Monday, November 04, 2024

When the News Breaks, We Fix It

We've already had an item about how people are canceling their Washington Post subscriptions by the bushel. As of our piece on Wednesday, the total was 200,000 cancellations. As of now, it's passed 250,000, and will presumably continue to climb. That's 10% of the entire subscriber base.

Posted by Hans at 02:37 PM | 19 COMMENTS | permalink

Comments

And with that well-deserved pushback comes some good news. By and large, people aren't just taking their money and going home. No, many of them are rerouting it to publications that do not have to put their billionaire owner's needs first and foremost. The British paper The Guardian struck particularly fast and particularly effectively, sending out this fundraising pitch, under the name of U.S. editor Betsy Reed:

The L.A. Times and the Washington Post both have a tradition of issuing editorial endorsements, but in this most consequential of contests for our country, they have chosen to sit on the sidelines of democracy and not alienate any candidate. Something these two papers have in common? They both have billionaire owners who could face retaliation in a Trump presidency.
It has never been clearer that media ownership matters to democracy. The Guardian is not billionaire-owned; nor do we have shareholders. We are supported by readers and owned by The Scott Trust, which guarantees our editorial independence in perpetuity. Nobody influences our journalism. We are fiercely independent and accountable only to you, our readers.

The paper has brought in over $2 million from American readers since that e-mail blast. Other large, metropolitan newspapers have seen an uptick in subscriptions, among them The Philadelphia Inquirer and The Boston Globe.

#1 | Posted by Hans at 2024-11-04 02:38 PM

Incidentally, there is an argument going around, expressed in this piece from Slate, among many other places, that people who want to stick it to Jeff Bezos should cancel their Amazon Prime subscription and not their Washington Post subscription. The basic point is that hurting the Washington Post, where finances are already shaky, just hurts a lot of hardworking journalists, while increasing the chances that the Post goes under.

We see the argument, but we don't buy it. First of all, Amazon employs people, too. And we're not sure that someone busting their rear end all day for something not much better than minimum wage is somehow less a concern than a reporter is. Beyond that, the Post is now deeply, and perhaps fatally, compromised. Its only real hope of coming back from this is if the billionaire owner goes away, and leadership ends up in the hands of a person or entity that is not scared of Donald Trump. In turn, the only way to communicate that is to cancel one's Post subscription. If 200,000 people bail on Amazon Prime tomorrow, nobody's even going to notice, much less interpret it as a message about The Washington Post.

So yes, it's a shame that there is some collateral damage here. But again, the good news is not only that Bezos is getting vast blowback for his choices, but also that support is flowing to other, actually independent journalists and newspapers. (Z)

#2 | Posted by Hans at 2024-11-04 02:38 PM

So liberals cry, take their football and go home when they don't get their way? Yeah, par for the course. I believe the WaPo like the NYT is a failing business model and if Trump wins, I think the print MSM will all but disappear due to people waking up to their constant stream of lies and fear of repercussions for knowingly lying.

#3 | Posted by deadman at 2024-11-04 09:49 PM

First there was this ...

Do you honestly think something went wrong on the server side to repost 1000+ times by Hans or was he sitting in his basement continuously hitting the publish comment button with ever growing incel rage until it finally posted 1000+ times? My bet is that someone's mom didn't bring the pizza rolls in time and Hans was rage hitting submit while likely screaming the n-word at the top of his lungs. Thankfully, he likely resides in a windowless basement so no one was exposed to his racial abuse.

#18 | Posted by deadman at 2024-10-17 08:23 PM

...and then there was this...
#18 | Posted by: deadman | Flag: Serious level

Interestingly enough, this is post #18.

"Any significantly advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."

#22 | Posted by Hans at 2024-10-17 08:58 PM

This is just way too easy.

#4 | Posted by Hans at 2024-11-04 09:50 PM

- constant stream of lies and fear

He's always talking about his Cult Leader, rofl.

#5 | Posted by Corky at 2024-11-04 09:52 PM

@#3 ... So liberals cry, take their football and go home when they don't get their way? ...

How did your current alias reach that conclusion?

#6 | Posted by LampLighter at 2024-11-04 10:16 PM

"How did your current alias reach that conclusion?
#6 | Posted by LampLighter"

By number of subscribers lost. How would you measure it. Unless you think it is conservative subscribers cancelling their subscriptions after the WaPo refused to endorse Kamala.

#7 | Posted by deadman at 2024-11-04 10:25 PM

@#7 ... By number of subscribers lost. ...

Well, yeah, I will admit that Mr Bezos blew it, big time.

He seemed to be too forward in his apparent goal of billionaires influencing politics.

And now, WaPo seems to be paying for that decision.

So, your current alias seems to think that billionaires should control politics?

#8 | Posted by LampLighter at 2024-11-04 10:51 PM

"Well, yeah, I will admit that Mr Bezos blew it, big time.
#8 | Posted by LampLighter"

I disagree. He is better off with these readers seeking safe spaces somewhere else and maintaining what little credibility the WaPo has remaining.

"So, your current alias seems to think that billionaires should control politics?"

I think it is a bad thing - and the Democrats should stop courting them:

"Kamala Harris has got more of the country's billionaires backing, with 83 of them supporting Harris compared to 52 billionaires donating to Donald Trump, according to a breakdown by Forbes."

www.independent.co.uk

#9 | Posted by deadman at 2024-11-04 11:02 PM

@#9 ... I think it is a bad thing ...

Yet your current alias seems to go on to support that?

Why?

#10 | Posted by LampLighter at 2024-11-04 11:14 PM

"So, your current alias seems to think that billionaires should control politics?"

let's not pretend your alias has a problem with it.

you're fine with billionaires lining up to give millions upon millions to your candidate.

and your alias knows it.

#11 | Posted by eberly at 2024-11-04 11:15 PM

@#9 ... He is better off with these readers seeking safe spaces somewhere else ...

That's an interesting, and unsubstantiated, assertion regarding the subscribers that WaPo has lost.

What has your current alias got to substantiate that assertion?


#12 | Posted by LampLighter at 2024-11-04 11:16 PM

-Yet your current alias seems to go on to support that?

your current alias jacked hisself off to Bill Gates dropping $50 million for Harris.

Why is that?

#13 | Posted by eberly at 2024-11-04 11:18 PM

I am absolutely having a blast watch lefties eat themselves.

Go right ahead and put a left-wing propaganda out of business.

#14 | Posted by BellRinger at 2024-11-04 11:24 PM

@#13 ... your current alias jacked hisself off to Bill Gates dropping $50 million for Harris. ...

Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence - Carl Sagan

What's yer got?

#15 | Posted by LampLighter at 2024-11-04 11:41 PM

-Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence

not here

And your alias knows that.

look in the mirror for a great example.

#16 | Posted by eberly at 2024-11-04 11:44 PM

@#16 ... not here ...

So, two things ...

1) your current alias has got nothing to substantiate what it asserts.

2) your current alias appears to want to drag down the quality of posts on this most august site, to the level of (1) above.

Good to know, going forward.


#17 | Posted by LampLighter at 2024-11-04 11:55 PM

-Good to know, going forward.

now that you know that (everyone here already did....if you're seeking evidence of how dumb you really are).......so what?

what difference does it make?

#18 | Posted by eberly at 2024-11-05 12:02 AM

@#18 ... what difference does it make? ...

In the larger world, probably not a whole lot of difference.

However, for an alias that I had once praised, a significant difference.



#19 | Posted by LampLighter at 2024-11-05 12:25 AM

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