Jack Shafer’s Rx for the Globe

Writing in Slate, Jack Shafer picks up on the ideas of Philip Meyer, whose argues in his book “The Vanishing Newspaper,” and in a more recent piece in the American Journalism Review, that newspapers should cater to the elite, well-educated audiences that are already their last dedicated readers.

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6 thoughts on “Jack Shafer’s Rx for the Globe”

  1. Isn't catering to the elite what got them in this hole to begin with?It's this "elitism" that alienated newspapers from their prime audience of working class people and severed their ties to their communities and neighborhoods.I argue you thus here:http://tinyurl.com/neomql

  2. GFS3: Good morning, George. We've been through this before, but I'll say it again. Although it's hard to do a good comparison between print and online readership numbers, it's probably safe to say that the Globe has about as many readers today as it did at its peak.The Globe is not losing readers. Like all major metros, it's losing advertisers.

  3. I think the Globe is losing advertising because it isn't producing as cost efficient-effective advertising medium – aside from the this horrible economy.It is hard to beat extraordinary print circulation with cost effective advertising rates, but when the rates are too high for diminished circulation that is the path to defeat.Circulation is the most valuable asset. As circulation declined rates increased. And now we see the results.

  4. "Although it's hard to do a good comparison between print and online readership numbers, it's probably safe to say that the Globe has about as many readers today as it did at its peak."There are several important issues related to online vs print readership. How much time does the reader spend with the online compared to the print edition? Does the reader go to the Globe website or do they hit it from an aggregators' link? Are they loyal Globe readers or net info surfers who just end up looking at a specific piece of content?One could argue that a reader of the print edition is of equal value to a reader spending a while on the Globe website but the surfer has less overall value since they constitute a hit and run audience.Just questions. I'd be glad to hear the answers from experts reading Dan's blog.

  5. A handy rule of thumb in publishing: When one of your newspaper's classifieds section becomes the same size as your other paper's daily errata section, drastic changes are in order. They are very lucky to own the word bostondotcom.

  6. How much of the Globe's online readership is from the same market population that the print readership is? Are the ads that run online for the Globe from businesses that viewers might patronize, or are the added viewers that Boston.com is getting from far flung areas that current advertising does not affect? Has the Globe done market research to see which zip code their online readers are located, in order to learn how best to promote advertising for the enterprise?

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