon, with hundreds of daily houses on each day and even more on Sundays. I knew if I put in more effort than anyone, I would be #1.
I learned every lesson about running a business by age 12. Being on time. Paying my bill at the paper office each week. Collecting receivables. Getting cheated by deadbeats who failed to pay and moved. Realizing how incredibly important a positive cash flow was to success.
What got me there was not that I simply said, ‘I work hard.' It was my will and desire to be the best at being a paperboy in the world. It wasn’t flamboyant behavior or self-promotion; it was consistent day-to-day performance. I learned that success came far more from perspiration than inspiration.
Over the years, as I aged I recognized that I am, “if nothing else”, a self-confident, self-sufficient man. I know being a paperboy was my foundation. Of course some of this was how I was raised, and then it’s how I raised my children too.
I believe if there is only one thing that determines personal success it is sincere determination to be the best you can be, without apology. I’m not talking about ‘in-your-face arrogance’; I’m talking about that thing that’s inside those of us who persevere, the attitude that says, “I will not lose, I will not be beaten, I will overcome.”
However, I am not foolish, I realize this never say die attitude can come across as cockiness or arrogance. At those times when I am in the company of those who do not know me well, I attempt to ‘tone it down a bit.’ There are those who are intimidated by the attributes I’ve mentioned; they feel uncomfortable and sometimes pressured to be around those with gusto or intestinal fortitude.
QUESTION – I think when these attributes that brought great success to your life are deemed self-serving, defiant, and arrogant by someone not processing these qualities, you must ask: “WHAT DOES A PLAYER DO TO STAY IN THE GAME?”
Dennis, this post should be a stand-alone sidebar story! I've heard similar stories from countless sucessful people. Also, everyone used to get the daily paper, which showed people cared about their community. I'm like your father. I use to read at least five different newspapers every single day. Thanks for the post and for your long-time support of this little Substack newsletter!
Interesting as those traits are the very traits that make Trump successful, and everyone criticizes him for being self-serving, defiant, and arrogant. They say “that’s not what I look for in a leader” and I just shake my head. Those are the qualities that make someone successful.
Substack and web in general can take up the slack for regular news. News reporting declined to the point of pure propaganda many decades ago. We need fresh young local reporters. The only real possibilities will be homeschooled kids via substack, v4v podcasting 2.0 and nostr.
The thought has occurred to me that I could produce a local newspaper for my town, one that focussed on our county's main news, inspiring human-interest feature stories, local sports and history ... and still have plenty of time to do my "national" Substack. That might help me get to my ultimate goal of reaching 1,000 paid subscribers - which is the magic number for a writer who wants to net around $45,000/year. As they say, "Local; local; local."
The ongoing story of the local newspaper is interesting. In some ways, amidst the smoke and mirrors of the internet - the proximity and concreteness of the local newspaper are hard to replace. There is nothing like a good local controversy playing out in the local newspaper - with various neighbors and friends of friends playing roles - alongside the more innocent - and ultimately more important - human interest stories.
I wrote for small-town newspapers for more than 20 years. I rarely did any real "investigative journalism" in those years. That took way too much time and I had a quota of easier stories I had to write every day. However, I wrote countless "human interest feature stories." I also wrote thousands of stories about youth sports and school activities (and took thousands of photos). I always viewed my role as providing "scrapbook material" for the Moms and grandmothers in Pike County, Alabama.
Local or national, "controversy" - or challenging the authorized narratives - is dangerous or perceived as a threat to powerful people and organizations. Key advertisers do not like controversy, which means they won't support real investigative journalism. Even the smaller newspapers are afraid to offend advertisers, which keep their doors open.
Another thought provoking read, Bill. The paper copy of the newspaper here in WV’s capital city is hanging on by a thread, down to being published five days s week, with an early deadline advising readers to get the full story on its website. The 100% lean to the left is nauseating, with readers never getting an objective analysis of any story. Pity. Online is no better. I usually skim through the national / world rot and suffer through biased local and state coverage. I find some solace in the sports coverage.
Thank you, AI X G ... And all the big newspapers are owned by the same media companies and newspaper chains. That's one reason we have this 100-percent conformity in the way stories are covered (or important stories NOT covered).
I'm also still interested in the Sports news, but that content (which is disappearing) has become terrible too. I've learned that the sports journalists think just like the news journalists.
