Nobody I personally know wants newspaper titles to disappear.
We all have some degree or attachment to a newspaper that we grew up reading. Newspapers become part of our daily lives. As children, we may remember our parents and their ritual of reading the newspaper with that first coffee in the morning, or before retiring in the evening. I know I have such memories, especially of my father doing the daily crossword puzzle.
That is why we lament the dying of a newspaper. In my case, not just one familiar newspaper, but any.
A piece in the New York Times points out that an unlikely group of very rich people are coming to the rescue of the American newspaper.
Read it here;
Some of the highlights here:
The latest example comes in the form of a $680 million bid by Hansjörg Wyss, a little-known Swiss billionaire, and Stewart W. Bainum Jr., a Maryland hotel magnate, for Tribune Publishing and its roster of storied broadsheets and tabloids like The Chicago Tribune, The Daily News and The Baltimore Sun.
From Utah to Minnesota and from Long Island to the Berkshires, local grandees have decided that a newspaper is an essential part of the civic fabric. Their track records as owners are somewhat mixed, but mixed in this case is better than the alternative.
Researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill released a report last year showing that in the previous 15 years, more than a quarter of American newspapers disappeared, leaving behind what they called “news deserts.” The 2020 report was an update of a similar one from 2018, but just in those two years another 300 newspapers died, taking 6,000 journalism jobs with them.
My take:
I applaud these benefactors who are coming to save newspaper titles. I hope their efforts and investments will pay off–=as I think may be the case. There has never been greater interest in news than today.
Of course, when someone buys a newspaper title, he/she is also acquiring a legacy brand. Make the changes that will make that brand Multiplatform and mobile, as has been the case when Jeff Bezos bought The Washington Post and brought it to its former glory.
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TheMarioBlog post # 3304