Comments on: Goodbye vän

By: Matt Artz

Matt Artz — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 03:48:46 +0000

Thanks for bringing up that op-ed, Doug. I’ve been in New York most of this week, so I got to read it the old fashioned way. That comment made its way around the newsrooms back west a couple of months ago. It was the most notable thing Singleton said since he asked Barak Obama about how he might deal with “Obama bin Laden.”

By: Doug

Doug — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 15:54:37 +0000

Here’s a clipping from Maureen Dowd’s Sunday column in the N.Y.Times regarding MediaNews Group’s California newspapers….”most preproduction work for MediaNews’ papers in California is already outsourced to India, cutting costs by 65 percent,…”

So Matt Artz, where are you, really?

By: bbox231

bbox231 — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 22:36:38 +0000

Todd R. Brown -

“Critical” as involving skillful judgment as to truth, merit, etc

“Op-Ed” as a newspaper page devoted to signed articles by commentators, essayists, humorists, etc., of varying viewpoints

By: marty

marty — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 21:16:58 +0000

I can’t find the story, but a recent article claimed the following order of popularity for where we get our news:

Internet > Television > Radio > bumper stickers > newspapers.

By: Doug

Doug — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 20:06:34 +0000

Just for grins I did a search on Google for Newspaper, Newspapers, Blog and Blogs. The results:

Newspaper – 203 million
Newspapers – 101 million
Blog – 3.56 billion
Blogs – 834 million

Gotta’ go catch up on my blog reviews…

By: Marty

Marty — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 17:44:46 +0000

The Voice is fluff but it gets out in stacks (and it’s independent).

I think there’s two thing hurting the MediaNews Group papers in the Bay Area: One, duplicity in content and opinion, and a weak interest in the papers nationally- a fact that will doom their web presence.

There is an obscene amount of overlap between the insidebayarea family, from local news, opinion, letters to the editor and sports. Additionally, every paper in the Bay Area endorses the same candidates and issue positions. A reader must ask, what makes your paper so special that I should subscribe?

Nationally, most people don’t care about Fremont news, and the AP stories are available everywhere. Since the Medianews group can’t have a major internet presence with the Argus, the physical paper is going to get more and more local -just like the Voice.

What’s left on the net is blogs like this one serving local interest, and the few major regional newspapers with a robust online presence serving an entire physical and political region (as the Chronicle serves Norcal). The physical newspaper will survive, but it will be free and it will serve a very local market.

I think the Merc/Knight Ridder realized this when they bought the free local dailies on the peninsula a few years ago (PA daily News, etc). Before the purchase, the daily papers were eating into the Merc’s ad revenue big time. After the purchase they forced ad packages on advertisers where they were required to advertise in the Merc and the local daily, sustaining the merc’s national presence.

I’m not sure how this is working out since the McClatchy/Medianews buyout. But, since the PA Daily is going through editors faster than Bartlett goes through scripture, I’d guess not well.

By: Todd R. Brown

Todd R. Brown — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 07:45:16 +0000

Critical op ed? Critical? Que? No comprehende.

By: Matt Artz

Matt Artz — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 07:38:40 +0000

The Voice doesn’t even try to be a newspaper. It’s just a different beast; a very fluffy beast.

By: bbox231

bbox231 — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 06:04:43 +0000

I agree with many of the sentiments expressed about why popular print news media are struggling.

At the same time, I see a weekly periodical like the Tri City Voice doing reasonably well at raising revenue from advertising and maintaining a loyal readership.

There is a unique combination of local interest and a critical op-ed that isn’t manipulated by economic or popular political factions that seems to work.

By: jim

jim — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 17:45:22 +0000

What a loss for Fremont. Bea took my wife’s picture before she embarked on a 3 day cancer walk. We also saw her at many many cold windy high school soccer games. She has captured more Fremont history than most and will be missed.

Best of luck and God Bless