

80s TV ads show newspapers weren't always confused about their value proposition - brandnewlow
http://www.windycitizen.com/video/media/2010/04/06/take-an-expert-you-charming-1980s-chicago-sun-times-tv-commercials

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jakarta
One of the things David Simon (of Homicide and The Wire fame) cites as a
reason for newspapers declining is poor reporting. He says that with year
after year of cuts, the number of journalists become smaller and smaller.

Plus, with older reporters getting booted, newer reporters are without good
sources and usually have to cover more ground. Meaning, whereas in the 1980s a
newspaper may have had one reporter for neighborhood X, one for Y, and another
for Z; there is now just one reporter covering all 3. So the depth and
expertise declines.

He cited a good recent case, where some police officers were involved in a
shooting that may have been police brutality. In the past, the newspaper would
have sent a reporter over to cover the hearing. But at that hearing, there
were no reporters or 'citizen'-journalist bloggers. So without proper
coverage, there is a risk that police misdeeds may go unchecked/under
reported.

~~~
gvb
...not to mention that the reporter may be living 12.5 time zones away.
[http://articles.latimes.com/2007/may/11/business/fi-
pasadena...](http://articles.latimes.com/2007/may/11/business/fi-pasadena11)

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mikecane
The coming death of the newspaper began in the 1980s. I worked in a
consultancy specializing in the online world (Prestel, NAPLPS, videotex, et
al). And one of the execs saw back then that classifieds -- the heart of paper
revenues -- would be stolen away from them. Of course, what happened when the
Internet came along was totally unexpected, a true Black Swan event, _one_ guy
stealing away all that business with Craigslist. Don't separate money from the
issue.

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Hubbert
Newspapers' role in cheering on, validating, and accelerating the Trillion
Dollar Housing Bubble helped seal their death warrant. In addition (especially
in this case), many "reporters" functioned merely as stenographers for
interested parties ("Home prices remain fundamentally strong, _according to
the National Association of Realtors_ ).

It was especially obvious when I found well-informed Web sites blogs that
would intelligently dissect and contradict the bad "reporting" on the subject.

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brandnewlow
Yes, that happened to a certain extent.

My point with this submission was to show that the unasked for advice that
webby people always seem to be giving newspapers: "focus on your core
strength, in depth reporting and expertise" isn't actually a new concept at
all. Here's a major metropolitan daily basing an ad campaign around "Take an
expert with you." I found that a little surprising.

~~~
RyanMcGreal
When access to expertise was a scarce and valuable commodity, marketing it to
readers was a sound business strategy.

