Say Anything Blog

Stephen Bainbridge notes that the Wall Street Journal’s online subscription service (of which I am a subscriber) is profitable, which is something of an anomaly among online editions of print newspapers.  It may well be the only subscription online version of a print newspaper that is actually turning a profit.

Why is that interesting?  Because of Rush Limbaugh, The New York Post and Fox News, all of which are dominant (or near the top) in their respective flavors of media.

Rush Limbaugh is the unchallenged king of talk radio, which in and of itself is a format dominated by conservatives.  Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, etc.  Liberal attempts to move into this market have been mediocre, at best, and total failures at worst.

The Rupert Murdoch-owned New York Post is the 4th largest newspaper in America (behind the Wall Street Journal, New York Times and L.A. Times, USA Today is actually the largest, but I refuse to acknowledge that publications motel-and-restaurant-inflated circulation or even acknowledge it as a newspaper) and has the added distinction of being the only newspaper in the country with growing circulation numbers.

Another Murdoch property, Fox News, is the current cable news heavyweight, with ratings numbers that are usually more than double it’s nearest competitor CNN.

Add in to all this the fact that the Wall Street Journal is the second largest newspaper in terms of circulation (the largest in my book) and has the only profitable online subscriber service among American newspapers and one begins to see a trend.  The conservative or right-leaning media seems to be floating to the top.

Now don’t get me wrong, this isn’t to suggest that right-leaning media dominates in the media industry.  For every Fox News there is a CNN, MSNBC, NBC, CBS and ABC.  For every Wall Street Journal there is the New York Times, L.A. Times, Washington Post, Reuters and Associated Press.  But still, it’s interesting when there’s a conservative outlet in a media market it tends to dominate.

I wonder why that is?  I think it could be that conservatives, preferring to get their news from right-leaning sources, tend to gravitate toward the few like-minded media outlets available to them.  Liberal-minded people have many more choices when it comes to that sort of thing.