* I agree with Richard that an international following, with international
editions published on every continent - matters.
* But the more intriguing question for me is not the foregone conclusion that
daily newspapers will be dead within five years - or, as you say, in less than
2 years. This phenomenon has been much debated among my journalist friends for
more than 10 years, many of whom are still out of work. No, the more
intriguing question is over WHICH newspapers and magazines will die faster than
others - and why.
* It wasn't long ago that - excluding USA Today - that the NY Times boasted the
top circulation in America. During the past 7 years, the WSJ has blown past
both papers and is the ONLY daily paper in America that has continuously posted
circulation gains and profits in the face of an industry-wide downward spiral
for newspapers and magazines. This is beyond WEIRD. Today, both the NYT and
the WSJ have similar layouts and content - but the WSJ is viewed as a
"different animal" that's essential to the average person as well as to
businesses, large and small.
* What the WSJ has done during the past 10 years is dump its stock listings
printed in mouse type - and replaced them with business features that are
"green," that is, they aren't "time sensitive." It is the only paper that from
the beginning, embraced and stuck to the "paywall" model - while finding ways
to prevent the cannibalizing print sales, which remain humongous, by
selectively choosing what stays in print and what goes online.
* Of course, this can't last forever and I too, foresee the day when even the
WSJ will split 80-20 digital vs. print. But I'm optimistic that the WSJ will
maintain a print edition longer - because of its consistent "news you can use"
framework, jammed with undated features about careers, office politics,
brown-nosers, tyrants, office and personal relationship tips, alimony, small
business do's and don'ts, spotlighting trends in every industry sector,
throwing in gobs of movie, theater, book, food and restaurant reviews, etc.
It's no longer just a financial paper. I wrote at length about the "weirdness
of the WSJ" on my blog:
http://davidkusumoto.blogspot.com/2009/11/why-is-wsj-1-newspaper-in-america-its.html*
When Murdoch bought News Corporation, I feared the worst for the WSJ.
Predictions of doom and gloom and extreme-right-wing tirades on the front page
haven't happened. I still enjoy the WSJ because to me, it still has an
old-school discipline that hews more closely to CNN - than to the polarizing
Fox News Channel, which Murdoch also owns. In sum, daily newspapers and weekly
magazines are dying, but I don't yet believe that ALL of them will be wiped off
the face of the earth. In my view, digital will indeed dominate, but so long
as papers like the WSJ continue to charge north of $200,000 for a full-page ad
- and they keep getting it - some form of the print edition, however
abbreviated, will survive.
Date: Fri, 19 Oct 2012 00:30:19 +0100
From: [email protected]
Subject: Re: R.I.P. Movie Collector's World 1976-2012
To: [email protected]
International following seen as key to survival.The
Guardian (which I really hope will be a survivor) has 2/3 of its online
readership outside the UK, and half of that is the US.Unfortunately, it's our
Daily Mail with highest international online readership having recently
overtaken NY Times.Feels like a good thing to me that I'm now in the habit of
following various foreign news sources.
I
believe the news source that gets the lion's share of my time are the
emovieposter club messages. Doesn't feel right that I can't have a
manservant iron them before reading.
Sent from my iPad
Date: Thu, 18 Oct 2012 18:22:18 -0400
From: [email protected]
Subject: Re: R.I.P. Movie Collector's World 1976-2012
To: [email protected]
Hate to disagree David, but I think the print edition of
the NYT will be gone long before that. I wouldn't even give it two
years.
I believe we've finally hit the tipping point for the
disappearance of most print media and, in my opinion, the catalyst was the
introduction of the iPad and the flood of tablets that have
followed.
Yesterday there were rumours (reported by the Telegraph)
that the Guardian is considering going all-digital as well. My bet is that
virtually every major newspaper and magazine will follow suit in the next
twelve
to eighteen months.
That's neither a good thing nor a bad thing, it's
just the way things are.
Dave
Date: Thu, 18 Oct 2012 16:54:29 -0500
From: [email protected]
Subject: Re: R.I.P. Movie Collector's World 1976-2012
To: [email protected]
A few years ago I boldly predicted that ALL magazines
and newspapers would go out of business, and that all other hard copy
media (books, CDs, DVDs, etc) were sure to follow.
Back then a LOT of people told me that that they could NEVER imagine not
reading a paper every day, and that no computer could ever replace it.
And a good number of those people have already quit getting a paper!
Also doomed are "live" auctions, because they are 18th Century technology that
makes no sense in the present day.
