Magazine Revenues Take a Long-Term Vacation

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  macnamband07/21/08 Report as spam
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  Magazine Reviled

  And so one wonders how much (20.1) might have been behind the decision to launch the New Yorker's Obama cover, which, Obama aside, was not well conceived by the cartoonist or considered by the magazine. It would be a terrible shame to lose The New Yorker, and it probably would never happen, but if it did happen, one reason transcends economics: the office is too far above the street and too many of the editors have lived only in ivy-oried towers... All the most respected publications are failing... Just look at David Shipley's decision to reject John McCain's editorial for the New York Times. Shipley could have saved himself such grief if only he'd said, "Thank you for your submission, Senator, and of course we accept it but we'd like you to consider a few refinements, one being how you define 'victory." Instead, the piece was, if reports are accurate, rejected outright, with the caveat that McCain could try again. This is not a subtle difference. How can there be journalism without editors. Now there are only arbiters. Now there's no opportunity to collaborate; merely the dictum, the piece works or it doesn't. Hence these decision seem arbitrary and unfair. The pubs are killing themselves from the inside, quite apart from the economics.

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  danogram07/21/08 Report as spam
  2

  NYT Seems Headed for a Long Term Vacation

  The New York Times is not a government agency and can not, in deed should not, be compelled to print anything they do not wish to print. But it does amaze one to think that the words of the presidential candidate of one of the 2 primary political bodies would not be offered up to your readers. I would believe that NYT truly did shoot its own foot again; as a reader, I should feel slighted that the value of that John McCain piece was denied me, regardless of political persuasion...
  
  Do you suppose the good Mr. Shipley cares more about servicing a personal agenda than he does the NYT readership?