Shrinking is celebrated.

Go figure.

https://www.deseret.com/opinion/2020/12/26/22189662/inside-the-newsroom-the-future-is-now-for-the-deseret-news

They didn't have enough faith.

The times they are a changin'. I've always felt that Salt Lake City would have a difficult time supporting two daily newspapers. But the Tribune may very well end up going in the same direction.

I notice that the article trumpeted the DN's support of "religious freedom." To me, that phrase has become synonymous with religious bullying.

Both the DN and the SLT are going to be weekly print editions

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/27/business/media/salt-lake-tribune-daily-delivery.html

"The Deseret News will instead print a weekly edition, as well as a monthly magazine, its editor, Doug Wilks, said in an op-ed article on Tuesday. That news came the day after the city’s other major newspaper, The Salt Lake Tribune, announced that it would switch from a daily printing schedule to a weekly one."

Oh, that's sad about the Tribune. But it may be the direction that most newspapers will have to go.

summer Wrote:
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> ... always felt Salt Lake City would have a difficult time supporting two daily newspapers.
>

Just printing nonsense on paper doesn't necessarily constitute a daily newspaper. It certainly doesn't "compete" with the diSlTRIBution.

But, Salt Lake City doesn't have a bustling downtown, active workers and socializers, and people these days generally choose to get unfiltered, indigestible, half fat, half-true, semi-junk
"news" through instant electronic annoyance devices.

The deserted news is there to satisfy itself, even though it doesn't read itself, or even the future.

The article never says directly that the newspaper will stop publishing a daily edition. They only announce the introduction of a new weekly print edition. Wow! What a spin on bad news for them. The news is so bad they won't even say it directly. They are downsizing, not increasing. The article makes it look like there is reason for them to celebrate a new digital product and a bright future for their business because of that digital product. They neglect to mention that their competition now is anyone and everyone who can afford any kind of digital device. Their bully pulpet isn't that much bigger than yours or mine now. That would be almost everyone on the planet these days. Yeah, real reason for them to celebrate (not). The fact that they're owned by a cult that is also in decline also means that their reputation is not so great either. Good bye Deseret News. I am glad you told us this much because otherwise, I wouldn't have known you were on the way out.

No, article (from 10/27) DOES say that the LAST print daily of the D News will be Thursday 12/31/2020. Also says they have been planning this for 10 years.

Good riddance !

This is like the church consolidating 2-3 stakes or missions into one and then claiming to create a new stake/mission.

---

"And as we expand our reach nationally, our position at the crossroads of the West will grow to crossroads of the nation."

LOLOL. Good luck with that, boys.

Sad times for newspapers. Not sure people generally are as informed as they once were.

Deseret Book would be doing humanity a huge favor as well.

Once "An international daily newspaper," derided as "the newspaper that everyone respects but nobody reads."

I got a goodbye note from our newspaper delivery couple today. They have been the best and most reliable paper delivery folks we have had. There are only 4 more print editions of the SLTRib as they will print their last daily on Thursday, New Year's Eve. I am not sure if they will be the ones who will deliver the weekend edition which I believe will start coming every Saturday. I don't know if or for how long even that one day a week edition will last.

I am really having withdrawals thinking about trying to read my morning paper on my laptop. I have literally had a daily paper since 1955 when I first started to read. My parents were avid readers and I became one as well. No matter where I lived, I got the paper delivered. I've had Subscriptions to the St.Louis Post-Dispatch, the San Francisco Chronical, the Washington Post, The Provo Daily Herald, The Times News (Idaho) and the Salt Lake Tribune.

I know that nothing stays the same, but damn, I hate to see this go away.

I used to be the same. I read a newspaper every day, everywhere I lived. Gradually my community newspaper got more and more expensive. I suppose that they could claim that the cost of newsprint kept going up. They gradually dropped features that were important to me. For instance, they used to have a weekly listing for all of the movies showing at movie theaters in the area. Yes, I could look that up on the web, but having it all of the information listed in one place was convenient. Then they changed the print font, and made it painfully smaller to read. I thought this was odd, because they had so many elderly readers who were devoted to the paper. When I expressed my concerns to the editor, on two occasions, they were brushed aside. I didn't feel heard.

Many of the local stories were repetitive in nature. The major national stories I could pull off of the web. I gradually lost interest, and a part of me felt bad about that. But a part of me felt that the paper didn't work hard enough to keep me as a reader.

So now the most I will do is to get a copy on Fridays, to get the entertainment section, or an occasional Sunday paper. But carving out time to read the newspaper can be a challenge, because life is different now.

Publishing a newspaper was basically just another way to make a buck. The money was in selling advertising space. Back in the day, the method for figuring out the cost of an ad was CPM, cost per thousand (the 'M' being the Roman numeral for 1,000). Every 'column inch' of space had a price. Remember classified sections?

