OWNERS OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN News in Denver, CO announced today that the newspaper would print their last edition ever on Friday. After nearly 150 years, the paper is folding."Denver can't support two newspapers any longer," the owners told staffers, some of whom cried at the news. "It's certainly not good news for you, and it's certainly not good news for Denver."
Other towns with multiple daily newspapers are being scrutinized now by the national media, as everyone is searching for ways to keep newspapers alive (or at least continuing to produce quality journalism).
Here in Philadelphia, the idea of killing the Philadelphia Daily News has drawn attention, and impassioned pleas from various corners.
"The Daily News has survived by being the kind of paper that our readers -- heavily urban, weighted towards the kind of folks who don't spend all day staring into a computer screen -- will not replace with any other," wrote Daily News blogger Will Bunch.
Is there room for two major printed, daily newspapers in Philadelphia (or anywhere for that matter) in the age of the Internet?
Can you save newspapers? Your ideas could make you wealthy (seriously ... no one has an answer right now).
Or should newspapers be allowed to fade into memory?
5 comments:
Just having the Inquirer in town would give it a monopoly over the media and news released to the people. Having the Daily News and the Inquirer gives us as consumers options on what we want to read, which is healthy for the media.
Jeff McDevitt
Of course it's better to keep both newspapers. It gives Philadelphians more choices and more perspectives, but what do you do when you can't afford to keep both? I'm wondering if allowing advertisers more space in the paper would help. I know it's annoying to have advertising all throughout the paper, but if it keeps them in business, why not?
In this day and age, it is getting harder for more newspapers to compete, but I think it's pretty important for people to have more than one media outlet in terms of news. The Philadelphia Daily News brings a different perspective than others. I guess really the only way to try and keep them in business is to try for more advertising or start having a fee paid for internet news.
-Emily Hunter
I think it is important to have several newspapers in the city because to have political and style diversity. Its been said that the Daily News tends to be more of a sports paper and an easier read than the Inquirer. I think that the company should work on their website because it horrible. They should take notes from the NYDaily News and NYTimes websites, even the NYPost. There should be more of a distinction between the Inquirer and the Daily News on the website and make the pages less of a distraction( the ads and sidebars).
Sherae Moore
I think that having two would be more important if the two papers differed more. But the Inquirer and the Daily News are owned and operated by much of the same people and while the format may differ, their views seem to be pretty consistent. With the current financial problems they are having perhaps it's time to join forces and trim the fat.
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