On Beliefnet, Rod Dreher shines some light on the darkness spreading through 508 Young St. today: "Just came into work to find that the long-announced layoffs have commenced. A dear friend and colleague whose husband works here just learned moments ago that he got the axe. Names are rolling in, including names of writers and editors I know and respect. It's terrible." --Robert Wilonsky
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The Big Guy would never wish harm on anyone, but this quote from Rod about a writer "who crafts beautiful stories about life in our city." makes The Big Guy chuckle.
How deep does The Big Guy have to dig on dallasnews.com (The Big Guy never ever reads the paper version) to get to the "beautiful stories ", because other than the sports columnists and beat reporters, there is nothing worth reading
Here are some suggestions for BELO:
1) In the digital age, content is king. Produce something worth reading, and people will read it.
2)Stake out an editorial position that has a minute appearance of concern for the citizens of Dallas, not just the Dallas Citizens Council
3) Go local, Go Local, Go local. This doesn't mean within a 10 mile radius of the Belo HQ (Due North only, of course)
Even a alcoholic, bitter, jittery old hack like Shutze (bless his heart!) can figure out there is something really wrong with this city. Boosterism has destroyed the credibility of the DMN.
The market has voted against the DMN with "extreme prejudice".
Just blaming the changes in the industry are not enough
Posted On: Friday, Oct. 24 2008 @ 1:51PMjamal is shocked at how much he likes the big guy's post.
Posted On: Friday, Oct. 24 2008 @ 2:01PMThe Big Guy forgot to add - how about making dallasnews.com a semi readable, interesting to look at, content rich website??
Even NoLA.com is easier to navigate
Posted On: Friday, Oct. 24 2008 @ 2:13PM"A dear friend and colleague whose husband works here just learned moments ago that he got the axe. "
Wait, I'm so confused. Who got laid off, the dear friend, the colleague, or the husband? Or are there two husbands and one got laid off and the other didn't?
Posted On: Friday, Oct. 24 2008 @ 2:31PMI agree with the Big Guy. I've stopped reading the paper because of the lack of local content across business and government. Sports might be the exception. Moreover, their Web site is terrible-horrible-awful. I would prefer to read my news online. I'm not saying anything new.
The Observer's and D's blogs are starting to supplant DMN for daily news coverage and that should not be happening (in the good old days).
My demographics: M, 30s, married, N. Dallas.
Posted On: Friday, Oct. 24 2008 @ 2:33PM"My demographics: M, 30s, married, N. Dallas."
Watch out. Haywood is looking for a lunch time "buddy" if you know what I mean. Don't get me wrong, he's not gay.....he pitches. Only queers catch.
Posted On: Friday, Oct. 24 2008 @ 2:44PMI think The Big Guy is dead on about how useless Dallas' Only Daily is now. I never buy the paper and I find the website horrid. I read the Observer to find out the real local news here.
Posted On: Friday, Oct. 24 2008 @ 3:16PMAs the paper gets smaller and the content, especially in business news disappears and the editorial page seems totally out of touch with reality the Morning News has sent me another letter saying they are raising the price of my subscription. In the meantime, my neighbors are complaining about the free edition piling up in front of people's homes. Great content sells newspapers. Period.
Posted On: Friday, Oct. 24 2008 @ 3:17PMI second that online issue.... the DMN website sucks the proverbial social sausage!! Too many popups and way too many overlapping ads!!! Egads what are they thinking!!!!
Wierd Warren
Posted On: Friday, Oct. 24 2008 @ 3:30PMDMN is a former shadow of itsself, as its became a bully pulpit for whatever damned fools crusade that the editors or steve blow seem to engage in on a weekly basis. I have no respect for a paper who doesnt seem to understand the concept of journalistic integrity, where you report the stories, then let the reader decide on their own.
Another thing, their website is one of the worst-designed and developed in-house sites I have ever seen from ANY media entitiy. The Weekly Reader site takes less time to load up and doesnt bombard you with all the popup/under/around crap they try to sell you...
Posted On: Friday, Oct. 24 2008 @ 3:36PMSpeaking of layoffs, why is it that TDMN has drummed DISD to death for decades but now has all its non-Dallas dwelling columnists saying we need to keep Hinojosa?
