The Epic Fail Race: Blue Media vs. Blue Government

[Valin]

Power Line:

 

Steven Hayward

8/2/12

 

It is hard to know which old model is failing fastest: the blue state model of governance, or the legacy media, which might be called the “blue state model of journalism.” We already noted the last few days the declining fortunes of CNN, as well as the news that Newsweek is going to cease print publication in the near future. But a little squib in the Wall Street Journal a couple of days back suggests it’s even worse than we know: the Washington Post has received a $500,000 grant from the Ford Foundation to shore up its shrinking newsroom. The Los Angeles Times already got a $1 million grant from Ford for the same purpose:

 

(Snip)

 

Think this over for a minute: for-profit media companies are becoming charity cases for their core mission. Really? (It is well known that without this highly profitable Kaplan test prep division, the Washington Post company would be losing buckets of money.) That’s not a business model with a future.

 

(Snip)

 

So today I’ll add that I’m delighted that the Ford Foundation is stepping in to shore up the nearly bankrupt legacy news media. (I think Dan Rather may be available cheap, by the way.) How long until they start shoring up failing public employee union pension plans? I doubt even Ford and Rockefeller together have enough assets to try that. But I invite them to try.

 

 

 

 

A 19th century (media) business model will not work in the 21st.