How Long Can Belo Hold On?
In a bit of irony, and a bit of what's wrong with local newspapers, you have to turn to Frontburner to find any discussion of the dire straits The Dallas Morning News finds itself in. Wick Allison does a bit of back-of-the-envelope calculating and concludes that A.H. Belo is a media company fast running out of cash. Not even its real estate holdings seem to be a defensible barrier against the economic collapse affecting mainstream media.
In big cities and even in some not-so-big cities, two or even more daily newspapers used to be common. Those days are gone for all but a few cities. The lone surviving daily in each metropolitan area has managed to hang on, but even media monopolies are no longer assured of survival. Which city will be the first to find itself without a newspaper? Newark? The publisher of the Star-Ledger threatened to shut it down if either a buyer wasn't found or enough employees didn't take buyout offers to drastically cut costs (and quality?). Similar stories abound across the country. Will Dallas find itself without a daily newspaper? It's no longer as unthinkable as it once was.
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