I fill like this will be like Gannett. I buy my local paper, they do not have a digital edition and I do buy the print Sunday NYT. I am glad though that your hands don't get black with the ink.
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As others have stated ,there is irony in the fact in the fact that I am reading this on my desktop. I have read print newspapers my entire life but the cost of home delivery of the Sacramento Bee became prohibitive as the rates have increased some 200% in recent years. Digital subscriptions have allowed me to avail myself of many more newspapers though. I now have paid subscriptions to the NY Times, Washington Post and the Sacramento Bee.
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I have to fully recognize the irony of reading this article on my mobile phone. In my defense, I have paid subscriptions to the WSJ & NYT.
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McClatchy is one of the last newspaper chains where their reporters actually do investigative journalism.
We're seeing the last remnants of newspapers killed off, another nail in democracy's coffin.
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What is financialization of an operating business? A focus on making a profit and return to owners? I thought that was a basic feature of running a business.
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@Michael Blazin In this case the financialization of an operating business means draconian reduction of expenses in combination with stripping of assets that are worth more individually than they appear to be as part of the operating companies balance sheet, to the advantage of the new owners.
In layman's terms this process is referred to as "hollowing out", or "picking the bones of the carcass well in advance of death"...at the expense of the public good, and ultimately democracy.
Such are the (un)intended consequences of the brave new workd of "free" news. Thank you Google, Facebook et.al.
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Print newspapers and magazines have been dying for two decades. If they didn’t figure out how to move online, they are now going out of business. Sure it’s good for the environment the millions of trees aren’t chopped down, that trucks don’t have to distribute papers in neighborhoods, and that landfills are lightened without daily newspapers. Print papers had very nice run of about 130 years from the introduction of high speed presses in the late 19th century to the introduction of social media in the 21st century. But that run is over. News on newsprint is over. Very few people under 50 have ever subscribed to a newspaper. The news will still be available online as long as people want it and journalists write it. It the newsprint business is ending and this will likely be the last election in which a presidential candidate will hold up an ironic front page.
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The article mentions newspapers lost about 50% of its employees since 2004. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, newspapers lost 238,000 jobs between 2001 and 2016. And no one mourns the loss of those jobs and livelihoods, pensions lost and careers gone. It represents the decimation of a generation of professionals, especially since rare new jobs tend to be entry level positions (read cheap). The NYT and a few other publications excepted, our print news media is in a terrible state.
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Get woke, go broke.
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Ahem, wasn't U.S. News the fisrt newsweekly to go bust? And what about the Orange County Register? I dare you to make those fit your narrative.
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So, so clever and even more wrong.
Terrible news for the first amendment that the owners of a repellent tabloid will now control a once respected news outlet. How much can the nation stand? Mike Bloomberg, can't you come to the rescue?
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People should remember the the McClatchy Company was the only news organization that wasn't intimidated into supporting the lies that resulted in the second Iraq war debacle. Their team dealt in facts, not faux patriotism and was the only outlet that dared to counter the Bush administration's false narrative of WMD and links to Al-Qaeda. Fox News, on the eve of the Iraq invasion found that 83% of the population, falsely, thought that Saddam Hussein was responsible for 911. For the 17% of us who knew the dangers of "groupthink", the McClatchy newspapers were the only place to turn, to turn away from the propaganda.
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This is sad, especially in times like these, where powerful people in the White house are trying to destroy our free press. We need to find a way to subsidize the news and focus on good honest unbiased reporting over profits. We need good journalism to survive, not fake Facebook journalism.
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Chatham Asset will make McCl profitable how? Not by improving and increasing local coverage. They will somehow make the already unpleasant digital experience even more unpleasant by polluting the site or app with ads and junk 'content.' Hold tight, NYT and WaPo. Of course if we manage to get Trump out of the White House that will be bad for the news business.
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I worked for a McClatchy newspaper years ago when it had more than 800 employees; now it has fewer than 100, including a staff of excellent journalists. Sadly, its fate is not much different from that of other U.S. companies. The trend is to hire as few employees as possible and still expect them to produce high-quality results.
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Sad news. McClatchy has been one of the few bright spots in the news business for these past few years.
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Once a hedge fund is involved.. things never end well for employees or customers.
Worse.. news properties are ripe for political and social bias at the hands of conservative hedge fund owners.. either directly or by selective sale to right wing conservative groups.
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