Allowing people to assume the news was free, and no one needed to be paid for writing it, was a key mistake, and you could see it happening no later than the late '90s. But even back then, there were places like Drudge Report that'd either give people the headlines for free, or they'd steal the original articles and post them/excerpts from them for free.
No coincidence at all, Gaye. It makes zero business sense to "go full woke" and alienate more than half of your potential subscribers. And the more subscribers you lose, the harder it will be to sell advertising to local businesses.
our local newspaper lost 2 days as well. when remembering it 18 years ago when I moved here, it was a full size, with at least 16 or even more pages. Nowadays you get only 8 or even less. If they mail it, you will be lucky to be able to read the news 4 days after it happened, mail going as it is!
In 1975 my grandfather retired from the Detroit News after a 50 year career that started as a copy boy at age 15 and ended at age 65 as the Vice President of Distribution. At the time he retired, the Detroit News had a circulation that (if my recollection is correct) was 500,000 during the week and could be double that on Sundays. Papers were distributed throughout the entire state of MI and in Northern Ohio. The Detroit News had in excess of 4,000 employees and more than 20,000 ‘paperboys’. For the final seven years of his career, my grandfather had responsibility for the entire distribution system.
And amazingly, the rival Detroit Free Press was nearly as large in circulation as the Detroit News.
The News was the conservative voice of the city, the Free Press the liberal voice. The white collar crowd mostly read the news, the blue collar crowd took the Freep. But on Sunday both papers were frequently delivered and read to the same household.
The carrier networks of both papers were massive, but because the Freep was an early AM paper and the News was late afternoon, an enterprising young man with a sturdy bike could double up and make good money by delivering a route for both papers.
Those were, in my humble opinion, better days. I hate getting older, but I’m happy to have seen and been a part of that as a kid. Among many other things that have gone by the wayside, the world is a much shittier place without a 2 inch thick paper and all of a winter Sunday (after church of course) to spend reading it.
In my opinion, legacy media has been self-destructing by becoming nothing more than mouth pieces of the government and corporate propagand. Good riddance to bad rubbish.
This is one of the great silver linings of our New Abnormal times. Far more people know the true colors of the alleged "watchdog press." If they die (which they are dying), that will be a net positive development for the world. I'd rather get no "news" than non-stop lies.
Agreed!
I still think the definitive proof that the MSM covered up Joe Biden's dementia could prove to be an inflection point for many people. The hope is more people who now know this scandal was covered up for years, will next ask, "What else were they covering up or lying about?" And the answer is "just about everything important."
It would be really cool if independently people started to do real journalism once again at the local level and report unbiased news to their neighbors via a local community newspaper unattached to any corporate giant, and deliver it to doorsteps once again. Maybe I miss the nostalgia of it all, neighbors informing neighbors of the latest news and all sides of a story.
I know we prefer our “devices” and digital media, but I’m actually starting to order books in print again and less ebooks now because screens really are starting to cause eye problems, as well as other issues like insomnia due to the overstimulation screens have on
our basal ganglia. I use glasses with the tech for screens but I’m not seeing much of a difference. So I find myself enjoying things in print form more lately. Of course I look silly pressing a word over and over wondering why the definition doesn’t pop up 🤣 (spoiled a bit yes.)
The problem is the printing expense tho and we probably won’t ever see a neighborhood newspaper again. I think it’s sad. I’m hoping somehow it comes back around. Maybe there’s an old newspaper printing warehouse they want to sell off for parts and I could buy the whole thing and hire Bill. 😂
Thank you. I was once a publisher of a weekly print newspaper. Those seven years almost killed me So I don't want to go back there. Still, putting out a Substack newspaper - basically just writing a few interesting stories every day and then hitting "send" - wouldn't be that hard at all.
There is a group of us in Australia considering something like this. Unfortunately, electricity costs, inflation and cost of living is so bad that many of us are on the verge of homelessness at the moment. We are struggling to survive.
It's something to think about, AU. If your writers provided interesting content not being provided by the captured local press, you might generate some decent subscriber revenue.
Hang tough!
My dad had glaucoma and was almost blind towards the end of his life, so his e-reader was the only way he could read books anymore (he wasn't a fan of audiobooks) and I love ebooks for the convenience. Having said that, I do buy certain books in print, such as reference books, especially anything controversial that might get censored, etc.
