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Chambers of Commerce are the same all over

In the midst of an entertaining rant about supply and demand and journalism (which includes an even-more entertaining anecdote by Hunter S. Thompson about a period in which Thompson "was a sports columnist for one paper in the morning, sports editor for another in the afternoon, and at night [he]...

Posted by Michael Bates on March 21, 2016 9:28 PM

<em>Whirled</em> behind the wall

Tulsa's sole daily newspaper, the Tulsa World, will launch its new paywall this coming Monday, according to a story at PaidContent.org, which, ironically, is free. The paywall will allow viewing only 10 locally-produced stories a month without a subscription. According to the announcement in the World (see it free while...

Posted by Michael Bates on April 1, 2011 12:55 AM

Buying newspaper by the &pound;

This is a rather astounding illustration of the state of the newspaper business. Earlier this week, Russian billionaire Alexander Lebedev purchased the Independent, a 24-year-old nationally circulated British newspaper, for &pound;1 (about a buck-fifty). In exchange for that small change, he gets the daily and Sunday newspaper, plus all of...

Posted by Michael Bates on March 27, 2010 1:30 AM

Who will mind the magnates?

I happened across a discarded copy of the paper for the Sunday before last at a restaurant. As I paged through the funny pages (officially known as the Opinion section), I came across a piece by syndicated Miami Herald columnist Leonard Pitts Jr., with this pull-quote prominently displayed: No, only...

Posted by Michael Bates on April 2, 2009 11:25 PM

<em>Sun</em> sets

Amongst all the other sad news is this: The New York Sun will cease publication today after nearly seven years of publication. The revived Sun (the original version ceased publication in 1950) was known for a thoughtful, conservative editorial bent, thorough reporting on local government, and lively writing on arts...

Posted by Michael Bates on September 30, 2008 12:49 AM