Ben Franklin once said that he was a printer first and a scientist and diplomat second. Franklin was referring to being a bonified newspaper man. Probably one of the greatest publishers our country has ever known and something that was very near and dear to his heart.
Since Al Gore invented the internets the media world has changed dramatically and even newspapers are finding that their online version is becoming more popular then there printed version. One reason may be that the world wide web is convenient and FREE. If you read an editorial online that you don’t like it’s water under the bridge, but if you are subscribing to a newspaper that prints an editorial you don’t care for it’s like paying to be accosted.
It’s no secret that subscriptions are down in Sioux Falls. Just drive past 10th and Minnesota and you will see a massive banner that says $9.75 a month – new subscriptions.
Newspapers are running scared. Why? Because it’s hard to charge someone $5,000 for a full page ad, when no one is reading your newspaper, and there’s justification in numbers.
That’s why I get 80% of my news online. Online news sources and bloggers have access to so many different kinds of advertisers that they don’t have to care about offending a small pool of local yocal advertisers. In fact there has been two gigantic stories lingering in emails for the past couple of weeks in Sioux Falls, that I have even kept a lid on, but one reason you won’t read about them in your local paper until they are done and over with is because both stories have to do with massive advertisers and trust me it shows neither one in a good light. (BTW- I will be doing a cartoon soon about one of the stories.)
The ‘established’ media will tell you not to believe what you read on the blogs because many bloggers are anon, and not to be trusted. Kind of reminds of when Franklin posed as an elderly lady so he could get his editorials printed in his brother‘s newspaper (yeah, believe it or not, this was going on way before the internets came to being). I guess I’m not the naive type to believe everything I read online (yeah, I’m a cynic). I have learned to filter the news I read, not just online but on television and print to. Just this last Sunday the major TV news networks had Obama in the lead in Iowa, but if you read all the grassroots media sources in Iowa, Edwards is the man. So like I’m saying, time to turn on the filter.
Print media has it’s limitations when it comes to providing reliable, up to the minute news and they know it — just don’t tell their advertisers.