Seattle Newspaper Demise

For 10 years I subscribed to the local newspaper wherever I happened to live, but about 20 years ago, as they mutated from "keeping government honest" to "keeping government unquestioned" I left off for other news sources, long before the internet. I think Matt Drudge stepped into the role of newspaper editor with the coming of the internet, and given the media had become completely government controlled by 1995, no media was able to evolve and meet the challenges of changing technology. The Seattle PI was particularly bad. Les Bon Temps, Sont Finis.

Occasionally I'll pick up a newspaper at an airport waiting area and every time I realize that the newspapers are factually wrong and otherwise irrelevant. I rarely finish any article i start. Newspapers seem to be in the business of accepting incoming faxes from government agencies and slapping a by-line on it and calling it journalism.

People who do engage in investigative journalism get read far and wide, like Seymour Hersh and James Bovard and Andrew Bacevic. None works for a newspaper.

I got into a 3 way conversation with Mr. Blethen, the publisher of the Seattle Times, who noted the inheritance tax was killing his newspaper. How?

Want ads are labor intensive low margin affairs and under attack by craigslist anyway, and the national advertisers for commodity items are so savvy they get ad rates at rock bottom. The real money maker for the newspapers are THE SMALL AND MEDIUM BUSINESSES that buy full rate ads, to introduce their products (with the costs of course passed on to consumers, since we can charge more for our innovative items.)

Death taxes destroy small businesses when heirs are forced to come up with $2 million cash to pay the tax on the $4 million value of the business owned by the dead parent.

Of course, there are strategies to avoid this, but all roads lead to the death of the business in question (although, in some cases the owner has moved back to the old country, and any demise is not reported by the kids.) With the death of so many small and medium businesses in small business-unfriendly states like Colorado and Washington, even government supported newspapers fold.

Of course, rich people like Blethen can and do arrange to preserve their wealth no matter what. It is why they love the government. Everyone would love the government, if the government protected everyone.

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