Posted On: Friday, Oct. 24 2008 @ 3:43PMI used to get the NYT delivered and would buy the DMN every Sunday AM for a leisurely weekend. But I finally dropped the DMN, it was lacking any meaty content. I started saving the DO from Thursday and using it to pair with the NYT.
The final example of their slide into journalistic penury was when I saw that the NY Post and the DMN both endorsed McCain -- and I think on the same day.
That spoke volumes.
Posted On: Friday, Oct. 24 2008 @ 4:22PMOh, dear!
I do so hope that when Rod Dreher dashes home tonight to toast his joy at once again not being thrown to the wolves along with those who had a real job at the paper that this time he chooses a proper champagne of quality and that he takes care not to dilute its sparkling nummy-num goodness with mere passing crocodile tears.
How is a true journalist to create an inspired link to Ross Douthat or Patrick Deneen over a shabby bottle of bubbly?
Posted On: Friday, Oct. 24 2008 @ 5:45PMBig Guy, GET OUT OF HEAD.
Just what I was thinking, couldn't put it better, only less well written with more typos.
And yet, the former Washington Times, NY Post Movie critic doesn't get voted off the island.
Sure his lack of integrity helps his survival.
The Whole Truth, you hit the nail on the head. The DMN is charging more to loyal subscribers; meanwhile they can't give their paper away. So what do they do? Try to force hundreds of thousands of their substandard product onto people who don't want it, won't read it, and either ignore it in their driveway or gutter, or simply dispose of it like the trash it really is. After all, trash is something that no longer serves any useful purpose and is no longer wanted. The solution is obvious: Offer a product that people want, by serving up interesting content in ways people want to see it. Meanwhile the monopolist DMN is in its final death throes. More's the pity, given what it could be.
Posted On: Saturday, Oct. 25 2008 @ 7:39AMIt's long past time for a re-orgaization of the newspaper business.
Every paper of any size in the US wants to be the New York Times and shapes its content with the primary mission of re-educating the public into the Marxist mindset that our future president Mr. Obama holds so dear.
They can (and probably will) continue to do this untill they turn out the lights and lock the door for the last time.
But somehwere out there are some journalists who are patriots and conservatives and will do for the newspaper business what Dennis Prager and Michael Medved are doing for talk radio.
When this happens there will be new life but untill then, the downward slide will continue.
Posted On: Saturday, Oct. 25 2008 @ 8:48PMCatbird is right. When they stop printing socialist propaganda, I'll buy the paper again.
I wish I could be as sensitive as Toots regarding our Gay friends, but I'm an evil Conservative.
Posted On: Sunday, Oct. 26 2008 @ 12:43AMThe Big Guy doesn't get it. The DMN has one of the most conservative editorial boards, and is owned by one of the most conservative media companies in the US.
By Catbird's measure, the DMN should be thriving?
Why isn't it thriving?
The Washington Times has only 1/7th the circulation of the Washington Post. How can that be?
Posted On: Sunday, Oct. 26 2008 @ 9:19AMThe Washington Times has only 1/7th the circulation of the Washington Post. How can that be?
Given that their primary circulation base is that hotbed of conservatism that is D.C., it really is amazing.
Posted On: Sunday, Oct. 26 2008 @ 1:13PMThe Big Guy needs to come back from the 70's. That was when the DMN was a conservative paper.
Posted On: Monday, Oct. 27 2008 @ 1:13AMI'm just trying to understand how the Metro desk (Steve Blow, Jacquelyn Floyd, James Ragland) manages to survive these purges intact.
Posted On: Monday, Oct. 27 2008 @ 7:47AMMuch of this has to do with the fact that the DMN...along with just about every other daily in the world...arrogantly assumed that the interwebs was in no way a threat to "real journalism."
As soon as they realized they were becoming irrelevant, they were about 10 years behind in coming up with ways to capitalize off online products.
When the Baby Boomers are gone, so, too, will the newspaper as we used to know it.
Posted On: Monday, Oct. 27 2008 @ 9:10AMDear (I wanna be an..) Americano
When was the last time the DMN endorsed a democrat for President, Governor, or Senator?
When was the last time the DMN wrote Original Content not even including editorial) that could have shown in a critical light a corporation, or a sitting republican elected official, or a mega-church?
Posted On: Monday, Oct. 27 2008 @ 10:01AM
