Deseret News Death Watch Thread

[Harry Tic]

When I first moved to Utah (late 90s), I subscribed to the DN. That lasted about a year or two. I read it regularly online for a few years and then got really frustrated with it shortly after the Mark Willis appointment when they fired most of their real staff and started contracting stuff out to freelancers, most of whom had no journalism experience whatsoever. Now, I might check in once or twice every couple of months and, whenever I do so, I'm immediately reminded that, no, my memory was not playing tricks on me: it really is THAT bad. Now it seems like the "paper" is on its last legs.

I don't know to what extent the number of readers' comments correlates with the number of page views and advertising revenues, but even a cursory glimpse of the "most commented stories" is pretty embarrassing.

How long until the site folds altogether or gets entirely absorbed into the Church News (assuming that it hasn't, for all intents and purposes, already)?

(mods, feel free to bump this elsewhere if there's a more suitable thread).

[Jeff Lebowski]

I think you may want to change the thread title to "Traditional Newspaper Death Watch Thread". Just about every newspaper in America is under a death watch right now.

Try this little test: Go to google search bar and type in "death of traditional" and then watch what words are used to complete the phrase. Many experts predict that newspapers have about five years left. Tops.

[Harry Tic]

I think you may want to change the thread title to "Traditional Newspaper Death Watch Thread". Just about every newspaper in America is under a death watch right now.

Try this little test: Go to google search bar and type in "death of traditional" and then watch what words are used to complete the phrase. Many experts predict that newspapers have about five years left. Tops.

That's certainly true. But I'm not speaking of the general death spiral that a lot of print papers are in. It strikes me--again, it's just an impression--that the DN's dropoff has been much more precipitous than that of most papers. It wasn't so long ago that the DN was the relatively weak sister to the Trib but still represented a viable alternative with a solid core readership. It was, if you will, Utah State to the Trib's Utah or BYU (before the Aggies' recent resurgence). Now, it's more like College of Eastern Utah to Utah or BYU.

I don't know what percentage of the media market share the DN now claims compared to the Trib. But my guess is that that ratio has fallen sharply over the last couple of years. Both papers are struggling, no doubt. But the DN seems to be struggling for additional reasons.

[thesaint258]

Hold your horses. Apparently, circulation is increasing. Of course, they're counting the Sunday papers they send with the Church News, but hey, papers are going out.

[Harry Tic]

Interesting. I wonder what this means, though:

"Much of the Deseret News' growth comes from its weekly national edition, which is distributed nationwide with the LDS Church News on college campuses and as an insert in newspapers in other markets."

Any ideas what this is a reference to?

[venkman]

I was always a DesNews fan, especially after the SLTrib was sold and became less libertarian in their oped outlook.

But today's DesNews is just awful.

[thesaint258]

Interesting. I wonder what this means, though:

"Much of the Deseret News' growth comes from its weekly national edition, which is distributed nationwide with the LDS Church News on college campuses and as an insert in newspapers in other markets."

Any ideas what this is a reference to?

I wondered that to. Does someone open up the USA Today in Iowa and see a copy of the Deseret News inside?

[Sleeping in EQ]

The Deseret News has been worthless since John Hughes left. This isn't a secret, is it?

Management should be honest and run the Des News through the Correlation Department.

[CardiacCoug]

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865571528/Politically-powerful-gays-have-little-need-for-court-protection-Supreme-Court-brief-argues.html

Headline in the online DNews: Politically powerful gays have little need for court protection

[Jeff Lebowski]

I've heard this since about 1999. I'm somewhat less convinced now than I was then.

All those bankruptcies and layoffs and downward spiraling income don't have you convinced? Interesting.

[Harry Tic]

http://prpd-news.blogspot.com/2013/02/not-every-newspaper-ailing-because-of.html

Quote: "Former Harvard Business professor Clark Gilbert engineered a major reorganization of the Deseret media properties, building a digital company, creating a new-and more narrowly focused-editorial identity for the newspaper and unveiling a weekly national print edition. Digital revenue has been growing at over 40% a year since 2010 while daily and Sunday circulation jumped about 33% and 90% respectively from September 2011 to September 2012."

There is no rational explanation for this. The paper is utter crap, but they've figured out how to deliver their crap more efficiently, I guess, to the people that want it.

[SeattleUte]

How sad, considering how bad and malignant is the Tribune.

The DesNews won't die. It will become irrelevant.

[chrisrenrut]

My mother-in-law gets a special weekend edition of the DesNews delivered to her home in Blackfoot, ID. It has a main "news" section that is mostly local (intermountain west) interest stuff, and the Church News section. There are little to no advertisements that I can remember. I only glanced at it briefly once I realized there was no national or sports sections.

I guess the point is the DesNews knows its audience, and is trying to cater to them.

[Indy Coug]

The Chicago Sun-Times just laid off its entire photo staff

http://jimromenesko.com/2013/05/30/report-sun-times-lays-off-entire-photo-staff/

[grapevine]

One thing that more and more papers are doing is charging you for online reading. Must lose money by putting it online and advertising doesn't pay the bill online. You still don't need o line subscription for d news.