Oldspapers and the Crisis of the Establishment

Gary North has a truly great one on the decline of the newspaper establishment:

A family paid $650 million to buy Newsday, the Long Island newspaper. The paper paid an additional $4 million to create an on-line edition in which readers would pay $5 a week. Total number of subscribers who did this: 35.

The New York Times has announced that it will begin charging frequent visitors to view its contents, beginning in 2011. It is aimed at visitors who are loyal to the Times. Yes, the paper really said this.

This strategy will not work. Loyalty is great, but it works in the newspaper industry only when it's free of charge. As soon as there is a fee, loyalty ends. The decision-makers at the Times are living in a fantasy world. They are desperate, like mammoths in the La Brea tar pits. They are thrashing around, trying to make a pay-to-read on-line model work. It won't work.

Printed daily newspapers are doomed. On-line daily paid-subscription newspapers are also doomed. Conclusion: the Establishment is about to lose one of its three major instruments for shaping public opinion: newspapers, the TV networks, and the tax-funded schools.

You'll want to read the whole article.