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What will we wrap chips in?

Posted by Paul Miller at 2:11pm on Thursday, 13th March 2003

The Economist have an article this week on the decline of the newspaper industry, where they say, "Journalists are being fired; pay packets and expense accounts frozen; pension schemes slimmed."

Even the Daily Mail is losing readers apparently.

Click here for more.

Comments

1
There's always the McFresh, the Happy Meal or the soon to be introduced grapes and yogurt options...
Posted by jackdalton jackdalton  at 8:20pm on Thursday, 13th March 2003
2
More seriously: the reported decline in reach of major print media players in the UK also reflects a more complex and messy world of news consumption elsewhere. Like the UK, TV / satellite news channels have increasingly taken the lead role in servicing this area of our lives here in Ireland. And in some circles on-line news briefings from internet sources are also replacing the morning read of a quality paper. Pressure of time meets style in the early 21st and all that? However, there is another (and perhaps more local?) side to the thing. Recently, a number of our provincial / county papers (weekly publications) are being taken over by one particular newsgroup with a lot of financial reach - Unison ? Tony O?Reilly?s Irish holding. These, by and large, have been tightly-knit family businesses but are increasingly up for grabs because the proliferation of local radio is squeezing their markets ? in a social as well as a commercial sense. While the editorial power and influence of some of these might not often be the stuff of newspaper legend, it?s still a shame to see these badges of the small & local going down before bigger less community rooted commercial concerns.
Posted by jackdalton jackdalton  at 11:07pm on Thursday, 13th March 2003
3
The chart in the article is pretty striking. The thought which occurs is, would we ever be told? I'm struck that every newspaper i read carries occasional front page splashes heralding its own continued march to new circulatory peaks, while gloating over the prat-falls of rivals. The Guardian and Observer both do this frequently. Thus, in the mind of the newspapers, we have a Pravda situation, with outstripped targets and potato / tractor / news production ever increasing under the careful stewardship of comrade stalin / breshnev / rushbridger. Fuzzy Math, it seems, is the only headline.
Posted by crabtree crabtree  at 10:00am on Friday, 14th March 2003
4
Whatever the faults of the industry, it's certainly not because they're paying us journalists too much. Salaries have collapsed drastically over the last decade and we're also now exempt ? along with doctors, armed forces, police ? from European working time directives, an odd state of affairs best explained by certain media giants' cost relationship with Blair. Oddly, that hasn't been widely reported, either.
Posted by rj rj  at 10:50am on Friday, 14th March 2003

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