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Globe finally kills Health/Science section
By adamg on Wed, 02/04/2009 - 10:26am
It'd been slowly dying for years; now Adam Reilly reports the Globe is killing it off altogether. On the plus side, the Monday cover story in g is always going to be health-related (how is Jennifer Anniston's health these days? No, I didn't just write that).
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Comments
I hope the Globe tells me
I hope the Globe tells me that Aniston's health is okay but no thanks to the mustache.
Awful
Migrating the science "news" to the business section sounds like it's going to be canned press releases from the big companies and not the academic topics and smaller start-up attention that the separate section was providing. That's a shame.
That and "local" (North,
That and "local" (North, South, East, West, NorthShore etc) coverage were the two sections I always enjoyed most. Mainly because they were offering me something that nobody else was offering, in depth stories on issues and concerns with a Boston centric focus. I can find all that other news somewhere else, but true stories on those topics are much harder to come by. I guess Im in the minority on that one.
next stop on the death march
...but still no apparent strategy to revive & thrive.
Several months ago I joined the Globe's online reader feedback panel, thinking it might be an opportunity to contribute to a genuine dialogue on the future of the paper. But then I saw it was just another pre-fabbed and unlively discussion board. Disappointing but telling.
I have a friend who worked
I have a friend who worked as an intern for the washington post. She and the other interns were asked to create presentations showing what young readers (16-26) were looking for in a newspaper, and how to attract them. Some of the ideas were really good.
Before the presentations, she overheard the CEO (or head editor, or whoever the most important person in the building was) complaining that the presentations would be a waste of her time. She then left in the middle of a presentation and did not return to see the final two.
With this attitude, its no wonder that print media is dying.
Young readers?
I've never understood the obsession with young readers. Newspapers should target people that appreciate (print) journalism/news regardless of their age. Target the best potential users, not broad demographics.
Why target young readers?
Because old readers eventually die, and if they aren't replaced by new younger ones, so does your newspaper.
Also the fact the younger
Also the fact the younger demographics spend more which equals more advertisement money. That's why 16-40 demographic (or something like that) is so important, it is the most lucrative.
young at heart
well, 40 isn't exactly young! The comment above was talking about 16-26.
Still, the old model of collecting eyeballs in attractive demographics and selling them to advertisers is dying. Newspapers have to figure out how to cut out the middle man and directly sell high-quality journalism content to those that are willing to pay for it. In that case, you'd want to target people that are heavy/loyal consumers of news regardless of age.
The G Force grows stronger.
The G Force grows stronger.