1978 Called -- It Wants its Newspaper Back

March 17, 2009 7:47 AM

The Philadelphia Inquirer's final frazzled days...
posted by VicNebulous (12 comments total)

I think you probably want to link here, no?
posted by Horace Rumpole at 7:53 AM on March 17, 2009

From the comments...

Newspapers have less than maybe at best 10 years of life. I was a journalist for 30 years - worked at the Inquirer 20 years - I would never ever ever for a $1 million go back!!

If this was the quality of writer they employed...
posted by Joe Beese at 7:56 AM on March 17, 2009

I don't get the expression " an economy gone south". Seems to imply the financial system is vacationing in Puerto Vallarta.
posted by mannequito at 8:16 AM on March 17, 2009

I don't get the expression " an economy gone south". Seems to imply the financial system is vacationing in Puerto Vallarta.
¿por qué no? The peso is so cheap....
posted by Floydd at 8:48 AM on March 17, 2009 [1 favorite]

I can see the Inquirer building from my apartment, and it's lovely when they light it up at night. Ahhh, the gleam of burning newsprint...

Actually, a pretty building is not an awful legacy to leave. Most people leave significantly less than that behind when they go.

Someone stick a fork in print journalism, please. I think it's done.
posted by greekphilosophy at 9:16 AM on March 17, 2009

See also the Seattle Post Inteligencer, another paper on the way out (at least in the print version). There will be more.
posted by Nick Verstayne at 9:17 AM on March 17, 2009

Here's the thing. I read the Inquirer every day...but I do so online, for free. If it wasn't available for free, I might not read it, but I might also be a subscriber.
posted by leahwrenn at 9:21 AM on March 17, 2009

I don't get the expression "an economy gone south". Seems to imply the financial system is vacationing in Puerto Vallarta, and it came back with some tropical disease, leading to it's slow demise.

The last part is usually left off, to avoid frightening the more sensitive readers and alienating the travel and leisure advertisement money.
posted by filthy light thief at 9:55 AM on March 17, 2009

Here's the thing. I read the Inquirer every day...but I do so online, for free. If it wasn't available for free, I might not read it, but I might also be a subscriber.

So you're saying they should be off-line only? Also, do you click on the ads online?
posted by filthy light thief at 9:56 AM on March 17, 2009

I didn't get anything out of that I didn't already see in The Wire season 5, and there was a distinct lack of Omar.
posted by Molesome at 10:07 AM on March 17, 2009 [4 favorites]

Here's the thing. I read the Inquirer every day...but I do so online, for free. If it wasn't available for free, I might not read it, but I might also be a subscriber.

I used to subscribe. I wanted news about the actual city in which I live, the Inky didn't really deliver that. And then its yen for the suburbs got even stronger, and I gave up.

I tried to read it online for awhile, too, but increasingly over the past few years, I couldn't find much actual news there either.
posted by desuetude at 2:04 PM on March 17, 2009

Super interesting, thanks for posting.
posted by vito90 at 3:25 PM on March 17, 2009