[Speed Gibson,
Monday December 13, 2004 at 2:41pm]
Spiraling Down
As many have already linked, Powerline has posted a well-written recap regarding of the Minneapolis Star Tribune in general and its columnist Nick Coleman in particular. But so far, Mr. Coleman seems to be in no danger. Why? Surely his editors know as surely as we do that his work is flawed, even ridiculed at times.
Let's start at the top: the newspaper business is dying, which I truly regret. Circulation is slowly falling at almost every big city daily, dragging down advertising revenue with it. I may be wrong, but my guess is that the lost subscribers are at the right edge of the bell curve of its readership. The new media of talk radio, Fox News, thoughtful books, and now the blogosphere now provide a solid alternative for them that doesn't require the suspension of intellect.
This leaves the papers with an ever smaller, ever more concentrated liberal base. To keep these readers happy, we continue to get columnists like Nick Coleman, who if anything becomes more valuable to the paper. Carefully selected dissent is allowed here and there, but mostly as fodder for the liberal readers to convince others that they're reading a "fair and balanced" newspaper.
So, the paper drifts ever to the left as it dies, the result being absurd pieces like today's "Why is Abe Lincoln like John Kerry?" A collection of "so what?" statistics designed to minimize President George W. Bush's re-election, it's just balm to soothe the frustrated liberal base that cannot understand why the 51% in Jesusland don't understand. But there it is, not really news at all, but published on page one above the fold as if it were.
As I said, I truly regret this. It seems so unnecessary. Even a modest move back toward the center would surely reclaim a significant portion of the lost readership. Maybe it will take one major paper to try it and prove it works. Maybe the St. Paul Pioneer Press has already started.
Let's start at the top: the newspaper business is dying, which I truly regret. Circulation is slowly falling at almost every big city daily, dragging down advertising revenue with it. I may be wrong, but my guess is that the lost subscribers are at the right edge of the bell curve of its readership. The new media of talk radio, Fox News, thoughtful books, and now the blogosphere now provide a solid alternative for them that doesn't require the suspension of intellect.
This leaves the papers with an ever smaller, ever more concentrated liberal base. To keep these readers happy, we continue to get columnists like Nick Coleman, who if anything becomes more valuable to the paper. Carefully selected dissent is allowed here and there, but mostly as fodder for the liberal readers to convince others that they're reading a "fair and balanced" newspaper.
So, the paper drifts ever to the left as it dies, the result being absurd pieces like today's "Why is Abe Lincoln like John Kerry?" A collection of "so what?" statistics designed to minimize President George W. Bush's re-election, it's just balm to soothe the frustrated liberal base that cannot understand why the 51% in Jesusland don't understand. But there it is, not really news at all, but published on page one above the fold as if it were.
As I said, I truly regret this. It seems so unnecessary. Even a modest move back toward the center would surely reclaim a significant portion of the lost readership. Maybe it will take one major paper to try it and prove it works. Maybe the St. Paul Pioneer Press has already started.