I can't remember who posted this, but it was something to the effect that humans haven't really evolved in milennia, yet now have to process so much more information to the point we easily become overloaded. That certainly resonates with me.
A while back, I wrote a column saying that the Socratic Method is now under attack. As I wrote this piece, the thought occurred to me that this has always been the case. The Greek leaders of Socrates' time killed him for using the Socratic Method.
You've nailed it.
I have great sympathy for the carriers but none for the mainstream media newspapers that all opted to be part of the propaganda arm of the left. And that’s the vast majority of them as we all know.
Begs the question - if "we all know" - why does it all just stay the same?
At the risk of sounding cynical, it stays the same because none of us have deep enough pockets to change it. And a lot of people have lost critical thinking skills and just believe what they are told.
Good point, Stephanie. The people who COULD change the rotten Status Quo - people and organizations who DO have "deep pockets" - won't use those funds and resources to bring about positive change. That tells me they are perfectly fine with the rotten Status Quo.
Well which one is it or is both and/or one or the other?
If you ain't got the deep pockets don't mean you don't have other choices.
If you lost critical thinking skills - well that is subjective - but presumably you can get them back.
So both - sound like excuses - and really being complicit after awhile means you might as well be "part of the crime" - so please.....no excuses.
So what are you doing?
I'm growing peppers.
You want some?
You got something to barter?
I'll trade if the offer is a win-win!
BK
Thanks but I’m growing peppers myself. Onions and cukes , too. An occasional melon and I’ll be growing potatoes soon.
Another problem is that all of these newspapers are simply mouthpieces for the Democrats. 50% of Americans are not going to want to read it.
More like 85
You may be right but I think the country is split about 50/50 based on population between Democrats and Republicans. The major problem is that women vote overwhelmingly for Democrats and I think that there are more women than men.
Dear CSFurious and Bandit - do you all realize your image is the same on SubStack?
Is that a coincidence or could it be the women's movement has gone too far with a pendulum swinging out of control and lost its sense of purpose?
As for boy babies and girl babies - my opinion simple is we need both genders - a boy meets a girl and then sometimes flames occur and then what happens happens.
I'm sure there are more women than men. Statistically, there are more female babies born than male. Female babies are usually more robust and survive childhood. Women live longer than men.
This is all sad, as a country we need more men to balance us out.
We could also prevent women from voting. LOL!
Good idea - but my wife just bought me a hat - says as follows and I kid you not:
"Please be patient with me - I'm from the 1900's"
****
As proof of this - I will post an image in a moment:
Here it is:
https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff2edf1f8-00b5-4cdf-bb45-0ddb4d005a8c_4032x3024.jpeg
And keep 'em barefoot and pregnant. 🙄
No - when a women becomes older she has no desire to be barefoot and pregnant - what the hell you suggesting Bandit!
~~~~~
Sorry for getting so off topic - just playing both sides here - and I find it ironic they both have the same moniker image on Substack!
~
I like a hard-headed women above all - sort of like this song from Cat Stevens and screw the Charlotte Observer - they are so biased tis evident and obvious - screw all the media these days - bunch of propaganda pushers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8T8pLAxCXg
These younger women who are refusing to get pregnant until they are too old to have babies without IVF are why Democrats can win a national election. This is not misogyny. It is reality.
Wow - this hits close to home. As a former newspaper delivery boy I am most offended by this, but we cancelled our subscription to the Charlotte Observer a long time ago!
ha, ha.
another great article Bill - keep em coming!
Ken
edit: I delivered the Tonawanda News on bike most of the time, but sometimes Cricket's mom drove us on the snowy roads early in the morning to get the news delivered!
One day I'm going to write a story about all the successful business people and community leaders I've known whose first job was as a newspaper delivery boy.
Bill - if you tell this story, then I will tell a story as well - another story your article has bought back to mind. So when my family moved to Charlotte, NC in 1978 from Buffalo, NY I was a fish out of water there in the hilly suburbs surrounding Charlotte. But in 8th grade a friend's brother up the road that had also moved there recently and the fella of the home car-pooled with my father and our neighbor Mr. Jones to their job every day with the same company - National Gypsum - and they had three sons - the fella whose brother was my friend. One of the sons who was one year younger than I had a job and he enabled me to get the same job - and here was what we did six days a week us young boys full of hormones and desire.
