J-school students, like publishers, refuse to pay

The so-called Media Diet includes 2.5 hours a day of reading/viewing the news. (Photo credit: Adam Crowe)

Here’s one of those stories that ranks high on the “duh!” factor, at least in my opinion.

Those of us addicted to our computers and smart phones have been there before. We come across an intriguing story slug or headline tagged in that familiar shade of “click-me” blue. And so, we click.

And then the frustration mounts!

“I have to pay for this?” you ask yourself. “No way!”

And so you move on.

Apparently some journalism instructors have taken to asking their students if they would pay a nominal amount of money for access to Facebook. While some agree that a buck a month might be acceptable, none of the students were willing to pay any amount of money for access to news media sites. I’m the same way. The quickest way to send me in another direction is to demand I pay to read an online newspaper.

But why? After all, if I want the print version of a newspaper I know full well that I’m going to have to pay something. Or maybe it’s that I’m not willing to pay at all for any version of the news.

Who pays for what?

There’s a grand irony as I see it, and it’s contained in the quote attributed to a newspaper publisher in the story linked to above. Apparently the newspaper publisher incredulously believes that he doesn’t need readers, certainly not the college-educated, upwardly-mobile reader with a disposable income. Pssst! Don’t tell that to his advertisers or shareholders!

Even more telling is how this attitude will become painfully apparent to these budding journalists when they discover that their paychecks don’t have the disposable income sufficient to cover the cost of the online subscriptions they already refuse to pay, especially once they learn the reality of economics and discover that the rent is due before they eat! The sad fact throughout this 20-year long discussion within media circles regarding the shift towards electronic publishing is that the very people tasked with writing the stories that are supposed to engage and attract readers have seen their pay increase less, on a percentage basis, than has the federal minimum wage, during this same period of time.

Yet this arrogance seems to be popular with publishers and even some editors. Oh, they won’t say that, but it’s apparent in the “just get it out the door” attitude of newspaper publishing. Who cares what’s in the newspaper, as long as the sales staff is relatively successful?

Content… Content… Content

The problem with this attitude is the reader (you know, those people who advertisers hope see their printed sales pitch in the morning newspaper) are leaving in droves, taking with them the advertisers that pay the bills. While to a certain extent it seems that the newfound lack of income must be made up somewhere, publishers seem dumfounded at the unwillingness of readers to subsidize what for more than a century has been subsidized by the advertiser. Lost in this incredulity is the notion that the free market will simply not support something that has no intrinsic value.

As a reader and a consumer (and a J-school grad), I’ve long-since lost the willingness to pay for information that I can find for free in so many places. Moreover, I refuse to pay subscription rates for information, even that information that I can’t seem to find elsewhere, simply because I have determined that it ultimately has no value to my life. I’ve even stopped watching television news programs in part because I don’t trust them to provide me with useful, and in many cases, truthful information.

It doesn’t matter whether it’s a service or a tangible product, consumers want to feel as if they’re getting something of value when they elect to exchange their hard-earned money for something, whether it be a piece of electronic gadgetry, a new car, or a form of media.

Amazing as it is, people are still willing to part with their income. One need look no farther than Apple, Inc. to see a shining example of how one company has found a way to create value and extract large sums of money from consumers. Newspaper publishers could do well to learn this if they expect to revive their dying publications.

Related articles

• Global Newspaper Publishing industry: Forecast to generate revenue of $170.5b in 2012 (nextlevelofnews.com)
• Will The Newspaper Industry Save Itself By Reinventing Online Advertising? (adpulp.com)
• As newspapers cut, analysts ask if readers will remain (nextlevelofnews.com)

Honoring sacrifice and the blessings of liberty

Every year touches me a little more. I don’t know why; I know no one who made the ultimate sacrifice in war.

I served in the US Army, but never had to fire my weapon at an enemy or in defense of others or myself. I was trained to kill in the defense of my country. Everyone around me was trained the same.

The closest I got to combat was serving as a drill sergeant during the first Gulf War, when President Bush ordered our troops to liberate Kuwait from the clutches of a dictator. None of the young men I trained saw combat during that brief war as it started and finished during their early weeks of Basic Combat Training. I have no idea how many of them may still be serving, or wound up paying the ultimate price in defense of their nation.