Date: Thu, 18 Oct 2012 14:25:36 -0700
From: [email protected]
Subject: Re: R.I.P. Movie Collector's World 1976-2012
To: [email protected]
Hate
to make predictions, but I think the print edition of the New York
Times will fail and they'll go all-digital within five years. Its
parent company is bleeding red ink every day despite the fact that its
website is among the most visited on the entire Internet. To stem the
bleeding, it recently put up a paywall that limits readers to 10
articles a month, but there are many workarounds for that. When people
have a choice with their pocketbooks, they won't pay for something - no
matter how liked - that they can get for free.
Conversely,
the WSJ, which has always had a paywall - continues to post gains with
its print AND digital editions - and remains the largest circulation
daily in the U.S. with a whopping 2.1 million print subscribers and
growing. It's puzzling to see the fortunes of the 2 most dominant
papers in the U.S. moving in opposite directions. However one feels
about the infamous Ruper Murdoch, the WSJ - to my eyes, anyway - has not
changed into a tabloid filled with screeds and diatribes - like you
still find in other Murdoch papers in the U.S., the U.K. and Australia.
The character of the WSJ has changed visually, with color pages
throughout and way more features about movies, auctions and the arts;
but its political biases are firmly stuck in its editorial and
letters-to-the-editor sections, (which I tend to skip) - and not in
places like Arts and Leisure in competing national papers. I think the
only other daily national newspaper that "may" survive five years from
now - will be USA Today, which strikes me as a "headline service" (sort
of like TV) - for travelers and people on the go. -d.
Date: Thu, 18 Oct 2012 07:12:14 -0500
From: [email protected]
Subject: Re: R.I.P. Movie Collector's World 1976-2012
To: [email protected]
On the heels of MCW ending comes the end of Newsweek, One by one they will all
go. Time is next, and then The New York Times (yes, The New York Times).
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/10/18/a-turn-of-the-page-for-newsweek.html
Date: Tue, 16 Oct 2012 18:05:56 -0700
From: [email protected]
Subject: Re: R.I.P. Movie Collector's World 1976-2012
To: [email protected]
Terrible news but I'm with everyone else - Brian Bukantis should be commended
for squeezing as much as he could out of MCW for so many glorious years - even
as people continued to flee to the Internet. I was proud to have been a
monthly contributor many years ago, writing columns about the hobby, covering
auction results and the occasional unsavory scandal. I know Brian suffered
through many headaches trying to get my controversial opinions into print -
while trying not to offend his advertisers. I got to meet a lot of names in
the hobby through that column, including Bruce H. and Jim Halperin and Grey
Smith, etc., as well as some big-time buyers and consignors like Stephen
Fishler, Claude Litton and Marty Saltzman. Over the last decade, Bruce H.
continued to be MCW's biggest champion, marketing it on his own site.
Three-cheers to Brian B. for giving his all to a magazine - whose legacy in the
poster collecting world - is forever etched in stone. -d.
Date: Tue, 16 Oct 2012 17:54:52 -0500
From: [email protected]
Subject: R.I.P. Movie Collector's World 1976-2012
To: [email protected]
I am so very sad to announce that "On Monday, October 15 two of the most highly
respected film buff publications,
Movie Collector’s World (MCW) and Classic Images (CI) announced that they had
come to an agreement on the sale of MCW. Classic Images has agreed to buy Movie
Collectors World, a Michigan based newspaper published by Brian
Bukantis since 1985. The agreement was made on Friday, October 12. The two
papers, serving movie buffs around the world, will be merged into one monthly
publication. Under the terms of the agreement, currently active paid MCW
subscribers will receive each monthly issue of CI, beginning with the December
issue, for the length of their MCW subscription term."
Those of you who only joined this hobby the past few years only know of MCW as
a thin magazine, filled mostly with auction announcements and ads for the
foremost dealers.
But for those of us who have been in the hobby for decades, we remember so well
those pre-Internet days when a large portion of the collectors and dealers
subscribed to this then bulging publication, because it was THE number one way
to buy and sell, and pretty much the most important day of the month was the
one when MCW arrived!
This really IS the "end of an era". I want to publicly thank Brian Bukantis for
publishing it the past 27 years, and for doing a superb job throughout that
time (of course, the ONLY thing he couldn't overcome was the Internet, which is
rapidly putting EVERY newspaper and magazine out of business, and Brian should
be quite proud that he was able to continue publishing as long as he did). He
is a great guy, both personally and professionally, and he added immeasurably
to our hobby. The ONLY silver lining to this is that Brian's life now won't be
spent going from one urgent deadline to another!
I will have more about this (and a farewell message from Brian) in my next
weekly e-mail club message on Sunday!
Bruce
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