We were young teenagers and we went literally - door-to-door - to sell subscription to the Charlotte News newspaper I'm pretty sure (that was the other paper in town at that time - and as another poster indicated - one was issued in the morning and the other came out in the afternoon), if I am remembering this correctly.
Anyhow - we had a "sales pitch" - to keep it simple here is what the sales pitch was:
1. You could purchase a subscription with a guarantee that you could cancel it within 3-months and get your money back - but to get this you had to pay in full upfront. Preferably by check but cash was accepted as well. For each one of these we "sold" we earned $3. (later on we could lose that $3 if the customer decided to rescind the offer per the guarantee).
2. You could get "one month free" and pay for the other two months upfront, but there was no guarantee and if you cancelled - that was up to you. For each of these we earned $2.
3. You could agree to subscribe to the paper and not have to pay a penny upfront - a bill would be sent later - for each of these we earned $1.
~
So every afternoon a fella - his name was Sherrill, and I kid you not his wife's name was Sherrill as well - and every day - 5 days a week - and on Saturday as well so six days total - us kids went out there door-to-door and sold our asses off (so to speak) in order to increase subscriptions to the Charlotte newspaper. Typically there were about 6 to 9 of us kids - in the back of the big blue van and Sherrill would drop our butts off and say - go from here to there - and then we would knock on all the doors after which we would wait for him to come pick us up and then drop us upon the next location. We would do this for about 3 hours during the weekdays and maybe 4 or 5 hours on Saturday.
~
I've come to conclude it was this job that was probably the best job of my life from the standpoint of learning about business, customer relations, and working with teammates - I'm telling you I could make a sale and our "catch" was we told possible customers we were just trying to "win a trip to Myrtle Beach"......ha, ha.......oh my god - the memories! We did go to Myrtle Beach - two times for me I recall - what a bunch of shit-talking geeks we were!
~
After awhile it became evident who the best sales-boys were (I don't recall there being any girls in the van besides Ms. Sherrill and she was fine), and after every day there would be a summation as to who did what and what the total sales were. You would be surprised the variability in sales - those of us in the "top tier" typically would earn 20-30 dollars per day and 50% more on Saturdays, and for a kid in 8th and 9th grade back in 1979 and 1980 - that was pretty good pay.
In general after I learned the ropes it was me and two other fellas normally with top sales and it varied from day to day. Other fellas didn't have the spirit of sales about them often would make very little and I wondered - why the hell they keep doing this if they ain't making any money, but I made a shitload of funds when I was a kid back then - too bad I spent most of said funds at the local 7-11 on slurpies and the pinball machine, versus investing the money in microsoft or some such - think about it - if I had invested the funds I could of retired when I was 35!!!!!!
~
ha, ha.....
~
We always could sort of tell when a day was fixing to be profitable - the most profitable days were when we went to either upscale apartments recently constructed with tenants who had just moved in (I could tell stories about some of the ladies answered the door for a little sales boy.....) OR when we went into new neighborhoods similar of individual residential homes. In the neighborhoods the sale % was higher, but in the apartments you could visit more places.
~
One thing I learned quick was whether future time invested in trying to make a sale was worth it - it was just a sense one gets after awhile.....and so for some possible customers I would work down the ladder of possible agreements based on the assessed probability of a sale - for other customers I could sense early on whether it was worth it or not and I wouldn't waste my time nor theirs.
~
That is just another thing gone by the wayside being newspapers no longer seem to matter - but maybe on a small-scale some papers still have merit, and maybe newspapers will start to make a comeback. If so, I support that as long as the news is "objective" and of merit.
~
With that said I think I worked on this job for about two years and I suspect I am amongst one of the top sellers of subscriptions to the Charlotte newspaper that I recall went out of business about 10 years ago or so (wow - I was wrong on that memory - it ended in 1985 - but I think they still published just under common ownership).
~
Best to you Bill - keep these stories coming - if you tell the story above - I'll tell another.
Ken
ps - seems the Charlotte News ceased publication in 1985 after it was taken over by its rival the Charlotte Observer - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Charlotte_News
You know what is a great shame?
I searched for "Tonawanda News" - and all I got was bad news.
Nothing about the newspaper used to be named as such.
But being I'm a seasoned searcher, I refined my search and this is the link I found:
https://www.newspapers.com/paper/tonawanda-news/33398/
I used to deliver for them - and we were responsible for collecting fees due as well - we got to know all the folks in the neighborhood - it was a great way to keep "miscreants" out of trouble as us young boys in Buffalo had a tendency to be - and we got paid for doing what was nothing but fun for us on our bikes most of the time.
