PRINCETON, N.J. – The newspaper industry is crumbling and Americans are taking notice, a new poll shows.
Gallup Polls reports that the percentage of Americans who express confidence in newspapers as a U.S. institution is an all-time low. The percentage of Americans expressing “a great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in newspapers – just 20% now – has been dwindling since 2000, and the percentage expressing “very little” or “none” – now at 36% and climbing – finally eclipsed it in 2007.
The days when more than twice as many Americans expressed high rather than low confidence in newspapers are long gone, Gallup says, although, 42% of Americans have “some” confidence in newspapers.
This is the first year that Democrats’ confidence is no longer net positive in newspapers, while Republicans have been negative since 2004.
The newspaper industry has been in a shambles for years now, under staggering debt and a crumbling business model. Staff sizes in newsrooms have been slashed to a shadow of what they once were, and many newspapers now outsource their work overseas rather than hiring local. Newspapers cling to an antiquated delivery of information – the print newspaper – which many times are out-dated or contain faulty information by the time it reaches readers. The sheer cost of creating the product is crushing the bottom line of the newspaper business, leading it to cut corners on creative employees, editors and writers – the very people which once made newspapers interesting and trustworthy.
What a surprise to find out most newspapers are owned by demorats.
Newspapers as well as other news outlets are part of a free market. In other words people buy a product based on their needs and personal preferences. And while its true that most newspapers have a liberal bias (but not necessarily ownership) its obvious that most people are buying what the media is selling. Just saying……
The real reason to publish is to bring news to the populace who otherwise wouldn’t receive it. Then came radio and the newspapers never changed, then came television,,and the newspapers never changed, then came the World Wide Web and the newspapers never changed.
It isn’t the newsprint that needs changing or the press itself, it’s the attitude that envelopes this antiquated industry in its final thros of death that they have the real answer to what is best. This fallacy is ludicrous at best.