I don’t say this to pat myself on the back for a job well done, though I am very proud of my service to my country. I am blessed to have been born here. I did nothing of myself to deserve these blessings of liberty. I am thankful to the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, as Isaiah writes, for these blessings and for the ultimate sacrifice of God’s son on that cruel cross so many years ago. He died in my place; but what’s more, he rose again as promised and will return one day to claim those of us who have professed him as Lord and Savior.

Until then I will continue to thank those here in the United States of America who laid down their lives for a larger cause, to ensure the freedom and liberty that we enjoy today. Freedom isn’t free, for it carries with it a responsibility and a duty to promote, protect and perpetuate it until the day when Jesus Christ returns to claim his people.

Related articles

• Memorial Day 2012 (papundits.wordpress.com)

Chasing dimes while dollar bills fly out the window

It really wasn’t all that long ago that newspaper conglomerates such as Gannett were basking in the glory of 50% profit margins while companies such as Exxon Mobile were mired in much more conservative figures that in the last 10 years never exceeded 12%. Now newspapers are bleeding red ink by the barrel.

Why then is money baron Warren Buffet spending money in an industry that just three years ago he claimed had the proven potential for repeated and unending losses?

According to Bloomberg News, Buffett recently struck a deal to purchase 63 newspapers, and may buy more, as he gives voice to the idea that there’s money to be made if only the newspaper industry would stop giving away its content. The problem with that premise, as I’ve witnessed over the years while working in print media, is that there’s long been a drive to charge for content that freely makes it to the web. The problem with Buffett’s notion is that people have come to expect information via the World Wide Web to be free. Changing that mindset isn’t going to be easy. Maybe Steve Jobs could have done it, but he’s no longer with us.

I don’t know about you, but given the quality of newspaper content these days, what passes for local news — and even national and international information — is already overpriced. But that doesn’t seem to be where Buffett is going, at least as I read it.

Buried within the Bloomberg report is this little nugget: “Berkshire will … favor towns and cities with a strong sense of community.”

What does he mean by “sense of community?” Could he mean those newspapers that operate under the premise that serving the customer (namely the reader) is job one? And, practically speaking, what does this look like for newspapers as they move ahead through the electronic age?

Still, Buffett seems to believe that newspapers should be “indispensable” to their communities. Could that mean the printed word on newsprint will still be the model as we move through the electronic age where smart phones and tablets continue to gain prominence?

The indispensability factor is going to be a mighty tall mountain to climb since many of the communities I’ve lived in over the past decade seem to have a more “leave it” than “need it” attitude when it comes to their local newspapers. It’s common to hear jokes about the local newspaper and the ever-shrinking amount of time it takes to peruse it for valued information. It’s certainly the case in my local community.

I still recall the small, community newspaper I once worked for in rural northeastern California and the “must-have” attitude of the public when it hit the streets every Thursday morning, rain, snow or shine. It’s my understanding that people still wait outside the offices of the Modoc Record in Alturas, Calif. for the print edition of the newspaper that has published only local news for well over a century. Yet in keeping with the times, subscriptions can now be purchased online and the newspaper read by computer, tablet or smart phone.

Bloomberg quotes Buffett from a Berkshire company memo: “Our future depends on remaining the primary source of information in certain subjects of great importance to our readers. Technological change has caused us to lose primacy in various key areas, including national news, national sports, stock quotations and employment opportunities. So be it. Our job is to reign supreme in matters of local importance.”

Buffett nails it! Maybe the newspaper model of the future isn’t the “be-all” attitude of the smaller dailies that once thought they could compete with the larger, regional dailies. Maybe size does matter, but rather than larger, the new model is for smaller geographies of reporting. Maybe what the newspaper industry needs is an entirely different focus — one that dials in the premise that local news is king and begins to hire reporters and editors who are willing to role up their sleeves and wade into their communities in search of the issues, rather than the failed practice of parking themselves in front of a computer monitor and telephone as junior editors dole out press releases and complain about the quality of information reporters are regurgitating from their assigned news releases.

Related articles

• Buffett in newspaper investment (bbc.co.uk)
• Why Warren Buffett Really Likes Newspapers (businessweek.com)
• Buffett set to buy more newspapers (news.smh.com.au)
• Buffett eyeing more papers, and not going to publish free content (worldmediatrend.wordpress.com)
• Buffett to buy newspapers – but says online readers must pay (theweek.co.uk)
• Did Warren Buffett Just Save the Newspaper Industry? (dailyfinance.com)

Navy SEAL hands Obama his arse

Hooah!

