Come on Folks, Its Over

We have course covered the demise of pulp journalism. Even offered a few venues where many may transition to in a digital world. But some still don’t understand the full ramifications of the change in the logistical support structure –

Pinch is trying to save the independence of the family-controlled publishing concern (regarded within the family as a public trust), but in the process has put a legendary newspaper empire on a path of decline, eating into capital to pay dividends to the shareholders, paying off employees who accept buyouts, and hoping that the comparatively small internet operations of the company will someday grow enough to balance the decline of the newspaper business.

Bold emphasis was added by yours truly for a reason. Its why the pulp folks must go bye bye. In industry after industry as automation and internet sourcing came onboard the middle man was squeezed out followed by a massive reduction in the labor necessary to deliver the product. It is why WalMart is where they are today. They capitalize on two aspects — 1) Embracing the supply chain collapse to the detriment of their competitors. 2) Expanding enterprise by leveraging the economy of scale that automation can support.

The bolded component of the piece is fairy tale on NYT’s part if that is what they believe. For the online branch of NYT to be successful it MUST be by at least 4-5x smaller than its pulp parent. There is no more legion of pressmen with inked fingers anymore. They are replaced by a lone server engineer. You send all the reporters home and let them work out of their home offices. They telserve their stories for approval to a groupware platform. No more legion of trucks. No more news stands. Its all gone. Whisked away in the long rush to digital.

What surprised me was that this was referenced in a Pajamas Media article. Their beginings hark not from the pulp but from those who cut their digital teeth jabbing at the pulp players.

Full article here.