I think tis a shame kids nowadays don't have the opportunity to deliver the news like it was when I was growing up in Tonawanda.
~
One last edit to avoid confusion:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tonawanda_News
Seems it shutdown on January 31, 2015 - many years after my family moved from Buffalo to Charlotte, NC.
~
Keep em coming Bill - really.
I read once that future Alabama Governor George Wallace's first job was as a paper boy for his local, small-town newspaper. Wallace was famous for his photographic memory. If he met you once, he never forgot your name and probably knew all of your family members as well. Once an interviewer talked to him about his childhood and teenage newspaper carrier job. Wallace could still name every single customer on his route!
Hey Bill - twixt you and I ok?
I found an image I'm going to post at my own place, and then I'll come back here and edit this post - and share the image?
Ready?
~~~~
Here it is Bill
https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fcc607b73-08ac-4f88-bc1b-2d105727f946_609x908.png
~
Russians and everything in that story - and I remember riding bikes with Cricket delivering the Tonawanda News - I must of been blessed to have such a wonderful childhood.
~~~~~
I reckon in a way this is why folks don't read newspapers anymore - but thing is media these days - tis nothing but propaganda - so I don't watch the news on TV, I don't subscribe to the NY Times or the Washington Post online - eff them - they are just tools of propaganda - and it is a shame to put it simple. Tis ignominious.
I totally agree with you, I don't read or watch mainstream media either, haven't for decades.
I never knew that about Wallace, that he had a photographic memory. That's pretty impressive about his memory!
That is impressive!
Your last sentence - I totally agree. My dad was born in 1920 and started delivering newspapers when he was 6 y.o. in Los Angeles, Calif. Wyatt Earp was still alive in L.A. then! I'll soon be 70 y.o. and remember young boys delivering newspapers when I was young. It was a great way for kids to learn how to hold a job, work and be responsible. It's very sad this is disappearing and I have no idea what will happen to journalism now.
You grew up in Buffalo - I remember when I was a kid, this would be about 1966, one year there was 50 ft of snow in Buffalo - WOW! I can't imagine being a little kid and delivering newspapers in 50 ft. of snow. You're a real trooper!
It was Cricket's mom really who was the "trooper" - I could tell more cause you have triggered some memories of her but it is sad these days kids with ambition don't have many outlets to contribute beneficially.
And yes I grew up in Buffalo - but as I recall it took more than six inches of snow to deter us on our bikes, but when it was fearsome cold and windy and icy, Cricket's mom usually came to our "rescue"....ha., ha. My guess is she enjoyed it as well.
We had a system and I'm telling you - Cricket and I - we could work together well - not only delivering the paper and collecting dues - but on the field of pee-wee football as well, but I digress!
Thanks!
Agreed - and it's also sad that there aren't more kids with ambition! And you're right, the ones who do have it don't have many opportunities. Nor do many kids work at anything these days, not even in high school, it seems.
E. Grogan - in response:
Sad world we live in when kids with ambitions have nothing to pursue. But if one is really ambitious opportunity presents itself maybe.....I don't know for sure. Twas easier when kids could deliver papers had news worth reading - that ain't the case nowadays - and that is proven.
Sad state of affairs within media - speaks to big changes on the way I reckon.
Regards,
BK
I should have included this excerpt as well. As noted, The Charlotte Observer has only 10,700 paid subscribers - residents who receive the print newspaper at their home (delivered by carriers). However, the story points out:
"Paid digital circulation, by comparison, is just under 21,000 on Sundays and just over 23,000 on weekdays. The Observer prefers to describe its reach using other measures, such as the number of unique visitors to its website — a figure that is several million a month."
My take-away: "Paid digital circulation" is still only 21,000 t 23,000 - which is 90 percent lower than paid print circulation 19 years ago. Also, when you click on the Substack link to The Charlotte Ledger (the fairly new Substack newspaper), you learn that this email newspaper has "22,000+" subscribers - which is the same as The Charlotte Observer! I don't know how many of the Ledger's total subscribers are "paid" subscribers, but if this Substack newspaper has a a couple thousand paid subscribers, its proprietor is making a very good living with this small news shop.
