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BURRELLES LUCE SAYS POST AND COURIER WILL SOON TAKE TOP SPOT
It is very difficult in South Carolina to make a conscious effort to move a newspaper’s content to the left and still expect the readers to stay loyal. Not only are print newspaper subscriptions rapidly dying out, but folks get tired of reading editorial after editorial bashing
This is the problem currently facing The State newspaper. With garbage like Friday’s “Palin clearly out of her league” dominating the paper, it’s clear to see why old subscriptions are being canceled, and new subscriptions are non-existent.
And that loss means the corporate-owned The State is about to be South Carolina’s former largest daily publication.
According to Burrelles Luce, national experts in media trends, the family owned Post and Courier will top The State in daily average readership sometime this year.
Despite a series of painful staff cuts, The State’s readership continues to drop, while the P&C is one of only a handful of large daily newspapers in the US to see a sustained annual increase in readership.
A driving force in The State’s demise has been it’s far-left, welfare state style editorial policy – seen by many observers to be wildly out of line with the right of center majority voting trends in South Carolina.
As readership drops, so do advertising revenues, which leads to staff reductions and further lowers the quality and quantity of State reporting. But the opinion section itself has been zealously shielded from cuts …until now.
Last week, in a sign of desperate times, The State cut its Friday and Monday op-ed sections.
I certainly wouldn’t blame any of this on the paper’s editorial board editor Brad Warthen, whom I know to be a very fair guy. I think he’s just been given the word from on high that there needs to be more left-leaning material.
Unfortunately, that almighty hand will likely drive a once-good paper into the ground.
Wow, a blog quoting another blog — that’s a credible news source!
Blaming The State’s circulation drop on the publication of an editorial column criticizing a conservative (written by conservative columnist Kathleen Parker, no less) is like blaming Clemson’s loss Saturday on the fans for not cheering loud enough.
There are other issues at work. Consider that The State ended circulation last year through parts of S.C. from the Upstate to the coast.
Please don’t let facts get in the way of your posts. You’re doing such nice propaganda work.
That “Out of Her League” column was also in the National Review. I guess you and the Quinns are also canceling your subscription to that left-leaning rag?
I subscribe to The State’s RSS feed and I came across this article last week: http://www.thestate.com/breaking/story/536888.html
I e-mailed the author (Tim something) that was listed at the bottom of the article. I mean, C’MON. Spell check, Tim! The spelling of separate was never changed, but the article is now credited to “Staff Reports” instead of one author. It’s no wonder they’re suffering if they don’t even care to spell words correctly.
Looks like “In the Biz” whose IP address of 65.210.183.2 (owned by the State Newspaper) is having a fun and busy defending his failing left wing paper against the reality of plummeting readership
Voice — Sounds like a Scoop to me. Wonder if the not-so-anonymous troll would care to comment.
I want to know more about that IP address…
RNS,
It’s registered to Knight Ridder (which was bought out by McClatchy, who owns The State) and is located in Columbia. I’m pretty sure that narrows the choices to one organization.
More info:
http://ws.arin.net/whois/?queryinput=!%20NET-65-210-183-0-1
The P&C is doing well, in part, b/c they do a great job covering state and local elections. They also do a lot of quality investigative reporting and their site is continuously updated. Of course, the fact that they’re the only major newspaper operating in one of the fastest growing parts of the South doesn’t hurt either. Congrats P&C — well deserved.
When I was on the board of the Radio and Television News Directors of the the Carolinas, we voted the Charlotte Obserer as the “best newspaper in South Carolina”.”The State” was referred to as the daily fish wrapper.
Probably has a lot to with their website. I find myself on the P&C site everyday checking the news, something I use to never bother with with the local news. Haven’t got a subscription yet but considering it.
It also doesn’t help that The State is so entrenched with USC football and alienates a lot of Clemson fans.
The reason circulation is dropping is that there is almost no content in The State. Not because they carry editorials legitimately challenging the positions, qualifications, and abilities of a wing-nut. Secondly, online media containing legitimate reportage (i.e. not blogs written by a political hack employed by a bigger political hack) are reducing the demand for the printed word. Why read yesterday’s news when you can get constantly updated news on a number of sites… or constantly updated fiction on NewsMax or Faux News.
The State already is Number 2.
[...] it’s a well-known fact that newspapers are on their way out and that local TV news are right behind them, but I had no idea the rigor mortis would set in so [...]