When I was growing up, there were two main newspapers here, the Oregonian and the Journal, a tabloid. The Journal died in the 1970's, but the Oregonian seemed to do alright.

Not anymore. They deliver a stack of papers here every day, and I saw a daily once and was amazed by how thin it was. Well, the Sunday paper will be bigger, right? It's Sunday, and I just saw it and it's a pitiful echo of how it used to be. And I'm sure I know what shrank the most: the classifieds.

I saw a chart somewhere of newspaper revenues, and it peaked just as Craigslist started really hitting its stride, and then fell off a cliff. Online classifieds are so much better it's hardly any wonder, but the classifieds were the biggest source of revenue for most newspapers, and Craig Newmark cut the ankles out from under them.

Anyway, this is the first time I've seen the paper since I've moved back here, and it was like running into an old friend and realizing he's been going through chemo. You kind of want to avert your eyes.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in Weird World at 10:11 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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