One woman left the homegrown for Rupert Murdoch’s news section:
The Chicago Tribune bent over backwards to win back Coleen Davison. The paper did everything for her but the one thing she asked — which was for it to turn itself into a newspaper she could take seriously again.
On March 2 Davison sent the Wall Street Journal a fan letter. “I simply wanted to write and tell you how thrilled we are with your paper,” she wrote. “The caliber and depth of your reporting is incredible and easily surpasses the Chicago Tribune, to which until recently we had been long-time subscribers. Our growing discontent with the Tribune‘s diminishing quality became intolerable after their redesign last fall, and led us to explore other news options…“
On Wednesday Davison’s entire letter was the centerpiece of a full-page ad for the Wall Street Journal that appeared in the Sun-Times. I commented on that ad in my blog.
Then I got in touch with Coleen Davison. “We’d been [Tribune] subscribers for 12 or 13 years,” she told me. “Obviously we’ve seen changes we weren’t thrilled by, but the last redesign was the final straw. It was sound-bite journalism — all pictures, no stories.”
Last September 29 the Tribune, exclaiming “It’s a whole new day,” presented its recreated self to Chicago, the fanfare and visual razzmatazz intended to mask the blunt reality that for financial reasons the Tribune was shrinking its news hole.
While I can understand the desire to avoid a terrible local newspaper—especially the opinion page—switching to national coverage is no replacement for local news. No doubt, national papers have the ducats to invest in some great writers and in-depth reporting. But still, leaving for Rupert Murdoch’s news hole? Ugh.
The term “news hole” cracks me up every time I hear it at work. Giggle.
Also, “ducats.”
@ 1) Right, like a ticket. Thank you.
Eh, the Trib is floating tits-up at the top of the tank. Time to move on.
Eventually these old unpatriotic neocons will die and the papers will be left with … nobody.
Trends of older people jumping ship should be ignored.
The question is – why isn’t the paper expanding the comics?
The Wall Street Journal’s reporting is excellent, even if its opinion pages are a joke.
Dan,
I hear surgeons can shrink your leaky news hole, if you get my drift.
When I moved to my current home, a mere hour and twenty minutes from Seattle, I called the PI and the Times- and both said I was not on a delivery route.
I called the New York Times- and they said they would be happy to mail me the paper, 2 to 3 days late.
then, I called the Wall Street Journal- and they put today’s paper in my mailbox every day.
So I have been a subscriber since way before Rupert bought it. And it is a great paper, although it is inexcusable that it doesnt have comics.
Yes, the editorial page sucks- but so does the editorial page of the Times, the PI most days, and the Skagit Valley Herald and the Tacoma News Tribune.
But the WSJ may end up being one of the last men standing as far as actually employing reporters, and the news department is unbiased, and often undercuts the editorial page with its reporting of facts.
If only it wasnt so damn expensive…
Here in Australia, Murdoch’s The Australian is easily the best newspaper in Australia. The Age in Melbourne and Sydney Morning Herald are both good, but the Aussie beats them on national + world issues. Just sayin’