People/businesses that pay to advertise want their message seen by as many eyes as possible, and the people offering to get the ad in front of a bunch of eyes want to do it as cheaply as possible, for two reasons: so they can charge less than the competition and keep as much of the income as profit as possible.

How many of you have fallen for any one of the growing numbers of "Wow, look at these photos, most of which are prurient!" ads? Those are goldmines because they don't really cost any money. Every time you click on 'next' a new set of ads is presented; that's the literal definition of click-bait!

So those sites get paid by advertisers, at a CPM that's much lower than 'real' websites that have to create or acquire content.

Newspapers and magazines are doomed. Actual books are next.

How about a 'screen' on the back of your hand? How about a keyboard on the back of the other hand?

You old folks, who bought a home back in the 60s, 70s or 80s? How many monthly payments did you have? Compare that to how many monthly payments quite a few of us have now... The majority of you no longer pay a monthly fee for an ink on paper
service. But how many monthly bills do you have for some kind of electronic service?

The only constant is change.

My ggpa was editor of the News for 25 years. My grandpa was a reporter and News writer for 35 years. Both died years before I was born.

My folks always subscribed to the SL Trib. Go figure.

Grinding up trees and smearing carbon on them to deliver information is so 1590s. There is no print edition of RFM. Do we need one?

Perhaps at some point I will get used to online newspapers. For now, it doesn't feel like the same experience.

It's a better experience online. I can scan all the stories, open a tab for each of the stories that look interesting, and read them or delete at my leisure.

If something is mentioned in the story for which readers might want additional information, a link can be embedded right there in the story. This is particularly useful when a story is a continuation of an earlier event, or reply to an earlier article or essay. It is easy to open the embedded link, read it, and return to your exact location in the original article.

In highly visual stories, lots of photos, and even video can be embedded in the electronic versions. Photos are expensive in print, and video is of course impossibe.

The ink doesn't smear on your fingers.

Stacks of newspaper don't pile up around the house.

There's nothing to recycle.

It's easy to email a link to an article to a friend, or even the entire article, if a "reader mode" version is available, without the ads. Reader mode usually is available.

It does take some getting used to to transition to electronic. I read three newspapers a day, at least scanning 30 or 40 articles a day. (NYTimes keeps count for me - I read about 4,500 of their articles a year). That would be both expensive and a deluge of paper if I tried it with the paper versions. Three subscriptions costs me about a dollar a day.

Electronic delivery is always on time, never wet or in the shrubs, no plastic bag, and I don't even have to get up to get it.

I do miss the comics page. But not enough to ever go back to paper.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/28/2020 10:55AM by Brother Of Jerry.

I would have thought the sheep..er the faithful would have shelled out their last scheckel to keep that rag alive. Wow!

Proof of the end of times when the Adversary makes his last behemoth strategic move to destroy the Kingdom of God. What better way to start than to squelch the Deseret News, although getting Rusty in charge was a pretty good move too.

Expect a shortage of green Jello any day now. Satan is on a roll!

The earth will turn into the Urim & Thumim any day now. Get ready folks.

Well do I recall the early morning wake-up, the smell of those warm bundles, the folding in 3rds, banding and then piling the papers into the two bags that were a danger to ride with, while throwing toward the porches. Well do I remember the repeat-visits to collect from cheapskate and liars, and re-counting the meager tips that taught me that hard, honest work was for idiots.

I will miss the once-too-thick Thursday and Sunday editions, but not a tear will be shed.

Next, let's abolish the First Amendment.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/28/us/supreme-court-schools-free-speech.html

>>that taught me that hard, honest work was for idiots.

Having worked a number of ridiculously hard jobs for not much in the way of remuneration, I feel you on that one. As a result, whatever modest successes I have at present, I enjoy without the slightest bit of guilt.

I used to get the local newspaper and one of two from Seattle.

The Seattle paper ran into financial problems and by some form of federal action merged with the other Seattle paper.

All was fine then the monthly cost started rising for both papers.

When news on the internet begin to be more complete and timely, and the want ads were superior to the newspaper, the quality of the news papers went into the dump and the cost went through the roof.

We had the local paper for the local sports section, kids and grand kid activates. That was almost was okay and then the local news, local obituaries and local sports disappeared. The normal size was 14-16 pages dropped to 6 pages. So we dropped the local paper..

The Seattle paper was decent, even had some local sport info.

The funny thing happened this year, the cost rose to $15/week, I cancelled the hard copy and went to online for $6/week.
A couple of weeks went by and I get a call from the subscription department, asking why I dropped the hard copy, told them because of the cost. They said because we had been such a good customers they could continue to get the hard copy for an extra 50¢ a week, no time limit.

