Comments on: Sam Zell: You’re fired! Now let’s move on…

By: austexcal

austexcal — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 02:30:36 +0000

The fact that the messenger (and hatchet man) is extremely unlikable, doesn’t negate the reality that newspapers are businesses that must make money. In terms of content, I think one area that hasn’t been nearly explored enough is diversity of thought. Newspaper are nowhere near the homogenous left-wing dens of closemindedness that many in the right believe they are. They are, however, in general very left of center and in need of fresh voices. The right was pushed into the media ghetto known as AM Radio ( not to mention the internet ) and they built it into prime media real estate. Too bad old-school media executives cannot see the forest through the trees so as to realize that the right is not extremist as a rule.
Technically, newspapers are flocking, belatedly, to the internet and doing things that they should have been doing 10 years ago. The industry is ancient and not very maneuverable. I’m looking for a handful of Mavericks with new paradigms to jumpstart the newspaper industry. That won’t happen from within the industry, I’m afraid. I expect more painful changes and evolution. Less so when the economy bucks up.

By: Stephan Schwartz

Stephan Schwartz — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 16:38:57 +0000

Oh, and by the way, I agree that this would make for an excellent novel.

By: Stephan Schwartz

Stephan Schwartz — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 17:08:28 +0000

Hopefully more news sites will make the transition to offering online-only content that is of equal or higher quality than their print media offerings. This appears to be the best way to increase readership and advertising revenue.

By: Liz R.

Liz R. — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 04:29:37 +0000

This whole saga has seemed increasingly surreal to me. I mean if you wrote up the facts so far into a proposal for a work of fiction and took it to a book editor, you’d likely be told that the story would require too much suspension of disbelief on the part of potential readers. That’s the mark of a true nightmare when the tale is actually true, and I cannot even imagine what it’s been like for employees (and all those former employees) at the papers as they live through it.

By: Globe Dominates Pats’ Coverage by Scott’s Shots

Globe Dominates Pats’ Coverage by Scott’s Shots — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 04:20:41 +0000

[...] of their former selves. It’s one of the many tragedies hitting all the Tribune papers since Sam Zell and his massive debt took over. It’s a damn, damn [...]