Some disturbing things are happening in the newspaper industry...
The Los Angeles Times recently sold its printing plant. The southern California real estate boom rendered the land more important than what happens inside. The newspaper will be printed, along with other papers, down the coast. Now, you have to factor in mileage and traffic. According to FOX Sports Radio, the print deadline will now be 3:00 PM. Are you kidding me! Why would anyone buy a print edition where the news is more than 12 hours old by the time it hits your front door or the corner mini mart? Of course, fewer people will by the print edition, and the paper spirals down the path to irrelevance. This week, the LA Times announced the sports section is evolving into a daily magazine rather than hard news.
Good luck with that.
Of course, there is the digital edition. Editor & Publisher reports the LA Times has 550,000 digital subscriber. The goal for the end of 2022, yes 2022, was one million.
On the other coast, the NY Times offed its sports department. A web site called The Athletic will provide the content. The NY Times also owns The Athletic. Management says jobs will not be lost. It's just a shift. Some greats came through the NY Times sports department over the years. It carried quite a cachet. Those days are gone.
As always when I write about print, I note that I cut my teeth as a radio pup watching some of the local newspaper greats work. I still get a thrill hearing the paper land on the front porch in the morning, and who doesn't glance at the headlines when they are standing in line at the corner store?
Speaking of my radio pup days, David DeCosmo was a huge help as I was starting, and again, when we became WYOU coworkers in 1990. David had his appendix removed this week, and I hope David is back on his feet quickly. He is one of local broadcasting's class acts. I wonder if the surgeon looked at the appendix and said "Get out. Get out now!"
Tuesday night's MLB All Star Game rating hit a record low. Sports Media Watch reports the game has hit record lows in five of the last seven years. Seven million people watched. In 1976, the number was 28 million, but things were different then. The stars bigger, the channel choices fewer.
The Emmys always elicit a major yawn from me, but I did check out the nominee list, especially comedies and game shows. I haven't seen any of the comedy nominees. None. Not one. I'd vote for "Jeopardy!" for best game show, even though the show is muddling through a rash of clumsily written clues.
How did "The Daily Show with Trevor Noah" get nominated? The show has been hemorrhaging viewers, and that's a sign it wasn't very good. Noah has moved on. Guest hosts are filling in.
"The Blacklist" ended its run last night. Nearly 220 episodes. James Spader is a hugely underrated talent. Spader improves everything he touches. I loved the first couple of years, but then "The Blacklist" became too dark, too bloody, and too hard to follow.
Even though I didn't attend, it was nice to see the old WARM 590 remembered during a program last night at the JCC in Kingston. I worked at WARM for ten and a half years, from 1981 to 1991. I will always be honored to be a very small part of WARM history, and I will be forever grateful to have worked alongside some great people.