So now I pay $6.50 per week instead of the $15 they wanted to charge. Go figure.

I'm a speed reader, so it is efficient for me to scan all the headlines on 1-2 pages at once, then read the first few sentences of the most interesting headlines. Newspaper articles tell the most pertinent facts first, then graduate into the less important facts, then the finer details. On busy days, I could get most of the necessary news in about 20 minutes, knowing where to look.

Sorry, but being deprived of a page view (it would be microscopic on my iphone), and given only 1-2 headlines at a time, it is too awkward to scroll down past all the flickering ads, and try to pick up my story hidden in between.

Someone else has selected for me, which articles are the most important. Often, online, I have found the most significant facts hidden somewhere in the body (split up by all the ads), and mentioned as an aside.

I do like being able to immediately search for more information or back-history. We can do our own research!

I also like the videos. When I can see words coming directly out of someone's mouth, I can believe that the person is actually saying those words. There's less "he said, she said" with the videos.

Does anyone know where all the headlines can be scanned at once? Is there a faster way of reading the news, other than navigating the labyrynth of busy ads? Maybe a weekly would be a good alternative; except that some of the news would be already a week old. That's no good for business.

Sunday mornings in California, I would get back in to bed, after breakfast, and my little kids would play around me, and I would read all of the sections of the Sunday paper, including the funnies. I used to enjoy reading the book reviews, to save me wasting my time with a bad book. Same for movie and theater reviews. Often, I would skip the details of politics or sports teams other than my favorites. I remember when Parade magazine was the most widely read magazine in America. It could be zipped through in about 15 minutes. With kids and a career, I never had a lot of time to read.

I certainly don't have enough time to spend one full hour on local news, weather and sports, plus a second full hour on world news and sports. I have elderly retired friends who watch the news for 4-6 hours every day.

There's gotta be a better way.

There are still some very good sources for national and international news (NPR, the BBC, salon.com, and Buzzfeed, to name a few), but the death of local print newsmedia, regardless of its religious bent, is another story entirely. What local print newsmedia did was that it held local public officials accountable by writing articles questioning the decisions made by those local public officials and by exposing questionable and possibly illegal activities done by said local public officials. Regardless of whether or not the reader agrees with the written perspective of the reporter, it is important for all of us, especially during election season, to have information about what local public officials did in office outside of campaign spin from both the official's and his/her opponents' campaigns.

Commercial radio has (mostly) gotten out of the news business (it never made any money in the first place, and anyway, radio never really had the time to go in to detail in the first place--a problem that also applys to television). Radio and TV no longer have to follow the Equal Time rule (for political candidates) and the both sides rule (for policies)--those were done away with back in 1987 at the Federal level. And though I am a listener to, and supporter of NPR, I'm well aware of the network's and its stations' shortcomings (limited story time for the network, and additional limited budgets and reporters for local outlets).

In short, the death of printed newspapers will mean that many people will go into the voting booth in the future without any real knowledge of the candidates or even issues on which they're voting. And a lack of independent information on both political personalities and issues could very well spell the end of the current U.S. political system as we know it.

I always research all candidates before voting. Since I no longer subscribe to the local paper, it's gotten more challenging to do that. As long as I can get five free articles per month, that goes a long way towards helping me. But sometimes getting information or an informed opinion on certain candidates can be a challenge.

My local paper does do editorials for candidates that the editorial board wishes to promote. You might think that they would wish such editorials to be as widely considered as possible, but I guess not.

I have to admit that I don't understand the advertising and profit models of newspapers. My local paper is always crying poor, but in non-Covid times print ads can take up to 90% of a page. The paper is much more ads than news. How is it that they are having difficulty with making money? And why do some online news sites seem to thrive with only the online ads, but local and regional papers can't seem to make it work without charging for subscriptions (while continuing to cry poor?)

Want ads and obituaries were the biggest revenue source of bed papers for years.

With the internet, one can post ads on eBay, offerup, Craigslist, for nothing. Mortuary often post obituaries on line as part of their service charges.

Mediocre newspaper that severely censored too many news stories while trying to stay 'church friendly'.

Goodbye paperboys.

olderelder Wrote:
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> Goodbye paperboys.
Potential pathogens passed with pamphleteering is maybe dead too!

next to last printed paper today. Odd. The front page was thick, almost like card stock. A few other pages were like that but most were the normal thickness. Made me wonder if the are gathering up all the scraps of newsprint left over from past years and want to use it up. :)

gemini Wrote:
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> next to last printed paper today. Odd. The front
> page was thick, almost like card stock. A few
> other pages were like that but most were the
> normal thickness. Made me wonder if the are
> gathering up all the scraps of newsprint left over
> from past years and want to use it up. :)


Maybe they are trying to make the last copies somewhat of a collector's edition.