Morning Call faces large-scale cuts

If news is filtered, it's filtered everywhere. The internet destroyed the publisher business model where geography expansion drove the value of the advertising. Now it takes very creative marketers and savvy editors to push those online numbers. Publishers can do more with less. They need to retain good quality talent. I think the MCall will do just fine. You all hang in there. You are appreciated and I look forward to more fun on Bonusgate, DeNaples... bring it on.

Here's a person clueless living in Allentown.

elektra wrote:

If news is filtered, it's filtered everywhere. The internet destroyed the publisher business model where geography expansion drove the value of the advertising. Now it takes very creative marketers and savvy editors to push those online numbers. Publishers can do more with less. They need to retain good quality talent. I think the MCall will do just fine. You all hang in there. You are appreciated and I look forward to more fun on Bonusgate, DeNaples... bring it on.

business is business...the places are interchangeable. Every place wants to think they're different, and they not. Get a grip.

mac8 wrote:

Better start backing Obama or you paper will fold by the time McCain gets done with the economy !!!

START backing Obama? Are you kidding? This paper is more in the tank for Barry than the clown at the Fair

MC Hammered wrote:

Why this paper is failing is because it isn't worth the paper it is printed on.
This is hopefully just the beginning of a trend for print media. These papers do not print the news, they make it (make it up that is) and drive the dicisions they want (liberal or conservative).
The Constitution puts in guarantees for a free and UNBIASED press. Quite honestly I am not sure why they haven't been taken to court as being in violation of the Constitution yet, because the media (print and TV) has become so biased they stepped way over that line a long time ago.
People are sick of this garbage reporting (except for the radical ideologues, both left and right) and have turned to alternative forms of media for their news.
If these morons running the media would actually do their jobs and hold ALL politicians feet to the fire, we might actually have a govenment and government officials that are worth something then every presidential election we wouldn't have to choose between Dumb and Dumber.

This could be the dumbest thing I've ver read. First, the constitution says nothing about bias. In fact, it specifically forbids ANY laws restricting the free press.
This is half the problem. Ignorant knuckleheads who can't spell or read, commenting on a newspaper.

What, you might be a little too kind. How can the media report the truth when the public is willfully ignorant?

Hawk wrote:

What, you might be a little too kind. How can the media report the truth when the public is willfully ignorant?

Are you including yourself in as part of the "willfully ignorant public"?

LV resident wrote:

<quoted text>
Are you including yourself in as part of the "willfully ignorant public"?

What difference does it make. There are models taught in political science courses that incorporate the public lethargy into the political process. What more do you need to know? People don't want to organize, people inherently want to do the "right thing", so they sit on their rear ends and hope with faith that those in public offices will do their jobs. And, when @hit hits the fan, it's the politician's fault. So we have a failing government, and it's the government's fault, not the people who elect them or the people who don't vote... So, I'd say that yes, the people willfully turn their heads to important issues raised in the media, rather than take a stand on those issues that impact them... how much more do you need to see missing from your paycheck with minimal return for that investment in government? The newspaper industry is in transition with the ongoing shift to the internet. Someday there will be a major brown out and on that day we'll realize how much we miss the hard paper as back up to technology... but not until we are directly impacted. MCall is a tertiary market paper. They do a good job for their size. Appreciate it, you could be getting the Pocono Record.:-)

we just hate white people.

Reality check wrote:

A newspaper that served this community for generations slowly is dying. But almost all I'm reading is hate...
A number of people who spent their entire careers doing their best to serve this community as honest, professional and unbiased journalists, already quietly vanished from The Morning Call in the last few years...are gone and already mostly forgotten.
...But don't blame a liberal bias. It never existed in the news pages, where reporters always were encouraged -- sometimes ordered -- to get both sides of the story, until they knew to do it without being reminded. And it seldom existed in the opinion pages, where editorials generally were so dull and status quo that even many people who worked at the paper didn't read them.

I don't think you are reading hate - you are reading frustration. Extreme frustration.
Having grown up in Allentown reading the Call, I remember those reporters and the balance in the stories they presented.
Sadly, that newspaper does not exist anymore. The editorial pages are biased - and the bias is obvious.
Stories that are written and contain views contrary to what is "approved" by the Call's hierarchy are heavily edited or not printed at all. If a reporter doesn't get the message they are reassigned. That is how reporters are now taught what to write "without being reminded".
In any other business a company would attempt to find out why it is losing customers. In the newspaper business the blame is always given to the internet, corporate takeovers, or something similar. Anything to avoid an honest look in the mirror or a discussion with your (former) customers.
It wasn't too long ago that we heard the AM radio band was dead. Last time I checked, it seemed to be doing alright. I think newspapers can make themselves relevant again - but they have to want to.

