Des Moines register - Continuing down Spiral

[SCyclone]

99% of their content is available online anyway. (You get booted after a few articles, but all you have to do is dump your history and you can get right back in.)

With the proliferation of media now, print types struggle because they don't have immediacy. By the time they get it printed and distributed, it's old news.

But I'm an old-timer, and I still buy it every morning. As a former JLMC major, it's in my blood.

 

[VeloClone]

99% of their content is available online anyway. (You get booted after a few articles, but all you have to do is dump your history and you can get right back in.)

With the proliferation of media now, print types struggle because they don't have immediacy. By the time they get it printed and distributed, it's old news.

But I'm an old-timer, and I still buy it every morning. As a former JLMC major, it's in my blood.

Or go incognito.

 

[VeloClone]

Randy Peterson talked about this on the radio awhile back. With the internet, they have a great way to see what articles and topics people want. Men's college sports - Cyclones and Hawkeyes are by far the leader in clicks.

If they lack women's sport coverage, it is because people are not reading those articles.

I really think they have tried different content but through those trials, it always comes back to Clone and Hawks - FB and BB get the clicks. Others simply don't.

But this probably isn't as static as they would like to believe. If both Iowa and Iowa State WBB are down, you aren't going to get clicks, but when they are both hot like they are this year more people will be interested - especially if they can see that they are in a headline they pass by while perusing the paper. I will read a lot more (and a wider variety of) articles when reading a physical paper than I will when online - including some things that might expand my horizons.

 

[capitalcityguy]

But this probably isn't as static as they would like to believe. If both Iowa and Iowa State WBB are down, you aren't going to get clicks, but when they are both hot like they are this year more people will be interested - especially if they can see that they are in a headline they pass by while perusing the paper. I will read a lot more (and a wider variety of) articles when reading a physical paper than I will when online - including some things that might expand my horizons.

I think you can try and spin it and look at it several ways, but this is the same old discussion. Women's sports, wrestling, minor league sports, soccer, NBA, non-midwest NFL or MLB teams, etc. etc. don't "sell". They just don't in this market. You see the same thing with DSM sports talk radio. They know what topics people here are interested in and which they are not.

If the Reggie is limping along like so many other newspapers, they are not going to be sweating it trying to break any new trends. They are going to go after the low hanging fruit in an effort to survive with the limited resources they still have.

 

[VeloClone]

I think you can try and spin it and look at it several ways, but this is the same old discussion. Women's sports, wrestling, minor league sports, soccer, NBA, non-midwest NFL or MLB teams, etc. etc. don't "sell". They just don't in this market. You see the same thing with DSM sports talk radio. They know what topics people here are interested in and which they are not.

If the Reggie is limping along like so many other newspapers, they are not going to be sweating it trying to break any new trends. They are going to go after the low hanging fruit in an effort to survive with the limited resources they still have.

If they can't be a legitimate newspaper, perhaps they should just fold.

 

[capitalcityguy]

If they can't be a legitimate newspaper, perhaps they should just fold.

I would argue they are not doing anything different than the majority of newspapers around the country trying to survive the times. That is today's "legitimate" newspaper.

 

[mkadl]

The only reason it stays in business is the older folks who don't want technology. Otherwise it's a sad state for Newspapers. The internet breaks news so fast they can't keep up. The only thing the Register has is the opinion side where they have far right and far left people write columns to drum up responses.

They lost me when they quit the Big Peach.


Here is one of my favorites.

 

[BoxsterCy]

Every post here makes me thankful that my local Star Tribune is still independent and not part of a mass buyup cost cutting operation. Still locally owned and locally controlled. They have had their cuts but have partnered well enough with some other major papers to share coverage, such as for Washington D.C. stuff, that I haven't really seen any big drop off in content.

 

[dirtyninety]

Well darn toot'n. What ya talk? That there Des Moines Register is just chock full o' hometown hawkeye news and real report'n that is Iowa stubborn and nice at the same time! Heck, those reporters all grew up on the farm and went to big city college on the GI bill or worked their way through school while working at the Hy-vee. I know it! I'm really nice, I listen to NPR and watch Iowa Public Television and just think the Des Moines Register is crucial to our democracy and environment. Aldo Leopold read the Des Moines Register! All you Haters and Xenophobes that get your fake news from the Cyclone Fanatic board or one of those mean websites on the world wide web should be rounded up into a cow pen somewhere in Calhoun County and tazed with cattle prods until you agree that our LOCAL Des Moines Register and other Gannett corporate products are the Truth.

