Star Ledger Announces News Squeeze

(This almost feels like the last dying days of the record stores....)

Pretty soon it'll just be one section.

Has anyone told them about the internet?

I hear it's gonna be BIG!!

Sure, you might be able to get the info from the internet, but how are you going to replicate that experience --- getting up at 5:00, taking the dog and a mug of tea to the park, then stopping by to pick up the papers and jaw endlessly with the other old codgers, before setting off home and banging around the house until those layabouts finally realise that there will be no peace, and so resign to get up and join you.
Then the pure joy of reading out the day's stories to family members who try, vainly, to dissuade you from doing so by saying things like "I can read, you know", or "Yeah, I saw that" or even, alas, "Shut the %$#$ up, won't ya!".
Then the trip to the coach, clutching the papers and yet another mug of tea, to peruse the remaining sections before nodding off in the middle of the room, inconveniencing everyone else and making a hell of a racket doing so.
Then there's the piles of papers to be trundled off to the dump on Saturday, with a stop by the pub for a pint after the grueling effort.

No Dell or IMAC can give you that experience.

I agree with Croiag...I love the ritual of grabbing the paper from the driveway, coming in and making that first cup of coffee, and sitting on the couch relaxing and reading. I save the Internet for when I get to work.

Nellie and Croiag, I could not agree with you more.

$%#$@, I can't access, complainer. It's blocked at work.

I love the print edition of newspapers, too, but consider the business side of the equation: the rising costs of paper, printing, and distribution, combined with the shrinking revenue of print advertising, equal a less viable decision to stick with print. What to do?

Cro,

Sounds and feels like my home, except I'm a NY Times guy.

As I've stated here too much, I find the Ledger maddening with its (soon to be fewer) sections and consecutive numbering.

However, at 42, I remember delivering the Record and the Daily News, so the ritual of "the paper" mean something to me.

Ask the 35 and under crowd and they'll tell you that a newspaper (like records, CD's, TV, The Gap and desktop computers) are for old people.

As much as I enjoy reading the newspaper on the crapper, I don't see myself pooping with a laptop on my knees.

What a nice visual, Bleach, please!

Is anyone else bothered by the Star-Ledger's haphazard way it puts the paper together? I takes me about 20 minutes to sort everything out on Sunday. No such thing as consecutive order.

MM,

You and I agree on that.

It seems, like most, the blame will be placed on "changing times" for the newspaper industry.

When the truth is, the Ledger (and most papers) are run like crap. No one noticed when they had all the classified and regular ad dollars.

Now? We see how bloated an industry it was.

Did they create an easy to read paper? No. Did they ever get my subscription right (after 3 tries)? No. Is there website easy to navigate? NO.

Will they last the next 2 years?

............

(There's is a model for a profitable news entity. Unfortunately, it seems that the powers that be at the Ledger don't have the visual to realize it.)

The StarLedger needs to increase the price of the paper and subscriptions. They need to charge for internet access. They also need to increase advertising fees including advertising on the internet. Free news on the internet is not a viable business model. Public and non-commercial news can fill the gap for free internet news.

Yes, the quality of the paper has been poor. Fire all the editors. They can join the union and load the trucks.

Thank you professor Mikey. Who knew it was so easy?

Now that's a model for failure: CHARGE for everything.

And tell me again why I would pay for it?

And here I thought that the Star-Ledger was announcing a *new* squeeze. As in, it's been seen stepping out around town with the Asbury Park Press. (Meanwhile, the tabloids are reporting an alcohol-fueled fling with the New Orleans Times-Picayune over New Year's, but their publicist denies it.)

You're an idiot. That was easy.

Why would we pay more?

Sometimes you get what you pay for.

Addition revenue would help improve the quality of the product and secure the viability of the company.

Pay-for-news does not work on the web when there are so many pre-existing free-of-charge news streams. The value of newspaper-exclusive editorial viewpoints is lost in the consumption of hourly/daily information and sheer number of everyone-has-an-opinion blogs out there.

No, the revenue stream still remains with pay-for-eyeballs/clicks banner ads, but auditing eyeball numbers has always been speculative at best.

This will certainly make it a little harder for the Baristas to pirate - oops!, I meant "aggressively and freely borrow from" - the Star-Ledger.

But otherwise, who really will weep over this one?

And young wee sma' brained mikey, why are you so big on everybody having to pay more, whether it's in property or income taxes or in the cost of their daily newspapers? Do you honestly hate the general run of humanity that much because it seems so much happier than you'll ever be?