The Charlotte Observer's "unique visitors" - "several million a month" remains very impressive ... so people are still visiting the Observer's website. It just seems that very few of these visitors are paying for a digital subscription - which explains the massive layoffs.
I think they have a good SEO firm, play the algorithm game well (suck up to the Google woke Cabal narrative). And have some sort of link agreement with larger sites.
I'll read Citizen Free Press for quick Drudge Report-type headlines before it went woke Cabal. As much as I will use CFP I don't trust them. Most links are to Twitter and MSM stories. There's something fishy about it so I use it with caution and won't be surprised if they go Drudge/Fox one day.
What I notice on CFP is an unusual number of stories out of Wyoming, all from an online "Cowboy State Daily." The stories are usually just color, a break from politics, but sometimes political. And when you read the political stories they might as well be written by a cross of Kevin McCarthy and Nikki Haley and Chris Christie and Liz Cheney. As they cozy up to "moderate" D's in the state. Definitely not Hagerman or Trump lean. Why does CFP link to CSD all the time? Kane is feeding them "unique visitors" for some reason. That I don't trust.
But it demonstrates how a Charlotte Observer can get a lot of visitors with friendly sites linking to them.
I've noticed that RealClearPolitics will link to some Substack writers. Not even really big subscriber ones. More mid-level. Those RCP links undoubtedly helped boost those writers, they go up in subscribers each time they're linked. So that's how the game is played.
As with all games that are played to drive income it entails negotiations of some kind. Where the line is drawn between a man buying a woman dinner and just leaving money on the nightstand is that negotiation.
I've never had one of my articles linked at Real Clear Politics, but John T. runs my stories on Real Clear Markets quite often. John thinks like I do. I always get a big boost in "reads" when he links to one of my stories.
For some reason, Citizen Kane no longer runs any of my stories. He's run about 20 in the past. I don't know what changed, but no longer having my stories published at CFP has dramatically reduced my "total reads."
I went from 27 new paid subscribers/month to about 3 or 4 month.
Yep. There's something fishy there at CFP. Like I said, 95% of the links are MSM/Twitter. He writes headlines that are catchy to freedom-inspired readers, who click and are led to sources and stories that aren't what they'd expect. It's not necessarily bad to get exposed to MSM sources, ones that highlight how insane they are or are sort of mea culpa's about how wrong they've been. But that's pretty much what its become.
Your/our plight is not all that different from Kane's in a sense. The need to be compensated for the time and work, our brainpower, analysis, is real, life ain't free. What is done for the "clicks?" I suspect Kane is doing more negotiating principles for the clicks than you or I would.
And I smell an element of controlled opposition in that site, and wouldn't be surprised to watch it go Drudge in November. Same for Newsmax going Fox around the same time. There's definitely another set-up in the wings for those who are desperate to trust information sources instead of doing their own diligence. To make us willing to accept the results of another stolen election? "Well, CFP and Newsmax say it was legit, too, not just Fox and Drudge, so it must be Trump lost, I trust CFP and Newsmax!" Or something like that.
Maybe even Bannon's War Room goes limp? Nothing outside the realm of possibility. Our reason and common sense, our discernment is about to be tested in ways we've only begun to be tested.
Did I email you my work-around business idea? To make that work, I'm going to need enthusiastic supporters like yourself.
You've not. Please direct message me on Substack messages, I'll see it and reply.
10-4. Thanks.
Just noticed RCP links to Charlotte Observer today under Morning Update,
'Trump's Biggest Obstacle to Victory in NC Is Himself'
I've seen them link CO often before. Guarantee you that's the source of most of their internet traffic.
Without a functioning 4th estate there is no democracy- how could there be?
This might be the worst - or scariest, or consequential - trend in the world. We all focus on the captured MSM and how they "cover" national and international stories. What gets little attention is the death of local newspapers and local coverage.
AFAIK, our daily newspaper has gone completely digital. I was told this by a friend. I haven't subscribed to a newspaper since the late 1980s. The only thing I ever missed was Garfield.
