[Speed Gibson,
Wednesday February 13, 2008 at 2:45pm]
Rather Fight than Switch?
I take no pleasure in seeing the Minneapolis Star Tribune suffer another round of layoffs. The 58 laid off are real people, many no doubt leaving jobs they really enjoy. As this industry continues to contract, there are fewer such opportunities available.
Obviously I don't understand this business, specifically why it is so unwilling to change, even to survive. There are tens of thousands of potential customers that would ask little more than a little more serious journalism. I'm one of them, one who subscribed for something like 35 years before even I had to quit in frustration. And yet it seems they'd rather fight than switch.
To survive, the Star Tribune's owners would do well do dust off the old book "Quality is Free." Nobody is going to quit the paper if you raise (i.e. restore) your standards. But more will quit if the quality continues to decline.
Obviously I don't understand this business, specifically why it is so unwilling to change, even to survive. There are tens of thousands of potential customers that would ask little more than a little more serious journalism. I'm one of them, one who subscribed for something like 35 years before even I had to quit in frustration. And yet it seems they'd rather fight than switch.
To survive, the Star Tribune's owners would do well do dust off the old book "Quality is Free." Nobody is going to quit the paper if you raise (i.e. restore) your standards. But more will quit if the quality continues to decline.