And the meek shall inherit the media

So we’ve learned that Newsweek is for sale after this past’ year’s coordinated campaign to reduce its circulation and become more of a niche publication, and that its editor Jon Meacham is trying to lead an investment group to buy it outright. I might be speculating beyond my pay grade, but isn’t it interesting that print media properties have dropped in value to the point where the shlubs who actually do the writing can afford to buy them? I’m all for it, mind you, but YAAAH! (And, yes, I know Meacham is also a best-selling author whose income exceeds that of your average shlub).

This trend will continue. When the big media conglomerates that bought up all the papers in rural Minnesota implode (like a star!) the best outcome might be local people who know the communities and media buying up the once valuable properties at bargain prices and then running them independently in a way that focuses on news gathering and community involvement. How droll!

Meacham’s on The Daily Show tonight. Should be good.

Comments

  1. Anonymous says

    You mention nothing as to your thoughts regarding why print media, and network MSM, is going down the tubes Aaron. Could it be they’ve lost their way? No longer presenting a fair and balance journalistic view of what’s really going on?

  2. Oh, lord, at the risk of encouraging whoever you are, I’d suggest that the struggles of print media, particularly the print media we see in mid-sized markets, has very little to do with the politics or “way” of the journalists (what’s left of them) working there. I was on the tail end of a generation of journalism students that were told to stay out of politics and opinion-making, a generation that was an historical anomaly.

    The problem more succinctly has to do with the buying and selling, buying and selling, buying and selling of small media properties to larger and large companies with increasingly unrealistic expectations of profit margins at each sale. The result is the squeezing out of “expensive” local news content, the competitive pressure placed upon an advertising department squeezed by new media (which work damn near for free) and the mess we see today.

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