« ISRAEL THIS WEEKEND: SETTLERS SETTLE IN AND OPPOSITION IS nearly NIL | Home | Why Not Recognize Israel As A Jewish State? »
Revenue Down? Axe the Liberal!
The management of the WP, in its collective unwisdom, has decided to terminate Dan Froomkin's fine "White House Watch" online column effective early next month. The official statement:
Editors and our research teams are constantly reviewing our online content to ensure we bring readers the most value when they are on our Web site while balancing the need to make the most of our resources. Regrettably, this means that sometimes features must be eliminated, and this time it was the blog that Dan Froomkin freelanced" to The Post's Web site.
Everyone knows the dimensions of the newspaper crisis. Last month, the WP company overall reported "a net loss of $19.5 million...for its first quarter ended March 29, 2009, compared to net income of $39.3 million in the first quarter of last year." Income plunged in all the company's divisions--broadcast, cable, even the Kaplan cram course cash cow that's been carrying the company in recent years.
Here's a business plan: Your company's tanking. You've been buying out your most knowledgeable, most experienced hands. You've been shuttering foreign bureaus, even removed the globe that for years pinpointed their sites from your the newsroom--in embarrassment, presumably. Your paper's lost respect. Its editorial section has gone neocon. What to do?
Let's see: Guess you'd better can the liberal online column there. John Podhoretz is probably available for a substitute, maybe cheaper.
Advertisement
What a shame. Heh.
June 19, 2009 10:48 AM | Reply | Permalink
A troll, I presume.
June 20, 2009 3:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
What do you believe is more important deficit reduction or stimulate the economy?
http://www.youpolls.com/details.asp?pid=5566
.
June 19, 2009 12:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
They need to check the Post's HVAC system for traces of aerosolized Teh Stoopid.
June 19, 2009 1:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
I don't think there's any real need to check when you know what the result of checking will be is there?
June 19, 2009 3:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
Why say "unwisdom" when you mean stupidity?
And newspapers wonder why people care less and less if they fail? With papers like the WaPo as the leading lights, many now actively hope they fail.
June 19, 2009 5:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
Todd Gitlin.
Student big mouth, academic big mouth, public big mouth, professional big mouth.
Obviously an expert on running a business in a very difficult environment.
June 19, 2009 8:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
ordinary,
excellent post. Your in depth analysis and insight is outstanding.
June 20, 2009 11:42 AM | Reply | Permalink
Froomkin is my second read of the day after TPM. I don't think I could have made it through the last eight years without him.
June 20, 2009 12:19 AM | Reply | Permalink
There is only one voice out there that I trust(ed) more than Dan Froomkin, and that is Glen Greenwald at Salon. It has been a sad end of the week first learning of the travesty and then dealing with the aftermath. How can any news outlet short of Fox allow the complete takeover of the neocon slant without the hint of embarassment? Pathetic and scary. I can only pray for the souls of E.J. Dionne and Gene Robinson. They are soon to be extinct at that rag. If only they could follow the example of the Times and hire some forward thinkers like Gerson and Douthat...
June 20, 2009 10:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
John Podhoretz is probably available for a substitute, maybe cheaper.
Good grief. The JPod should pay WaPo for printing his garbage. Hey, new way to make money for WaPo, let the crazies pay to write for them instead of the other way around.
June 20, 2009 12:10 PM | Reply | Permalink