Don Y posted for all of us...



On 2/15/2016 12:33 PM, Frank wrote:

Local paper BEGS people to subscribe. A sunday paper (97.2663% ads) was
just left for us last week -- along with an "invitation" to a FREE 2 month
subscription (just give us your email address and street address).

"No thanks" (we can get the news from a variety of sources -- to counter
any "local spin" -- along with ads for any of the places we are LIKELY
to visit. Why have to throw out a stack of paper each week for stuff
that we can get elsewhere?)

Papers are dying and so is mail thanks to the internet and TV news channels.
Twenty years ago I used to spend about $30/month for postage for my part time
consulting business. Now it's about 50 cents a month.

Yup. My only "postage" costs are to mail parts/prototypes back and
forth (USPS or UPS).

I do like the on-line edition of the paper and you have to be a print
subscriber to get it for more than a few times access. Otherwise the paper
version is only useful for the funnies.

Our local paper is little more than a print edition of an AP/Reuters news feed.
About the only things they "report on" are various high school ball games.
And, it's hard to consider that "reporting".

It's even worse for TV/radio. Research costs money. They'd rather spend
that money buying some national "feed" (so, why do I need to go through
you to get to that feed?)

Anything of real *interest* ("initiatives" on which we vote pretty
regularly -- every 6 mos?) is always "spun" by the editorial staff
of the particular media outlet. So, you're never truly getting
information but, rather, "selective propaganda". (I'm surely not
going to PAY to get your OPINION)

+1 I read a book 40 years ago called 'Unreliable Sources'. It opened my eyes
up to the fact that is no real reporting done any more. It is all pap fed by
the gov't. The only news might be some kind of investigative reporting-but
start with a conclusion and follow that trail. The local paper I like sends
their people to the meetings then captures all the give and take between the
reps and the public. One can get to know the players because they frequently
send a shot across the bow. In FF I had experience with a different papers
reporters; usually they were below the quality of minimum wage fast food
workers (I am NOT condemning FF workers! It's tough) without knowledge of
what to ask.

--
Tekkie