Grim news for newspapers

Impending death of U.S. print newspaper foreseen in 5 years

The folks at the Annenberg Center– University of Southern California’s School for Communications and Journalism — have some morbid news for print newspapers.  They predict that most will be gone in five years. From a report titled Is America at a digital turning point? come these conclusions:

“Circulation of print newspapers continues to plummet, and we believe that the only print newspapers that will survive will be at the extremes of the medium – the largest and the smallest,” said Jeffrey Cole, director of the Center for the Digital Future. It’s likely that only four major daily newspapers will continue in print form: The New York Times, USA Today, the Washington Post, and the Wall Street Journal. At the other extreme, local weekly newspapers may still survive.

“The impending death of the American print newspaper continues to raise many questions,” said Cole. “Will media organizations survive and thrive when they move exclusively to online availability? How will the changing delivery of content affect the quality and depth of journalism?”

The complete study is due to be released in early January 2012.

While there are multitudes of reasons for the death of daily newspapers, here in Arizona we see the state’s largest print daily contributing to its own demise via its arrogant insistence on relentlessly insulting its remaining readership with a leftist bent that is reflected in news slants, editorials and columns, through to Steve Benson’s cartoons.

For decades — since the 1948 election of Democrat Harry Truman –Arizona has consistently voted Republican in presidential elections, with the sole exception of Bill Clinton carrying the state in 1996. But such facts are inconsequential to those who set policy at the daily. Readership has further eroded with the ham-handed advocacy of policies such as same-sex marriage, open borders, amnesty, the DREAM Act, and a continual hammering of Republican elected officials. When founded in 1890, it was called the Arizona Republican. The conservative perspective continued under former publishers Eugene and Nina Pulliam.

Back in 2008, Seeing Red AZ predicted the death of the newspaper we have come to refer to as the Periódico de la República de Arizona.  Driving away subscribers is unquestionably the fastest route to the morgue.