With the advent of the Internet, many have been predicting the demise of the newspaper for a while. All of the major newspapers have web equivalents, and there are many news sources people have come to depend upon that are "Internet only."
In the U.S., shares of major newspaper groups are plummeting. The Washington Post is down 24 percent, and the New York Times is down 26 percent, according to a recent "print" article I read. Both companies, by the way, are investing heavily in the online newspaper business.
There are other economic factors as well that are assaulting the "print" newspaper. They have lost a large portion of their classifieds and advertising to the Internet as well.
But I would like to add another possible factor to the mix, another feasible variable for the public's growing disinterest in the traditional newspaper. Could the newspaper industry be losing readers also because of its relentless push for an agenda not shared by a large segment of its community. For example, when referring to the Los Angeles Times, some surveys have the numbers of readers listed as 40% of L.A. readers are conservative and 20% don’t care. Of the remaining 40%, a large portion of those are independent, or moderates. So the question then arises, how can a newspaper survive trying to reach less than 40% of the people?
I, myself, only purchase the Sunday paper, and that is primarily for the "inserts." I receive most of my news from personal sources, and the Internet - Oh, and a portion from television news channels, but they are, for the most part, about as honest in their reporting as the newspapers.
And more astonishing is that a friend of mine that writes for the local Press Enterprise newspaper in Riverside, California, agrees with me. "Liberal content is definitely a factor in the coming demise of the printed media, or at least in the newspaper end of it," she told me.
And since only a portion of the population is Liberal, and the rest of the potential customers are seeing most reporters, editors, and columnists as being "too liberal," I believe it may not be too far of a stretch to say that the liberalization of the newspaper industry may be one of the major factors, if not the largest factor, for the slow fall of the the industry.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a few websites to visit for today's latest news.