Newspapers are floundering. They can’t sell the classified ads that were so profitable over the years, due to Ebay, Monster and Craigslist. Their display ads have greatly reduced in volume as well, as the big chains continue to merge, wiping out huge advertising accounts in the process. The fall of the housing market is not helping.
So what have the papers done? They have cut back – big time. Great reporters and opinion writers have been bought out, at both the O.C. Register and the L.A. Times. The Register, in particular, has cut back so much that they no longer are able to break big stories the way they used to.
Alex Brant-Zawadzki noticed this trend, over at the O.C. Weekly’s Navel Gazing Blog, with regard to the tragic story which unfolded over the weekend when a father wiped out his family, in Yorba Linda. Here is Alex’ take on the Register’s decline:
The killings are described as the worst in Orange County’s recent history – debatable. What’s not debatable is that the Register is taking an impressive amount of flak over their so-called flawed coverage of the story.
From the very first comment once the story went on-line, readers expressed their indignation:
canyonrob wrote:
Why do CNN and the San Diego U-T both have larger, more detailed stories about this local event than the Register…and why is this not on the front page? If someone from another city was to come here looking for more information on this story, they’d be seriously disappointed. Great LOCAL coverage, Register…keep up the bad work!
bronsonator wrote:
I agree with canyonrob. I wrote the editor at OCR (via email) with this at about 8:50 this morning: A murder
The Register, in its cut backs and under its new Editor, seems to be more and more featuring stories that are not news. Stories more akin to a magazine in that they are not at all time sensitive (in other words, not really news). Finding real and current news in that paper requires searching inside pages, and often there is one small story on a page full of advertisements. I don’t know what the answer is for this dying industry, but the Register has not yet found it from this consumer’s viewpoint. Maybe they should give up and just publish a weekly magazine.
The Register sucks. Ive been reading better coverage of OC in the LA Times for years, and while that paper has its own problems, Its no where near the joke that the Reg has become. All of their stories are as rosy and light as possible. Ive seen more hard-hitting journalism in Reader’s Digest.
Even if due to the “new media online” newspapers are fading away, the Register has struck a new low in quality. As a staunch conservative Republican, I used to read the Register and use the Times to line my bird cage. Now it is the other way around. The Register is a day late and a dollar short on most stories. When they actually do print a story, especially on the city of Santa Ana or the School district it is generally so skewed it may as well be a press release. The Register has had it.
The OC Register is a sensationalistic newspaper. I agree with anonynous they should publish a weekly paper or magazine. Perhaps a tabloid. Several of my friends and I have sent opinions, comments remarks concerning certain of their “feature” stories. And if our comments are not in agreement with their “story” our comments get deleted of the internet. If we mail them in none of them have been published.
So much for unbiased journalism. Definite bias. Definite incompetency. Too bad!