I get it lasermike. If you want a REALLY good news paper, you charge $20 a copy!

And if you want the government to take care of everything and everyone you raise the taxes to 100%!

Brilliant!

Here's a idea: How about improving the product before you raise fees? The quality of writing has plummeted during the last decade. The web site is abominable. It's become a pennysaver at best.

Prof Williams, I remember the Paterson Morning Call, the Hudson Express, The Herald Tribune, the Daily Mirror, The World-Telegran & Sun, The Journal-American, The World Journal Tribune, the Elizabeth Daily Journal and The Newark (Evening) News.

And what I remember best about the Newark News's demise was the obvious glee it occasioned over at the Star-Ledger.

All newspapers are going under. Free is not viable business model.

I too enjoy the ritual of getting up early to get the paper and cup of tea. Especially on vacation because reading the local papers aids in getting a feel for the community

Well, ROC, I gave up waiting for you to describe the editorial staff at the Star Ledger as hopelessly liberal. What happened to you?

The Newark Evening News was far superior to the Star-Ledger.

Does anyone know of a really fat, low priced newspaper?

I'll need one going forward for Tubby who will only pee on newspaper.. He won't even go in Evening Mews either only newspaper!

"Does anyone know of a really fat, low priced newspaper?"

Beijing China News. Ask for the Chinese language version --it is fatter.

And if the Ledger would cut back on its Irish Sports Pages (obituaries section), they could save a fortune on paper alone. Or do they charge for obits, like other sleazy rags I could mention (whose initials are NYT)?

The Sunday New York Post is pretty fat.

The SL obits pages, WTF? Did you ever read those? Some are written in the most flowerly prose and others are very staid with only the most basic information. What is up with that? It's like they get stuff directly from the funeral home and don't even bother editing it.

The web subscription service of the New York Times, Times Select was a failure. They went back to allowing content to be viewed by all for free.

http://www.nytimes.com/marketing/ts/

Yes, the format for the Star-Ledger obits certainly varies...I'm glad they stopped doing The-Most-Important-Dead-Person Piece. They used to pick one obit to run a lengthy piece, while the other equally-dead individuals received only the Reader's Digest version of their death announcement.

They have more obits than the "St. Petersburg Times," which has one of the oldest populations in Florida (God's waiting room).

In SL, some merely die while others "make their transition surrounded by loving family and friends, pets, the mailman, their hairdresser..blah, blah, blah

LOL...yes, Nellie, that's what I was talking about. No sense of journalistic style or consistency.

Loony,
You are a going to pay for it somehow or you will not have it at all.

Who cares that they are moving this to the NJ section? Big deal. This is news? Whee.

"They used to pick one obit to run a lengthy piece..."

They still do this but it's usually someone very old or very distinguished.

Who cares that they are moving this to the NJ section? Big deal. This is news? Whee.

Mrs. M is clueless, c-l-u-e-l-e-s-s

As a former local newspaper writer (The Jewish News, The Jersey Journal, The Aquarian) I am saddened by the slow demise of the newspaper form. A screen will not take the place of a print paper. No mater how complete the web site is, I still prefer the struggling print version of The NY Times. The Ledger, with the shelving of the Essex section, and the steadily thinning staff writer assigned stories, is becoming a glorified community publication.

What is interesting is that everyone predicted The Jersey Journal's quick death years ago--it is struggling, still, although now a shoddy tabloid.

Sad.

As a former local newspaper writer (The Jewish News, The Jersey Journal, The Aquarian) I am saddened by the slow demise of the newspaper form. A screen will not take the place of a print paper. No mater how complete the web site is, I still prefer the struggling print version of The NY Times. The Ledger, with the shelving of the Essex section, and the steadily thinning staff writer assigned stories, is becoming a glorified community publication.

What is interesting is that everyone predicted The Jersey Journal's quick death years ago--it is struggling, still, although now a shoddy tabloid.

Sad.

I signed up for the Thurs-Sun subscription plan while shopping at Kings one day because 1) I'd get $10 off my groceries and 2) I felt kinda sorry for that publication, and loyal in a way--I mean, doesn't surviving in this state for 20 years make me a Jersey girl of sorts?

Then, one rainy day, it arrived in its yellow plastic, SOPPING WET. The Times, next to it on the lawn, was dry as a Montclair BOE meeting. (Okay, bad simile, but I'm just sayin'...)

I don't feel sorry for them anymore.