When 2,529 people were offered a free subscription to their local newspapers, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and the Philadelphia Inquirer, only forty-four accepted—less than 2 percent—according to an academic study set to be published this year in the American Journal of Political Science.
Will we ever unravel this mystery why people don't want to consume the mainstream media?
One returned an invitation to subscribe to the Post-Gazette with a message: “[t]he P-G is an awful newspaper run by horrible bigoted people.” Other comments collected from the social platforms read: “no thanks! Fake News” and “GOTTA BE BAD FOR THE MEDIA WHEN YOU CAN’T GIVE THE CRAP AWAY.”
It's an enigma.
By the way, the largest paper in Western Massachusetts has - as of this morning - printed exactly nothing about Biden's career-ending press conference. We did hear about a 7-11 selling a winning lottery ticket, so we got that.
2 comments:
Will we ever unravel this mystery why people don't want to consume the mainstream media?
One returned an invitation to subscribe to the Post-Gazette with a message: “[t]he P-G is an awful newspaper run by horrible bigoted people.” Other comments collected from the social platforms read: “no thanks! Fake News” and “GOTTA BE BAD FOR THE MEDIA WHEN YOU CAN’T GIVE THE CRAP AWAY.”
It's an enigma.
The study's conclusion:
"Contemporary local newspapers may face a demand-side dilemma: the engaged citizens who formerly read them now prefer national, partisan content."
This blog's conclusion:
"Ha ha! Hooray for the echo bubble!"
Meanwhile, readership for Us Weekly, Golf Digest, Cosmopolitan, Southern Living, the National Enquirer, Scientific American, Archie, TV Guide, Field & Stream, Redbook, GQ, Bon Appetit, Guns and Ammo and nearly any other publication you can think of has also notably fallen off. Quelle coïncidence!
1. People are conditioned to distrust offers for 3 months of “free” anything that they expect will convert into auto-payments and spam. As Republicans like to say, “There Is No Such Thing As A Free Lunch.”
2. Also, the once-liberal Pittsburgh Post-Gazette swung to a hard conservative stance almost a decade ago, backing Donald Trump. The owner even fired the editorial cartoonist for not playing ideological ball.
Kind of shines a new light on “[t]he P-G is an awful newspaper run by horrible bigoted people,” doesn't it?
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