Michael S. Malone

I imagine, despite his reputation, some years back, Malone was one of the intelligent idiots telling America's Fortune 500 they would all cease to exist in a decade because of the Internet.

How completely ignorant, no wonder he's with PBS. Regarding James Lileks:

One of the reasons for this intense reaction is that for most of us in the rest of the world, the only thing we know about Minneapolis these days, and certainly about the Star-Tribune, is what we read in Lileks.com.

The Minneapolis Star-Tribune should simply let its employees go work at home or at Starbucks, sell off its building and printing plant, and use the resulting revenues to buy editorial space on Lileks.com.

Lileks already got more readers than the Strib, and they are certainly more loyal. And, of course, his site is actually growing. But best of all, his business judgment seems far superior to the clowns currently running the newspaper.

Seems to me like a win-win for everyone.

How he concludes readership numbers is an utter mystery. In reality, between Google hits and repeat visitors, people who take such measures extremely seriously know how flawed are Internet measures of readership. Wasn't there a Google ad dust up some time back?

More importantly, Malone is ignorant of the many people who would indeed be hurt were all newspapers to suddenly take his advice. Most advertisers in the Strib don't care and don't benefit from having their ads ogled by people outside of the local area. Let alone whether Malone sees them, or not.

Malone is basically advocating the pseudo-Walmart-ization of local media. Only I suspect he's just too self and technology-infatuated to realize it, or its consequences. Walmart - good - bring lower cost products into a region. Walmart-ization of media, bad - export media from a region. If you want anything remaining that looks at all like local media, Malone's advice is just plain bad.

It would also impact national and global reporting, as there would be few if any local news resources left for large media to tap when required due to major events outside of a seriously major city. Who needs a genuinely skilled local news reporter sifting out the facts of some catastrophe for you because he or she understands the lay of the land? You could always go read about some columnist's angst, instead, I suppose.

One day, new media may be established enough to help that issue out and people will be reading blogs instead of print for real local news. But that day isn't today, despite what Malone might have you believe.

Comments

[daveinboca]

Malone is clueless and a one-trick pony. The Star Tribune is also known as The Red Star for its Communist editorials. Another sobriquet is Star and Sickle. Its Managing Editor is moving south to run The Miami Herald, another paper run by liberal knee-jerk leftardos with an agenda on its front page. The Herald and Strib will probably go under if they continue to shed readers like they shed talented columnists.

[Dan Riehl]

I've no high regard for the Strib. But I do hope there continues to be somehting akin to local news.

[Simon]

This situation reminds me of something PJ O'Rourke once wrote about people confusing being good at something with being able to make a buck using that talent. Two totally different things. I myself think Lileks is as boring as bat shit, but even if he is as talented as the right wing blogosphere appears to believe, that doesn't mean he can make a buck blogging.

A lot of bloggers are very good writers - however people just don't appear to want to pay them to blog. Probably because the supply of free to view blogs is so great.

Totally agree with your stance on this.

[Fred Beloit]

Here in Panama City, FL we have the NEWS HERALD. I rely on it for local news and information. However, to fill up space on the op-ed page they reprint pieces by opinionistos from other papers or the internet. They seem to try to balance between right and left views. If it were to go, I would surely miss it.