My boys deliver the local "Free Press". In one neighborhood close to half refuse to receive the free local newspaper! A couple neighbors even threaten to call the police if one is placed on their driveway. I'm not joking. It is left biased paper and the area is concervative. The paper covers some local news but usually only has articles about the schools needing more money (they don't), left leaning polititians and public announcments. Usually less than a 5 minute read. The boys were offered the route when they were selling popcorn on the street. (Then COVID hit.) It's been nice for them. We've thought they would be out of business by now but the boys keep working at it as we receive a new DND (Do Not Deliver) most every month. The boys now are transitioning to better jobs but still love to deliver the route since they know the route so well and my oldest turned 16 years old and now has his driver's license! (Who would turn down any opportunity to drive at that age!) I think the public announcements are the only thing keeping it afloat.
I'm glad to see some younger people can still get this job. When I was the publisher of my own weekly newspaper (The Troy Citizen), I took a paper route every week to save money. I threw about 900 papers at 2 a.m. - after pulling an all-nighter to write most of the stories and sell most of the ads. I got pretty good at flinging newspapers at 30 mph and coming close to the mouth of the driveway!
... Yes, many papers survive on "legal notices." Those are ads that, by law, people, banks, organizations have to run. In Alabama, you can't run those unless you are a "paid subscriber" newspaper. That was one of the main reasons I switched The Citizen from a free newspaper that went to every home, to a paid subscriber newspaper. To make a living with those free newspapers, you really need full-page ads every week from all your local grocery stores and some car dealers, etc. I never got those key advertisers ... so I had to switch to a paid subscriber paper. But we reached 3,000 paid subscribers within a month of switching over.
Bill,
This is a great article. I certainly have sympathy for these people losing their jobs. Maybe newspapers could survive if they represented the center of America rather than becoming so fringe propaganda. I grew up with a dad that read five newspapers every day! The Morning Democrat, Davenport Daily Times (later merged into the Quad City Times-Democrat), Rock Island Argus, Moline Daily Dispatch, and Des Moines Register.
When I was a very young man (many, MANY years ago), my first real job was a paperboy. I had delivery routes and also a wagon/cart selling papers outside the Catholic Cathedral after mass on Sundays (in those days, they started at 6 am and had a mass one every hour on the hour. I was there every hour selling our three local papers, plus the Des Moines Register, Chicago Tribune, and New York Times!
I was very entrepreneurial as a paperboy. I had two routes for two different papers, a morning and afternoon, with hundreds of daily houses on each day and even more on Sundays. I knew if I put in more effort than anyone, I would be #1.
I learned every lesson about running a business by age 12. Being on time. Paying my bill at the paper office each week. Collecting receivables. Getting cheated by deadbeats who failed to pay and moved. Realizing how incredibly important a positive cash flow was to success.
What got me there was not that I simply said, ‘I work hard.' It was my will and desire to be the best at being a paperboy in the world. It wasn’t flamboyant behavior or self-promotion; it was consistent day-to-day performance. I learned that success came far more from perspiration than inspiration.
Over the years, as I aged I recognized that I am, “if nothing else”, a self-confident, self-sufficient man. I know being a paperboy was my foundation. Of course some of this was how I was raised, and then it’s how I raised my children too.
I believe if there is only one thing that determines personal success it is sincere determination to be the best you can be, without apology. I’m not talking about ‘in-your-face arrogance’; I’m talking about that thing that’s inside those of us who persevere, the attitude that says, “I will not lose, I will not be beaten, I will overcome.”
However, I am not foolish, I realize this never say die attitude can come across as cockiness or arrogance. At those times when I am in the company of those who do not know me well, I attempt to ‘tone it down a bit.’ There are those who are intimidated by the attributes I’ve mentioned; they feel uncomfortable and sometimes pressured to be around those with gusto or intestinal fortitude.
QUESTION – I think when these attributes that brought great success to your life are deemed self-serving, defiant, and arrogant by someone not processing these qualities, you must ask: “WHAT DOES A PLAYER DO TO STAY IN THE GAME?”
Keep up your great work.
Regards.
Dennis, this post should be a stand-alone sidebar story! I've heard similar stories from countless sucessful people. Also, everyone used to get the daily paper, which showed people cared about their community. I'm like your father. I use to read at least five different newspapers every single day. Thanks for the post and for your long-time support of this little Substack newsletter!
Interesting as those traits are the very traits that make Trump successful, and everyone criticizes him for being self-serving, defiant, and arrogant. They say “that’s not what I look for in a leader” and I just shake my head. Those are the qualities that make someone successful.
Substack and web in general can take up the slack for regular news. News reporting declined to the point of pure propaganda many decades ago. We need fresh young local reporters. The only real possibilities will be homeschooled kids via substack, v4v podcasting 2.0 and nostr.
