Cause And Effect
October 2nd, 2006 by Justin
The Times this morning has a pretty funny pair of stories. The first is a big expose about how Tribune Media has dipped over the years and therefore shoots another warning flair in to the lonely sky above this clusterfuck of big newspaper chains.
But the second is a story about the curious world of online classifieds. While profits can remain elusive to some of these internet start-ups, the effect they have on print classified sales is undeniable. In fact, one might say that the newsprint industry’s arrogance about these listing sites is a great example of why these dopes are in this position to begin with. Should these big brand names have evolved with the changing market 5 years ago they would still be able to dominate. At least that’s my two cents.
Also, this little gem gets buried in the first story…
The Tribune Company joined the club in 1983, ending 136 years of private ownership. Like others, Tribune tapped into Wall Street to upgrade, diversify or expand. Wall Street gave Tribune the means to acquire Times-Mirror in 2000 — a move that both sides would probably take back if they could.
Yup, mark that on your calendar’s at home kids as another mega media merger from the turn of the century that everyone was too busy calling the beginning of Big Brother to notice that the new combinations were bloated and destined to fail.
• How did newspaper’s land in this mess? [NYT]
• Oh, never mind, found it [NYT]
3 Responses to “Cause And Effect”
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Critical Acclaim:
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seamus wrote on 10/2/06 at 11:11 am :
Great point. I went to a panel on “the coming media monopoly” in June, and I found the same fear and loathing about media mergers, without much mention about how many of them fail as new competitors come online. If anything, America’s current media system is one of perfect competition; the barriers to entry are negligible, and the only people complaining are the purists who believe that media shouldn’t be a business, or the print people who are getting their lunches eaten.
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