For the love of God, do not bail out the New York Times

Ambrose Aban
Since the “paper of record” long ago ceased to be anything but a shill for Democrats and leftist ideology, I will greet their demise with happiness. I’d like to see the Sulzberger family have to invest all their savings in it trying to keep it from failing, only to see it go down along with their assets. Then, they can find out what it’s like to *be* in the class of citizen that they always “claim” to be fighting for, while enjoying their life of privilege and wealth. That would be true schadenfreude. How can you justify bailing out a newspaper? They don’t employ that many people. I feel sorry for the printers and the delivery people, but the reporters and the editors can all drop dead...

Phil Spencer
Yes the reporters can all drop dead...They have not been fair and nice lately, especially during the primary process and the general election. It is one-sided and it continues to be biased against the GOP (and Sarah Palin). Like Katie Couric, it had the chance to be fair and balanced. It blew it. It failed to be a good American.

Ambrose Aban
More people now get their news from the Net than from print, but the galaxy of competitors online means ad revenue’s necessarily going to be thinner, especially in a recession. Gulp.
Current share price of the Times: $5.99.

Jefferey Johnson
We should start a pool to pick the date when their stock will cost less than a copy of the paper. Exit question: Deep pockets, influence with nonprofits — did the New Yorker just come up with a fallback career for Princess if this whole Senate thing doesn’t work out?

Ambrose Aban
We heard ad revenue at the publisher’s New York Times Media Group, which includes the Times newspaper, fell 21.2 percent from a year earlier because of a drop in real estate and jobs classified advertising. The Times is considering selling some of its properties, but has not yet said which ones.Internet ad revenue, long a source of hope among newspaper publishers battered by falling print ad sales and circulation, dropped 4 percent in the news media group. That reflects a decline in online jobs and real estate ads.

George Tyler
The peculiar fact about the current crisis is that even as big papers have become less profitable they’ve arguably become more popular. The blogosphere, much of which piggybacks on traditional journalism’s content, has magnified the reach of newspapers, and although papers now face far more scrutiny, this is a kind of backhanded compliment to their continued relevance. Usually, when an industry runs into the kind of trouble that Levitt was talking about, it’s because people are abandoning its products. But people don’t use the Times less than they did a decade ago. They use it more....

Phil Spencer

Well the difference is that today they don’t have to pay for it. The real problem for newspapers, in other words, isn’t the Internet; it’s us. We want access to everything, we want it now, and we want it for free. That’s a consumer’s dream, but eventually it’s going to collide with reality: if newspapers’ profits vanish, so will their product.Does that mean newspapers are doomed?

Ambrose Aban
Not necessarily. There are many possible futures one can imagine for them, from becoming foundation-run nonprofits to relying on reader donations to that old standby the deep-pocketed patron.

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