[lbo-talk] Circulation Plunges at Major US Newspapers

[ravi]

At around 1/11/06 12:41 am, chuck at mutualaid.org wrote:
>> What I would love is a left publications that really was a complete
>> alternative to a major newspaper.
>>
>> Yes, it would have political articles....but it would also be full of
>> life stuff: parenting; tenant rights, recipies, health advice, sports,
>> movie reviews, etc.
> 
> I'm with you on this. The problem is that way too many leftists look down
> on anything relating to lifestyle, sports, entertainment, etc. This is
> uncomfortable to these cultural puritans, but many of us have interests
> beyond some narrow range of leftist entertainers. Create a radical leftist
> newspaper with coverage of tonight's Heat-Bulls game, some recipes, some
> DIY home tips and coverage of some new music--I'll subscribe. Create a
> newspaper with only hard news and leftist polemic. I'm not interested.
> 

There are two issues that could arise: (the flip side of my scientism
rants) peddling of pseudo-knowledge, as happens at WBAI (cue Doug: Gary
Null, 9/11 conspiracies, etc ;-)). The other is volume and concentration
on some issues over others: if you want sports, what sports should be
covered? I find the national obsession with baseball (perhaps the one
sport worse than cricket!) and football a great irritant but could put
up with a quarter page of baseball news...

What is the target audience? I agree that if you want large circulation
and attract a general audience you would need to at the least provide
news coverage. Or are you rallying the base? Doug mentioned a New York
tabloid... news with polemics?

	--ravi