Navy SEAL hands Obama his arse.

AFBF: Join the Conversation About the Food You Produce

In her article Join the Conversation About the Food You Produce, Chris Chinn suggests something I hadn’t considered before.

Maybe it is time that we focus not so much on the fact that America’s food supply is safer and more abundant than any other nation’s agricultural output, and look to what resonates with the public. Right or wrong, the media and certain advocacy groups are targeting how our food supply is produced and asking the question “is your food safe?”

“People are more concerned about the methods we are using to produce food and the impact it might have to consumer health.” ~ Chris Chinn

As irritating as those questions can become to some of us, it’s kind of like the newspaper editor who acts as if he knows what the reader wants and needs, and tells a subscriber on the phone as much, rather than serving the reader by providing what he or she wants to read. Maybe that’s why the newspaper industry is in such decline, but I digress.

If nothing else, it’s time for agriculture to take the lead in terms of its message, rather than being the defensive coach, waiting to see what the offense throws at him before deciding his game plan.

Related articles

• AFBF’s Stallman Lays out Agriculture’s Change Agenda (farmbureau.wordpress.com)
• Annual Meeting Wraps Up With Laughter and Awards (farmbureau.wordpress.com)

It’s time to move the ball, not merely defend the goal

Dairy cows at the University of Arizona in Tucson are part of a study on various methods of cooling. Animal agriculture spends millions of dollars each year to promote the health and welfare of their animals. © Todd Fitchette

My fascination with agriculture comes from the perspective of an “outsider.“

I am also fascinated by media messages and enjoy communicating messages in which I strongly believe. It’s why I sometimes enjoy the SuperBowl commercials more than the game, and why I desire to have people in America understand at a level deep within their souls the utter importance of American agriculture and why I believe our nation cannot survive as it was founded without it.

To say that we’re constantly bombarded with media messages is an understatement. Unfortunately for some (fortunately for others) those messages come at a price. Advocates for a particular point of view who understand and use the media to their advantage are like the football team with the star quarterback and a roster of go-to guys who can catch and carry the ball to the end zone with ease.

To the detriment of American agriculture, the rabid animal rights extremists and other such groups (for reasons that escape me) want to completely do away with the level of safe and efficient agricultural production that comfortably feeds Americans and provides food for much of the rest of the world. Their motives have nothing to do with the altruistic intentions of improving the lives of animals that they claim.

In an artfully written blog post, a Missouri hog farmer articulately defends and explains how her family cares for the hogs that become the ham, sausage and bacon that fills the refrigerated cases at our grocery stores and ultimately winds up on our breakfast table (or in that convenient wrapper from the fast food joint we frequent on our way to work).

Not to be critical of the farmer I’ve chosen to highlight (she actually does an excellent job in her blog of spelling out the common practices farmers use and why they’re good for the animal), but agriculture still needs to be more aggressive in its efforts to educate and promote what it does.

I’m not talking about the type of aggression that we’ve seen from the likes of PETA, Occupy Wall Street, folks with the Humane Society (HSUS) and the other groups that have more in common with terrorist organizations than they do groups that try to promote their causes through more civil means.

I am talking about being more like the Missouri hog farmer here in terms of promoting, through various media, what she so skillfully articulated as the reasons her family chooses to manage its hogs the way it does. There’s a reason why they manage their animals the way they do, and a video included in her blog points this out very well. Moreover, there’s a reason why livestock producers and managers do things the way they do, and it’s not because they dislike their animals — on the contrary: a dairy cow, for example, receives way more veterinary care during her lifetime than even the most pampered house pet. That’s a fact!

So here’s a thought… although I think the blogosphere has provided a great outlet for people like Chrischinn and others to explain what it is and why it is they do things the way they do, I would like to see the template Chrischinn created here put into an advertising and media campaign to aggressively promote American agriculture to the 99% who so rely on what the 1% do that without the minority doing what it is they do, the majority will literally starve!

Related articles

• Join the Conversation About the Food You Produce (farmbureau.wordpress.com)
• How Social Media is Revolutionizing the Agriculture Sector (trak.in)
• Reclaiming agriculture: America’s sovereignty depends on it (conservativepoliticalblog.wordpress.com)

America’s Christian heritage is evident: historical texts prove it

The idea that truth is somehow relative truly hurts my brain. Stick with me on this… It seems that in America today we can come up with “our own” truth, while our neighbors can somehow come up with a different truth simply because they are, well, different than us. While we’re certainly “free” to come up with our own ideas of the truth, logically, and philosophically, it makes no sense at all.

