Peggy Noonan Watch: Decline of the Liberal Media Monopoly
The Tribune Company NYSE from Yahoo Finance.
Peggy Noonan writing in The Wall Street Journal, Not a Bad Time to Take Stock
I don’t think Democrats understand that the Alito hearings were, for them, not a defeat but an actual disaster. The snarly tone the senators took with a man most Americans could look at and think, “He’s like me,” and the charges they made–You oppose women and minorities, you only like corporations and not the little guy–went nowhere. Once those charges would have taken flight, would have launched, found their target and knocked down any incoming Republican. Not any more. It’s over.
Eleven years ago the Democrats lost control of Congress. Then they lost the presidency. But just as important, maybe more enduringly important, they lost their monopoly on the means of information in America. They lost control of the pipeline. Or rather there are now many pipelines, and many ways to use the information they carry. The other day, Dana Milbank, an important reporter for the Washington Post, the most important newspaper in the capital, wrote a piece deriding Judge Alito. Once such a piece would have been important. Men in the White House would have fretted over its implications. But within hours of filing, Mr. Milbank found his thinking analyzed and dismissed on the Internet; National Review Online called him a “policy bimbo.”
Could Democratic senators today torture Clarence Thomas with tales of Coke cans and porn films? Not likely. Could Ted Kennedy have gotten away with his “Robert Bork’s America” speech unanswered? No.
And the end of the monopoly of course isn’t only in the news, it’s in all media.
And now from Michelle Malkin and Patterico with the decline of the Tribune Company, the media parent and owner of such MSM as the Los Angeles Times.
Michelle Malkin: THE LA TIMES GOES DOWN, DOWN, DOWN
Today’s poor earning report follows several previous reports of declining circulation at the LA Times.
Memo to Tribune officers: shoving liberalism down your readers’ throats is not a good business straetgy.
Patterico: Tribune Company Revenue, Stock Value Down
Shares in Tribune Co. tumbled Thursday after the media company reported a 6.1% drop in revenue last month on declines in both its newspaper and television businesses.
. . . .
Revenue from the publishing unit, consisting of its newspapers, dipped 4.2% to $413 million from $431 million in December 2004. The company said about $6 million of that $18 million drop was due to the timing of Christmas on Sunday and the aftermath of Hurricane Wilma in Florida.
Advertising revenue in the publishing division fell 4.5% to $333 million, down from $349 million. The decline included a 5.2% decrease in retail ad revenue and a 9.6% decline in national ad revenue, mainly at the Los Angeles Times. Classified ad revenue edged up 2.5%.
Circulation revenue was down 3.5%, the company said, citing volume declines at most of its newspapers and selectively higher discounting.
Evidence of the continuing decline of MSM pulp newspapers. Will the decline continue at this pace?
Probably and WILL ACCELERATE as the baby boom pulp newspaper reading generation is replaced with computer literate new media readers.
Flap wonders if Michael Hiltzik, Los Angeles Times business writer and blogger, will DELETE any more comments on his blog for posting the BAD CIRCULATION NEWS?
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