Sunday, June 26, 2011

The Sad State of Print News....

......and of those who are hastening it's demise. I found out a couple of weeks ago, after nearly two years of buying my morning paper from Mustafa and Walid, full retail I might ad, that the Chronicle is actually hurting enough for circulation numbers, that their carriers now will enter a beehive apartment complex such as mine and trudge up the stairs to put a paper on my mat. After all this time of doing without, I was shocked at the first one that I brought in in it's plastic sleeve. It was a Tuesday edition, and while it was the Chronicle, if was smaller than I remember the sports section alone being, just 6-8 years ago. I tell you that to tell you this: It is still a traditional newspaper in every sense of the word, and that is a hell of a lot more than I can say for the Advocate. I find the print edition to be a complete embarrassment, compared to what I saw, as recently as 2006. It is poorly laid out, and so biased and one track minded in it's tone, that I am shocked it is still in circulation. I think that they are surviving simply due to the fact that "old habits die hard". That is the print edition. Their online edition, and "blogs" and forum, have become a complete free for all, with a few intelligent hangers on, diluted by a bevy of religious freaks, redneck philosophers, and just total morons stinking up the place. I will read it until the powers that be hopefully sell it to someone with some editorial aptitude and the ability to make it into a newspaper again. By the same token, I will not be surprised at the announcement that they are just closing their doors. Like I said, old habits die hard. Just ask the recurring "spotlight blogger"/editor...........