Take the founding of America for instance. Truth be known, most of those who spilled blood and sweat to found this great nation had as their guide the Creator of Heaven and Earth. And that Creator, Jesus Christ, called Himself in John 14:6 “the way, the truth, and the life.” (Emphasis added) According to Josh McDowell, that statement alone implies that Jesus Christ was either a colossal liar (He knew He wasn’t God, but perpetuated a myth anyway), a lunatic who didn’t realize He was crazy, or the Lord He claimed to be. There are no other logical options. McDowell’s book “Evidence that Demands a Verdict” dispels in great detail the notions that Christ was a liar or a lunatic.

In many of the founding documents and historical writings surrounding the founding of America you see a direct reference to God. Implied in this is the same God who parted the Red Sea and told Abraham that his descendants would be as numerous as the grains of sand on the sea shore. You don’t have to believe me, just read the preambles to the various state constitutions or the Declaration of Independence itself to see direct reference to God in our historical founding documents.

In its historical context, the Old Testament is an excellent illustration of how the success of nations is wholly dependent upon how those nations respond to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Follow God’s laws and seek His guidance and nations succeed. Trash those laws and dismiss God altogether and nations fail. It’s that simple and history proves it.

Noted American historian David Barton’s Wallbuilders website has a plethora of information and links to more information that definitively points to America’s Christian heritage. But again, the great thing for both of us is you don’t have to take my word for it… go do an honest study of American history for yourself, starting with Barton’s site.

Related articles

• America’s Christian heritage censored? (toddfitchette.wordpress.com)
• America’s Judeo-Christian Roots are Bigger Than Texas (Guest Voice) (themoderatevoice.com)

U.S. call for Assad to leave could be rewritten for America

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gave a speech today calling on Syrian President Assad to step aside for the sake of his people and democracy.

After hearing her on television then reading her speech online I was struck by how, with just a few word changes, this same speech could be given in response to the current American regime that continues to destroy the hopes, aspirations and wealth of millions of Americans. I took the liberty of editing the first and last paragraphs of Clinton’s statement and have included them here. For editing sake, I struck out the words used by Secretary Clinton and underlined the added words for the proposed text:

SECRETARY CLINTON: Good morning. For months, the world has borne witness to the Asad Obama regime’s contempt for its own people. In peaceful demonstrations across the nation, Syrians Americans are demanding their universal human rights. The regime has answered their demands with empty promises and horrific violence, name-calling, and the elimination of vast amounts of private wealth. torturing opposition leaders, laying siege to cities, slaughtering thousands of unarmed civilians, including children. (Not yet, at least)

The people of Syria the United States deserve a government that respects their dignity, protects their rights, and lives up to their aspirations. Asad Obama is standing in their way. For the sake of the Syrian American people, the time has come for him to step aside and leave this transition to the Syrians Americans themselves, and that is what we will continue to work to achieve.

Her entire speech can be found here.

Related articles

• ‘It’s time for Asad to get out of the way’ (thehill.com)
• Harper, Obama call on Assad to step down (windsorstar.com)
• Obama Supports Muslim Brotherhood Takeover of Syria (atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com)
• Obama tells Assad to ‘step aside’ (jta.org)

Some unanswered questions and thoughts of a former journalist

Let’s see if I understand this correctly: I can own a private enterprise that is quite profitable and makes lots of money for me; those who choose to invest in my company and my employees. I can play by the rules and still get hauled before a bunch of self-important, pious egotists masquerading as esteemed Senators to defend my business acumen because somehow, somewhere, the premise was proffered that my legal business, which pays millions of dollars in taxes to support these government hacks, is somehow evil.

Meanwhile, the same government hacks that I support with the taxes generated from my private business, can support programs that run guns across international borders so that foreign agents can then execute a war against the country that my taxes support, but when I ask my congressman why he won’t assume his constitutional authority to declare war against the people firing at my neighbors from across the same international border, I’m laughed at as if my suggestion is ludicrous. Imagine if we’d had the same attitude on Dec. 7, 1941.