 

[AdRock4Cy]

What do you primarily read on it?

I have redskins, cardinals, Iowa state and creighton bookmarked but I also read some of the feature articles or whatever looks interesting

 

[gizzsdad]

I'm not sure it costs anymore to be delivered. You're locked in for a period of time, so they don't want to discourage home delivery. It is more sporadic if they have to rely on you buying from a newsstand.

Maybe I'm wrong, but I thought they did away with the price difference a long time ago.

You haven't checked in to it for a while. Home delivery is increasingly expensive, and is now packaged with a digital subscription, whether you want it or not. They continue to raise costs of home delivery, in a seemingly purposeful attempt to get people to quit, hoping to soon be out of the printing business altogether. The internet and the uber liberal editorial policy have much to do with the demise of the DMR.

 

[SCyclone]

Every post here makes me thankful that my local Star Tribune is still independent and not part of a mass buyup cost cutting operation. Still locally owned and locally controlled. They have had their cuts but have partnered well enough with some other major papers to share coverage, such as for Washington D.C. stuff, that I haven't really seen any big drop off in content.

Is the St. Paul Pioneer-Press also local?

 

[BoxsterCy]

Is the St. Paul Pioneer-Press also local?

No, and controlling interest is a hedge fund. They weren't much of a paper before and now they are like the Register. Even when I worked in St. Paul I won't even bother picking it up to read if someone left it in the lunchroom. Not generally big fan of rich guys but glad that Glen Taylor bought the Star Tribune.

 

[SCyclone]

No, and controlling interest is a hedge fund. They weren't much of a paper before and now they are like the Register. Even when I worked in St. Paul I won't even bother picking it up to read if someone left it in the lunchroom. Not generally big fan of rich guys but glad that Glen Taylor bought the Star Tribune.

Isn't Taylor the owner of the Timberwolves?

 

[BoxsterCy]

Isn't Taylor the owner of the Timberwolves?

Yup, but objective Timberwolves coverage doesn't seem to be deterred at all.

 

[capitalcityguy]

You haven't checked in to it for a while. Home delivery is increasingly expensive, and is now packaged with a digital subscription, whether you want it or not. They continue to raise costs of home delivery, in a seemingly purposeful attempt to get people to quit, hoping to soon be out of the printing business altogether. The internet and the uber liberal editorial policy have much to do with the demise of the DMR.

I subscribe to print version Thurs thru Sunday, so am well aware of the prices and increases (which is why I don't get the daily any longer....other than digital). I still contend that I don't think you save money buying from newsstand vs getting home delivery. I believe it is a wash.

As to your final point, the internet challenge isn't unique to the Register so not really accurate to imply it uniquely affected by it ...i.e...it would be noteworthy if it hadn't hurt them like every other newspaper. As to the liberal bent, that is nothing new and again, not unique to the Reggie.

 

[Clone83]

Every post here makes me thankful that my local Star Tribune is still independent and not part of a mass buyup cost cutting operation. Still locally owned and locally controlled. They have had their cuts but have partnered well enough with some other major papers to share coverage, such as for Washington D.C. stuff, that I haven't really seen any big drop off in content.

I haven’t lived in the area for decades. But like the Star-Tribune, perhaps, the Omaha World-Herald seems still to put out a lot of news.

I subscribed today for 99 cents (for the first month), and expect that I will cancel after that, to see the big news about Fred, about the floods, and what the World-Herald is like after many years now with more and more articles behind a paywall. I especially enjoyed the e-edition, or how the print edition appears, which I was able to read pretty well on my iPad. I think you probably see articles in the e-edition that you don’t see online, either because they aren’t online there — like originating from the Washington Post or LA Times (or you just don’t see them online because it involves poking around too much). The e-edition looks a lot like what the printed version did decades ago.

Today there is a lot about the Cyclones because of the Hoiberg hire. Though, of course, as a general rule there is much less than another university or two.

Howard Buffett is probably pleased with his son (and his company) as to his ownership of the World-Herald, and the Council Bluffs Nonpareil (though likely disappointed in other regards):

https://mises.org/library/howard-buffett-man-old-right

https://greenbackd.com/2013/03/04/l...er-of-books-and-panics-and-similar-phenomena/

 

[mynameisjonas]

Wow paying money to read Hoiberg news.

 

[Clone83]

Wow paying money to read Hoiberg news.

And news about the floods and people I know.

The OWH in my opinion is pretty far superior to coverage by the Des Moines Register (not really considering Cyclone only coverage).

It didn’t used to be that way.