Check out this report from 24/7 Wall Street, surveying what the writer says will be the worst year in media that anybody in the business will ever have seen. It’s really incredible. I knew the Miami Herald was in trouble, but I didn’t realize that it’s likely to go under this year. The Miami Herald! Can you imagine? Same with the San Francisco Chronicle. Mind you, I have friends working at both papers, and I feel for them. My paper is doing poorly too. Nobody’s paper is doing well, frankly. Reading that report, I got a glimmer of hope when I saw that the McClatchy company, which owns the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, is on the brink of default, which could result in the Star-Telegram’s closing. “Oh good,” I thought. “If it goes under, the Dallas Morning News could pick up a good chunk of those readers, and get a lift.” Then I felt like a schmuck for looking on the suffering of others as a hopeful sign for me and my co-workers. But that’s the world we media people are in today: it’s panic time, and we search for lifeboats where we can find them.
New York Times is in trouble too. But due to their prestige they can find sugar daddies to bail them out of trouble.