Spinning "More Mormon"
If you are among the decreasing number of people who read the Deseret News, you may have noticed the "letter from the editor," Joe Cannon, Sunday:I have erroneously led some of you to believe that the Deseret News is somehow retreating from our dedication to credible, hard-hitting, objective journalism.Joe bends over backwards to spin a statement he made while announcing his downsizing of the DN. Joe said the future of the paper was dependent upon becoming "more local, more online, more Mormon."
He explains in the letter that he really didn't mean the DN is going to become "more Mormon," what he meant was it is going to produce "more news and information about the LDS Church and its members." He goes on to repeat the "more Mormon" phrase four times. (And refers to "empowering" his editors—apparently Joe has already eliminated all the DN copy editors.)
Oh, not more Mormon, but more LDS?
To calm everyone down about his "more Mormon" slip of the tongue, Joe goes on to quote the late LDS prophet Gordon B. Hinckley on the DN's journalistic goals. That's definitely not a more Mormon thing to do, Joe.
Cannon, who before he was appointed as DN editor was a lobbyist, GOP state chairman, failed political candidate and, of course, brother to semi-sane Congressman Chris Cannon—but never a journalist. Now, he proves he is not even an adequate spin doctor.
10 Comments:
Isn't the Trib losing readers faster than than the DN?
I had heard something similar from a friend of mine who worked at the Trib. Glen, what's the scoop?
Now there is a story
It's only acceptable to bash your competitor, not to post your own failings as a newspaper.
According to Trib story on 6/5/08:
"In April, the Audit Bureau of Circulations said the average number of Deseret News papers distributed fell 1.6 percent, to 73,817, in the six months ending in March. Sunday circulation was down 3.2 percent, to 77,488.
"Circulation at The Salt Lake Tribune was down 5.1 percent daily, to 121,699. Sunday paid circulation was off 4 percent, to 143,296."
When Singleton took over in 2002, he predicted that the papers together would increase circulation by 50,000 papers.
clearly Mr Warchol is not a good spin doctor, either.
His initial insult proves he's got blinders on and can't see the failings of his own paper.
What a hypocrit.
The D-News subscriber base -- active LDS -- will grow over time, even though the percent of the base that subscribes may decrease.
The Trib subscriber base -- the angry, bitter, anti-LDS crowd -- decreases over time. The average Utahn just gets tired of the same old predictable crap from the Tribune.
As one commenter noted last week, the angry/bitter crowd is dying off and is not being replaced by younger readers. Tradtionally, non-Mormon and anti-Mormon were the same thing. Now, most non-Mormons under a certain age are mostly ambivalent about Mormons and Mormonism. Thanks to a previous commenter for pointing out what I had already experienced without really realizing it.
If you go into the southern suburbs where the residents tend to be younger, you rarely see newspapers of any kind on the driveways anymore.
NO ONE on my street gets a newspaper delivered at home.
The Trib may survive, however, but it's options are limited:
Option 1: compete with the free City Weekly for the ULTRA bitter/angry/liberal crowd.
Option 2: Become a much smaller liberal rag that concentrates on state and local issues.
Over the decades, people have subscribed to newspapers for various reason. One is sports. But if you are a sports fan, you don't need a local newspaper. There's so much sports info on the web, whether it's the teams' own websites, the leagues' websites, ESPN.com, etc. Then of course there's cable.
The News will survive because it has a growing, special interest base: Mormons. The Tribune will go the way of telephone land-lines and pay phones, a very slow death.
I love these comments that amount to "people who read this paper are the evil liberals I warn my kids about, like the families you see at Chuck-A-Rama who don't even bother to pray before enjoying the good (mormon) lord's bounty. And furthermore those who leave comment's on the editor blogs well...er..."
Thats right, if you don't like the Tribune-don't look! If you hate cigarettes, don't smoke. And if you oppose gay marriage- don't marry a gay person. The only values valuable enough for a mormon to defend seem to be their values. So they should have a more mormon paper to read to remind them that they are the only ones right enough to see jesus when they die! Plus it is one more way to dump funds into the coffers of mo-god! HOORAY!
Dedication to credible, hard-hitting, objective journalism? I thought the Deseret News has been trying to be more like the SL Tribune. Who needs journalism when there's gossip?
Rolly, Bernick. What's the difference? 2 has-been headliners that should be performing in West Wendover, NV.
Uh, you don't want to see Rolly perform in Wendover.
Why do mormons need a news paper anyway? The church tells them all they need to know.
Post a Comment
<< Home