Farewell Roger Rubin
- Thread starter paultzman
- Start date
Sad to see what is happening to traditional journalism. I'm probably one of the few 29 year olds who still prefers reading from a newspaper. Always enjoyed waking up and seeing what the local beat writer had to say about my respective teams.
I have to agree with some of the posters on this board about the NYDN though. Let's be honest, most readers aren't picking up that paper for its news section. I'd say 50% of the consumers read it for its sports section. At least I did.
I have to agree with some of the posters on this board about the NYDN though. Let's be honest, most readers aren't picking up that paper for its news section. I'd say 50% of the consumers read it for its sports section. At least I did.
beast of the east
Active member
From 2006 to 2011 (the last years I could easily find) newspaper print ad revenue declined by over 60%. While online ad revenue increased, it hasn't come close to offsetting the loss, with overall newspaper ad revenue nationally decreasing by over 50%. The result is predictable.
My understanding is that the price of a newspaper does not cover the printing costs but that ad revenue made it profitable. With ad revenue overall essentially cut in half, staffing cuts are inevitable.
With a plethora of online news sources, local newspapers may eventually become a thing of the past. Sad.
What is interesting is that as of 2011, the NY Daily News had the highest online/print readership in the country of all newspapers.
http://www.stateofthemedia.org/2012...ves-painfully-slow/newspapers-by-the-numbers/
My understanding is that the price of a newspaper does not cover the printing costs but that ad revenue made it profitable. With ad revenue overall essentially cut in half, staffing cuts are inevitable.
With a plethora of online news sources, local newspapers may eventually become a thing of the past. Sad.
What is interesting is that as of 2011, the NY Daily News had the highest online/print readership in the country of all newspapers.
http://www.stateofthemedia.org/2012...ves-painfully-slow/newspapers-by-the-numbers/
Queens Quiet Skies
Member
Have had several letters published in Newsday. All heavily edited and revised.
Booksnball
Member
Late to the conversation here, but here's my bits. Sad to see Roger Rubin gone, he was a good guy who did solid work going back to his days covering high school sports in NYC. I was always glad to see him out at the ABCD Camps every summer @ Fairleigh Dickerson.
As for the Daily News, I always thought they precipitated the drop in readers when they started to pull back on their coverage of high school sports in the paper. I'm old school & grew up learning about New York sports teams from my father who read the News & often the L.I. Press most nights @ home & every weekend. Once i could read well (News was on 6th grade level LOL) I started reading the paper myself. It was there i discovered Roger Brown, Connie Hawkins, Billy Cunningham etc. Many years later as a NYC Teacher/Dean I always had a News at school & vividly remember Jr. High School & High School students asking to see my News so they could read about sports & local high school
stars. Many students grew tired of waiting to see my paper & soon they were buying their own.
I can remember coaches & gym teachers covering bulletin boards with stories from the paper that mentioned our high school or City-Wide results from big games around the city & beyond. Kids were motivated to buy their own copy of the News & the slow decline of H.S. coverage resulted in kids NOT buying the paper. Now & again they run stories about top players/teams ( Lincoln, CTK, St. Raymond, Boys & Girls, Cardozo etc) but no where near the coverage of back in the day when Bill Travers was the best. So in my eyes, the S L O W decline (death?) of "print" journalism is a self inflicted wound.
As for the Daily News, I always thought they precipitated the drop in readers when they started to pull back on their coverage of high school sports in the paper. I'm old school & grew up learning about New York sports teams from my father who read the News & often the L.I. Press most nights @ home & every weekend. Once i could read well (News was on 6th grade level LOL) I started reading the paper myself. It was there i discovered Roger Brown, Connie Hawkins, Billy Cunningham etc. Many years later as a NYC Teacher/Dean I always had a News at school & vividly remember Jr. High School & High School students asking to see my News so they could read about sports & local high school
stars. Many students grew tired of waiting to see my paper & soon they were buying their own.
I can remember coaches & gym teachers covering bulletin boards with stories from the paper that mentioned our high school or City-Wide results from big games around the city & beyond. Kids were motivated to buy their own copy of the News & the slow decline of H.S. coverage resulted in kids NOT buying the paper. Now & again they run stories about top players/teams ( Lincoln, CTK, St. Raymond, Boys & Girls, Cardozo etc) but no where near the coverage of back in the day when Bill Travers was the best. So in my eyes, the S L O W decline (death?) of "print" journalism is a self inflicted wound.
You make some good points, but the death of print journalism was not entirely a self-inflicted wound. Once online sites started to cut into newspapers' advertising revenues, the print guys had no choice but to cut back on staff and coverage. The only other option for the newspapers was to beef up their own online sites, but unless they have massive traffic and/or can charge subscribers (like Wall Street Journal ) they can't make any money online.