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Silly newspaper tricks

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Illinois

* From the Wall Street Journal comes this goofy rant comparing Gov. Pat Quinn’s proposed tax hike to the Art Institute’s plan to charge higher ticket prices…

To put this in perspective, let’s say the family of four cited by Alderman Burke has a taxable income of $60,000, slightly less than the regional median after accounting for exemptions. Illinois has a flat tax, so the Quinn hike of 1.5% would be applied to every dollar of taxable income. The family’s annual tax bill would rise by $900–enough to pay for more than a dozen trips to the Art Institute even at the higher ticket prices that have Burke so outraged.

Um, no. A family of four with an adjusted gross income of $60,000 would pay $60 more per year - which is not even one family outing to the Art Institute at the proposed higher rate of $18 per person (or four trips to the Illinois State Fair at its newly proposed rate).

And in the unlikely event that he’s talking about state exemptions in that piece, the mythical family of four would get $24,000 in exemptions, meaning the family’s federally adjusted gross income (remember, that’s adjusted, not simple gross) would be $84,000 ($60,000 plus the non-taxed $24,000 in state exemptions), so their tax hike would be $420.

More useful background at Illinoize.

* Is it too much to ask that newspapers do a quick calculation of a taxpayer’s likely tax bill before printing stories like these?…

Stay-at-home mom Bonnie Tondini of Mazon is concerned. With what her husband currently earns, the family is barely staying ahead, she said.

“We’re living month-to-month right now, and if the governor raises taxes any more, I don’t know if we will. I’m willing to go get a job and everything, but I’ve go kids, and day care is so expensive,” she said Wednesday.

“I’ve got to be honest - I don’t know what we’ll do if he does.”

I feel for this person, but how many more dollars will she really have to pay under Quinn’s plan? We have absolutely no clue by reading that story.

* March 20th…

Confronted with anticipated legal bills of upwards of $400,000, Sen. Roland Burris (D-Ill.) is setting up a defense fund

* February 6th…

“I have legal bills, to the tune of $400,000″ [Burris said]

* Jeff Jarvis annihilates the argument that newspapers could charge for online content…

The Wall Street Journal example is also a bit of a red herring. We should view the pay model with suspicion precisely because that is the only example ever raised. I repeat: Its subscription fees are paid on expense accounts. And I would love to see a full accounting of the revenue from joint subscriptions — print and online — that are attributed to each medium. I’d also like to see the cost of subscriber acquisition marketing, churn management and customer relations. Again, let’s look at the complete financial projections. […]

You say that “smart people” will pay for “unique and valuable information.” How much of that can a paper produce in a day? For that matter, how much of that do papers produce now? As I travel across the country, I have been picking up wafer-thin local papers — on paper — that are filled with Associated Press and syndicated copy, rewrites of commodity news I already know, fluffy features and “news” that began life as press releases.

Now is the time to be bluntly honest: What is the real value of newspapers as they are made today? What are they worth?

Newspaper publishers have decided that eliminating journalists and dumbing down their product by running more photos, much shorter stories and lots of canned copy is the best way to run their industry. And now some of them think they can charge money for that?

* Related…

* News-Gazette to become morning-only newspaper

* Chicago Sun-Times raising newsstand price to 75 cents

posted by Rich Miller
Friday, Mar 20, 09 @ 12:39 pm

Comments

The truth is, if I didn’t have to read the local papers because it’s my business to do so, I wouldn’t. Their value anymore is damn close to zero. News and investigative reporting has been gutted. Editorial commentary on news and sports are with rare exception ill informed. Pretty much all that’s worthwhile in the Chicago papers any more is arts criticism, and none of the other papers in IL even have that to speak of. There is real value still in the NYT, WSJ, LA Times and the Post, but that’s it.

Now I don’t mean this is a GOOD thing. It’s horrible. But when people talk about “the death of the local newspaper” as if it’s something yet to come … sorry, it already died.

Comment by I'll take "anonymous" for $500 Friday, Mar 20, 09 @ 12:51 pm
Taranto refers to their “taxable income” as $60,000 - so I’m assuming that means the amount, after any and all exemptions, to which the state’s tax rate will be applied.

3% of 60,000 is 1,800
4.5% of 60,000 is 2,700
The difference is 900

It’s entirely possible that I’m missing something here. If so, what is it?

Comment by Anonymous Friday, Mar 20, 09 @ 1:33 pm
by the way, the Sun Times is increasing its cost to 75 cents per copy.