Anonymous wrote:

<quoted text>
I don't think you are reading hate - you are reading frustration. Extreme frustration.
Having grown up in Allentown reading the Call, I remember those reporters and the balance in the stories they presented.
Sadly, that newspaper does not exist anymore. The editorial pages are biased - and the bias is obvious.
Stories that are written and contain views contrary to what is "approved" by the Call's hierarchy are heavily edited or not printed at all. If a reporter doesn't get the message they are reassigned. That is how reporters are now taught what to write "without being reminded".
In any other business a company would attempt to find out why it is losing customers. In the newspaper business the blame is always given to the internet, corporate takeovers, or something similar. Anything to avoid an honest look in the mirror or a discussion with your (former) customers.
It wasn't too long ago that we heard the AM radio band was dead. Last time I checked, it seemed to be doing alright. I think newspapers can make themselves relevant again - but they have to want to.

How many mental patients does it take to screw in a light bulb? One---but he/she must WANT to do it.

The paper is downsizing, like every other paper in the nation, due to a shift in the medium that carries the information. There are some here that want to blame the employees and quality of the paper and its information. That is totally off base. While entitled to your opinion, it is antagonistic in nature and unjustified. I think there are some reporters at the Call who are qualified for some major market assignments. They know who they are. I hope you all will move forward with your talent. Like I said before. You folks should count your blessings, because you could be the recipients of the Pocono Record. The home of the art of vanilla reporting. You'll NEVER see ANY of those folks defending their sources in a court of law, because they'll never dig deep enough to gain the trust of the people with the information.

elektra wrote:

business is business...the places are interchangeable. Every place wants to think they're different, and they not. Get a grip.

Newspapers are more than a "business." They are supposed to be a watchdog on government, the Fourth Estate. Corporate journailsm has reduced that role and made newspapers into just a business. Thomas Jefferson said that if he had to choose between a governement without newspapers and newspapers without a government, he'd always choose newspapers without a government.

When is this leftist rag going to report on the John Edwards sex scandle? Oh, they are not bias? Riiiiiight!

PSUGrad wrote:

<quoted text>
Newspapers are more than a "business." They are supposed to be a watchdog on government, the Fourth Estate. Corporate journalism has reduced that role and made newspapers into just a business. Thomas Jefferson said that if he had to choose between a government without newspapers and newspapers without a government, he'd always choose newspapers without a government.

Well you are correct of course. And, the Call has been doing a great job of watch dogging on several fronts. Having said that, unfortunately newspapers are a business, not a not-for-profit. Until that model changes, it is what it is. There is more grit news on the blogs than anywhere else. I think great reporters could manage a blog and probably figure out a way to cover their expenses and then some. Of course they won't have the protection of the large corporation, but that's what insurance is for. The internet is changing our expectations about news, what is news, how quickly we get news, and the depth of content. We are on the crest of the technology wave. We have no choice but to ride it through.

Having grown up in Coopersburg, we took the Morning Call (father worked in Allentown), Globe-Times (mother worked in Bethlehem and it was the evening paper), and the Quakertown Free Press because we shopped in Quakertown. A neighbor was a stringer for the Globe-Times, so we got good local coverage.

Those were the days.

Jill wrote:

Case in point. A friend subscribed to Sundays only. First week, didn't get paper. Called and finally got it. Second week, didn't get paper. Called, and then got two copies of it. Third week, didn't get paper. Gee, any surprise she cancelled her subscription? You used to know who was delivering your paper; you could call the person (usually a neighborhood teen) who could get you a paper. And if you got poor service, you wouldn't tip. Now if you don't get it, you can call and be on hold for 25 minutes only to be harassed about expanding your subscription.
Who wants to advertise in a paper that nobody gets?

I agree. The MC does not know how to deliver their product.

I'll pay a smaller ad price in Coopersburg's Penny Power and it will get out to the people

They are going down!

yeah well.

Hey,
Any of you morning call (ex)employees looking for work,
I might be looking for concrete laborers,
(push wheelbarrows full of concrete)
(carry wall panels)
(troweling floors)

don't forget ex-mc reporters, crack hos make a lot of money...look me up.