January 7, 2008
US newspapers disregard their consumers
Sometimes I sympathise with Rupert Murdoch.
Mr Murdoch has made little secret of the fact that he wants more hard news and fewer long features on the front page of the Wall Street Journal. He would like it to be more immediate and less reflective.
This has generally gone down badly with US journalists and media types, who are schooled in the idea that reporting yesterday’s news must give way to forward-looking, original reporting and analysis. This piece by Jack Shafer, Slate’s entertaining media critic, advocates this idea.
Well, fine, but I found it baffling to pick up the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal this morning after an astonishing weekend in US politics during which there has been a single topic of conversation among many people both inside and outside the US: Barack Obama.
And what do we find on the front page of the Wall Street Journal? No headline with Mr Obama’s name in it at all. Instead, there is an article examining the tactics of Hillary Clinton and Mitt Romney and a series of other stories topped by one long (and very interesting) piece on McDonald’s taking on Starbucks by launching speciality coffee bars.
As to the NYT front page, there are two ruminative pieces on John McCain and Bill Clinton, with a small reference to a story on Mr Obama that its editors have stuffed inside.
The Washington Post does somewhat better with a piece about the Republicans’ fear of Mr Obama. The FT’s straight-to-the point lead headline is: More poll gains for Obama.
The Journal and the NYT are great papers and produce a lot of original and distinctive journalism. Even so, can any industry that displays such a lofty disregard for what interests its consumers be surprised that it is trouble?
Has the WSJ Europe got a part to play in Mr Murdoch’s plans? That paper is a curious mixture of American provincialism and dogged perseverance, irritatingly filling up its Weekend section with pieces on golf, cocktails and pages of ads for homes in the USA, although recently the number of such ads have fallen dramatically …. and I can guess why.
Mr Murdoch has just bought 15% of Premiere, the German Pay.TV company. Is that a good move? The FTD thinks not. Germans are notorious for being unwilling to pay more than the barest minimum for anything (with one exception, their alter-ego, a car).
Posted by: FH | January 7th, 2008 at 10:13 pm | Report this comment