Some more questions and observations:

• What’s the difference between what Bernie Madoff did to private investors and what the United States government is doing to its citizens via Social Security?
• When George W. Bush sent troops to the Middle East to fight a war the media called him a warmonger and wanted to drag him to his death.
• When Barrack Hussein Obama sent troops to the Middle East to fight a war the media called him brave.
• The George W. Bush tax cuts were gifts to corporate cronies and the rich until Obama was given the choice to let them expire, then they were the right thing to do.
• Exxon is chastised for not paying its “fair share” of taxes while General Electric can pay no taxes on billions in profits and its CEO receives presidential treatment and access.
• The same communist regimes that we once touted as our enemies are more profitable, more capitalistic and run their governments with lower tax rates than we do? Did you know that Russia has a flat tax and collects more money than it ever did because of it, or that China regularly visits American businesses in order to learn how to replicate our capitalistic successes?
• How did health care become a right and the ownership of firearms by free citizens become outlawed? What constitutional amendment covers health care?
• Who decided that it was more important to pay people to literally dig through the trash of a former governor than it was to dig into the past of the man who would soon become President of the United States? Why weren’t more people alarmed when two veteran news journalists openly admitted that they knew nothing about the background of Barack Hussein Obama, or what his thoughts and motivations were?

Related articles

• Unanswered question – What about the Wall St. meeting? (politico.com)

The patriotic premises of liberals and the lies they tell

Did you know that children who attend American Independence Day celebrations are more likely to vote Republican (gasp!) when they grow up?

Don’t tell the Obama regime, otherwise they might concoct a scheme to ban the celebration altogether.

Oops! Too late: the media arm of the Obama regime has already posted the story.

It’s true. Well, almost… Not really. ABC News admits that even the study’s co-author, David Yanagizawa-Drott of Harvard University can’t match up the thesis with the facts. Not to worry folks; like the Christmas stories that proclaim Jesus wasn’t really born on Dec. 25th or that what he said and did can’t be authenticated, this is just another attempt by the anti-American media to belittle you for waving your American flags and celebrating the moral convictions of those who risked life and livelihoods to declare themselves and others free and independent from the tyranny of King George by signing the Declaration of Independence.

According to the story’s author:

One thing not addressed in the report is that nearly every kid in America attends Fourth of July celebrations, but the Republican Party is a minority party.

Minority party? So what’s the problem? If most kids grow up to be Democrats who cares?

Let’s apply a little Philosophy 101 here… If there are fewer registered Republicans in America then certainly the premise must be that there are more registered Democrats.

US voter registration in 2004.

The 2004 census statistics even bear this out. So, if nearly ever kid in America attends an Independence Day celebration in the United States as declared in the story, simply philosophy would suggest that celebrating Independence Day would make one more likely to be Democrat than Republican, even though ABC News declared the exact opposite?

Halfway through the story ABC News printed this joke: “Calls to Democratic officials were not returned because they had left their offices early to celebrate the Fourth of July.”

Really? How did the author of the story know they were out celebrating Independence Day? Come on now: George Stephanoloulos works for ABC News and is one of the Democrat Party’s biggest apologists around! Isn’t he one of the author’s colleagues? Even if he was reluctant to make up a quote I’m sure he could find someone out there to make up some lies about Republicans and Independence Day.

Of course that isn’t why they printed the paragraph. For Liberals, the time off for patriotic or religious holidays has nothing to do with celebrating the memory of the holiday. You don’t believe for a moment that Liberals actually go out and celebrate Independence Day, Christmas, Memorial Day, Veterans Day, Thanksgiving or Easter for the rememberances that they are? That’s not the purpose of a holiday for these folks. The purpose of a national holiday for these people is just another paid vacation on the taxpayer’s dime.

As an aside, I thought that children weren’t affected by the things they watched, did or played? We’re always told that the violent video games kids play are perfectly harmless, that they don’t lead kids to violent tendencies, or that the music they listen to doesn’t encourage them to act out in ways that are counter to the morals of a good and just society.

So what’s the worry Mr. and Ms. Liberal? These kids at the Independence Day ceremonies will likely continue the practice of drinking the kool aid you serve up to their older brothers and sisters in college and continue to vote with the premise that government is good, politicians are the only people in America who have your best interests at heart and that freedom and liberty are the archaic, evil and racist outcomes of a bunch of hooligans who dared to break away from the theocratic and despotic regime of King George.