Hollywood to Newsosaurs:Drop Dead

Ah, the decline of newsosaurs. Some surprise. First, they can't get news right (its all unsolvable mayhem) and then people find that younger demographics are tuning out - going to free online versions for news. So the newsosaurs (MSM) is only actively courting their demographics, which are older Democrats and Liberals (remember blue city/red county?). However, this trend is mostly for the big urban papers. Smaller local papers have their struggles, but as long as the national "news" plays second fiddle to opening the new swimming pool or a long-lived octegenarian's birthday at the local nursing home - people will still pick up and read the things.

But check out the sad tales of the LA and NY papers...

"According to the Motion Picture Association’s 2004 U.S. movie attendance survey, overall, 12-to 39-year-olds accounted for 57 percent of total moviegoers, 40- to 59-year-olds only 31 percent, and 60-plus-year-olds only 12 percent.


Look at the demographics for newspaper readers and it’s almost exactly the reverse. The Scarborough Research Top 50 Market Report found that 35- to 54-year-olds are the biggest readers of daily newspapers, followed by those 55 and older. A much smaller portion of readers came from 25- to 34-year-olds, followed by the barely there 18- to 24-year-olds. And despite the newspaper industry’s efforts to reach a younger audience, the Readership Institute notes that the biggest decline in daily newspaper readers was in the 18-to-34 group.

One way newspapers attract younger eyeballs is by writing about mass entertainment, since it’s the province of the young. Yet ousted NYT editor Howell Raines was savaged by media critics when he gave a story on Britney Spears Page One placement. Today’s paper, under his replacement Bill Keller, reads increasingly like TomKat 24/7. That’s also why newsosaurs are giving the US/People/Star fans more pop-culture news, either in spinoff freebies like the Chicago Tribune’s Red Eye, or within the regular paper like the Los Angeles Times’ extensive revision of its features sections, changing both format and content to infuse a newer ’tude (which we all know is just a rip-off of The New York Times’ first-on-the-block features redo). ">LA Weekly: Columns: Deadline Hollywood: Hollywood to Newsosaurs:Drop Dead: "According to the Motion Picture Association’s 2004 U.S. movie attendance survey, overall, 12-to 39-year-olds accounted for 57 percent of total moviegoers, 40- to 59-year-olds only 31 percent, and 60-plus-year-olds only 12 percent.


Look at the demographics for newspaper readers and it’s almost exactly the reverse. The Scarborough Research Top 50 Market Report found that 35- to 54-year-olds are the biggest readers of daily newspapers, followed by those 55 and older. A much smaller portion of readers came from 25- to 34-year-olds, followed by the barely there 18- to 24-year-olds. And despite the newspaper industry’s efforts to reach a younger audience, the Readership Institute notes that the biggest decline in daily newspaper readers was in the 18-to-34 group.

One way newspapers attract younger eyeballs is by writing about mass entertainment, since it’s the province of the young. Yet ousted NYT editor Howell Raines was savaged by media critics when he gave a story on Britney Spears Page One placement. Today’s paper, under his replacement Bill Keller, reads increasingly like TomKat 24/7. That’s also why newsosaurs are giving the US/People/Star fans more pop-culture news, either in spinoff freebies like the Chicago Tribune’s Red Eye, or within the regular paper like the Los Angeles Times’ extensive revision of its features sections, changing both format and content to infuse a newer ’tude (which we all know is just a rip-off of The New York Times’ first-on-the-block features redo). "