Why Newspaper Subscriptions are Falling

Everybody knows that newspapers don't sell news. The "news" is fishwrap. It is throwaway, the stuff you wrap fishes in at the fish market to give to customers.

The "news"paper business is in the "advertising"paper business. But to be successful, you have to put something on the pages besides advertising in order to lure people to look at your paper.

Sadly, newspaper have lost sight of the need to provide something worthy of attention. Here is a post by Dean Baker in his blog Beat the Press showing what useless misinformation is purveyed by "news"papers as "news":

NYT readers must have been stunned to see the second paragraph of an article on the prospects for shale oil in Argentina refer to "the country’s long-stagnant economy."

According to data from the IMF, Argentina's economy grew at almost an 8 percent annual rate from 2003 to 2008, following a severe recession in 1998-2002. The world economic crisis brought its economy to a standstill in 2009, but it grew by 9.2 percent last year and is projected to grow 6.0 percent this year. This is stagnant?

Subscriptions are falling? Yeah! If they think they serve up falsehoods as "news" then they deserve to go out of business.