The thought has occurred to me that I could produce a local newspaper for my town, one that focussed on our county's main news, inspiring human-interest feature stories, local sports and history ... and still have plenty of time to do my "national" Substack. That might help me get to my ultimate goal of reaching 1,000 paid subscribers - which is the magic number for a writer who wants to net around $45,000/year. As they say, "Local; local; local."
The ongoing story of the local newspaper is interesting. In some ways, amidst the smoke and mirrors of the internet - the proximity and concreteness of the local newspaper are hard to replace. There is nothing like a good local controversy playing out in the local newspaper - with various neighbors and friends of friends playing roles - alongside the more innocent - and ultimately more important - human interest stories.
I wrote for small-town newspapers for more than 20 years. I rarely did any real "investigative journalism" in those years. That took way too much time and I had a quota of easier stories I had to write every day. However, I wrote countless "human interest feature stories." I also wrote thousands of stories about youth sports and school activities (and took thousands of photos). I always viewed my role as providing "scrapbook material" for the Moms and grandmothers in Pike County, Alabama.
Probably depends on the community - and the percentage of cantankerous seniors in the community - as to the thirst for controversy.
Local or national, "controversy" - or challenging the authorized narratives - is dangerous or perceived as a threat to powerful people and organizations. Key advertisers do not like controversy, which means they won't support real investigative journalism. Even the smaller newspapers are afraid to offend advertisers, which keep their doors open.
Another thought provoking read, Bill. The paper copy of the newspaper here in WV’s capital city is hanging on by a thread, down to being published five days s week, with an early deadline advising readers to get the full story on its website. The 100% lean to the left is nauseating, with readers never getting an objective analysis of any story. Pity. Online is no better. I usually skim through the national / world rot and suffer through biased local and state coverage. I find some solace in the sports coverage.
Thank you, AI X G ... And all the big newspapers are owned by the same media companies and newspaper chains. That's one reason we have this 100-percent conformity in the way stories are covered (or important stories NOT covered).
I'm also still interested in the Sports news, but that content (which is disappearing) has become terrible too. I've learned that the sports journalists think just like the news journalists.
Allowing people to assume the news was free, and no one needed to be paid for writing it, was a key mistake, and you could see it happening no later than the late '90s. But even back then, there were places like Drudge Report that'd either give people the headlines for free, or they'd steal the original articles and post them/excerpts from them for free.
Is it a coincidence that the more woke papers get the more subscriptions decline?
See yesterday’s Coffee & Covid.
And this:
https://nextdoor.com/p/T_RDB6KGCtLG
No coincidence at all, Gaye. It makes zero business sense to "go full woke" and alienate more than half of your potential subscribers. And the more subscribers you lose, the harder it will be to sell advertising to local businesses.
He gets hammered in the comments.
our local newspaper lost 2 days as well. when remembering it 18 years ago when I moved here, it was a full size, with at least 16 or even more pages. Nowadays you get only 8 or even less. If they mail it, you will be lucky to be able to read the news 4 days after it happened, mail going as it is!
In 1975 my grandfather retired from the Detroit News after a 50 year career that started as a copy boy at age 15 and ended at age 65 as the Vice President of Distribution. At the time he retired, the Detroit News had a circulation that (if my recollection is correct) was 500,000 during the week and could be double that on Sundays. Papers were distributed throughout the entire state of MI and in Northern Ohio. The Detroit News had in excess of 4,000 employees and more than 20,000 ‘paperboys’. For the final seven years of his career, my grandfather had responsibility for the entire distribution system.
And amazingly, the rival Detroit Free Press was nearly as large in circulation as the Detroit News.
The News was the conservative voice of the city, the Free Press the liberal voice. The white collar crowd mostly read the news, the blue collar crowd took the Freep. But on Sunday both papers were frequently delivered and read to the same household.
The carrier networks of both papers were massive, but because the Freep was an early AM paper and the News was late afternoon, an enterprising young man with a sturdy bike could double up and make good money by delivering a route for both papers.
Those were, in my humble opinion, better days. I hate getting older, but I’m happy to have seen and been a part of that as a kid. Among many other things that have gone by the wayside, the world is a much shittier place without a 2 inch thick paper and all of a winter Sunday (after church of course) to spend reading it.
Plus we had way better music.
Yes way better music! 😍