Sign Of The Times: Washington Post Is Closing Bureaus In New York, Los Angeles And Chicago
The newspaper industry continues to die (via The Franklin Center):
Executive editor Marcus Brauchli informed staff that “the reporters in those bureaus are being offered new roles here in Washington.” However, three news aides are being let go…
While it may be a sign of diminished prestige to close bureaus in three major American cities, the Post — like all metro dailies — is coping with the economic struggles in the newspaper industry in a way that management must feel is best to weather the storm.
In recent years, the Post has closed bureaus in Seattle, Denver, Austin and Miami, following a trend among large metro dailies. (The LA Times, however, continues to maintain bureaus in several major cities despite drastically cutting the newsroom in recent years).
Some will treat this as bad news, and others will claim that we need to bail out the newspaper industry. Personally, I think the news media is just evolving.
Printing the news on dead trees and then delivering it to people’s homes (or selling it at newsstands) simply isn’t a viable business model any more. People are, increasingly, getting their news in different ways. Mostly online, and the media companies are going to have to figure out how to monetize online news sufficiently.
And I think they can do it. I’m not sure how (if I did I’d be doing it and making a bundle) but I have confidence in the free market to meet the publics’ demand for news in a profitable manner.