Comment by Anonymous Friday, Mar 20, 09 @ 1:37 pm
wait - nevermind…..I just figured it out. As much as I love Taranto, I must admit that he was wrong.

Comment by grand old partisan Friday, Mar 20, 09 @ 1:40 pm
About the only reason I read our local paper is to see if my name is in the obituary. Long gone is the in-depth investigative reporting. Most of it is reactive, usually by someone on a deadline with little time to get into the real meat of the story because they cover other areas that once had the people doing that job. Those days of knowledgeable reporting are gone and hometown newspapers are struggling to survive. I do enjoy Schoenberg’s column in the SJR when I’m in Springfield. Also catch the Sun Times on line. Bottom line newspaper managers will manage themselves out of business. At least we have the blogs which are both informative, entertaining, and real-time.

Comment by Justice Friday, Mar 20, 09 @ 1:51 pm
I’ll agree with the idea that very little worth reading is left in the Chicago papers. I’ve always felt this way about the Trib — to much emphasis on national stuff and little analysis of local stories — and I’ve never really taken to the Sun Times. I’m from downstate, so my newspaper experience started with my local paper and the Trib.

What’s interesting, though, is reading news on the Kindle — the electronic plastic slab reading device from Amazon. I’m a big fan of newspapers — and auto newspaper delivery — on the Kindle. I’ve been subscribing to the NYT and UK’s Independent (and taken a free peek at UK’s Times and the International Herald Trib) — and I think it’s a great way to read news (and even books, but I’m more impressed with newspapers).

I don’t think the Kindle will be the device to do it — too expensive now, a few limitations — but I suspect that when I hold the Kindle I’m holding a glimpse into the future of news. It might not be the Kindle, but it *will* be electronic delivery on electronic platforms.

Sad to say, it won’t be newsprint. And as much as I love Samuel Fuller’s “Park Row” — the best in-your-face ‘I’m a cigar chomping REPORTER, darnit” — movie, I think paper papers are a thing of the past. I hope so, at least.

Now, I hope, the newsrooms can stop worrying about the past and about tradition — and start thinking forward, pulling themselves out of debt, luring the advertisers, and realizing that the plastic electronic reading slabs are the future.

Comment by Macbeth Friday, Mar 20, 09 @ 1:52 pm
My guess is the Champaign paper’s switch to mornings was largely made popular by its the Tribune Co.’s decision to stop printing a downstate edition on the Champaign paper’s press.

Comment by Frank Booth Friday, Mar 20, 09 @ 2:05 pm
Point of clarification:

The federal adjusted gross income for an Illinois taxpayer does NOT increase by the amount of the personal exemption allowed under the state income tax law.

The exemption is not income– additional money received by the taxpayer– but rather a reduction from AGI in calculating net income for Illinois tax purposes. In effect, the exemption shields that portion of the individual’s AGI from the state income tax.

Thus whatever the level of the Illinois personal exemption, the federal AGI for a family of four earning $60,000 would be $60,000, all other things being equal.

Comment by Charlie Wheeler Friday, Mar 20, 09 @ 2:29 pm
Sorry Rich, but the Chicago Sun-times is a dead paper walking right now. I didn’t buy the tabloid rag today and I won’t anymore. Its management must have a death-wish, to tack on a 50% increase in the midst of the worst recession in seven decades.

You might want to make some inquireies into having your column picked up by the Daily Herald, since by year’s end that may be the only newspaper left in Chicago.

Comment by fedup dem Friday, Mar 20, 09 @ 2:45 pm
I don’t care that much about paper versus online, what I do care about is content, and that is sorely lacking. There is very little to no coverage of local politics or local events, and that is a destructive path for a democracy to go down.

I wonder sometimes if the Captital Fax model is one that could be a way forward. You provide a very specialized, in depth product, with enough free content to be valuable to the general citizenry, but enough pay content to allow you to stay in business. Would there be market for a “City Hall Fax” and a “Cook County Fax”? Or how about neighborhood versions of this? And how about issue specific ones like “Heath Care Fax” or “Education Fax.” Though in the later cases I can’t see who the paying subscribers would be.

I am also intrigued by the Progress Illinois model. They have a specific veiwpoint, but they also cover a lot of important political stories using their own original reporting. They really do fill a hole in the bleak political reporting landscape. They are funded by SEIU and to my knowledge it is a 3-person operation, so for an organization the size of SEIU it is not that great of an expenditure. It would be possible for other large organizations to fill in the gap by doing the same, IF they would be willing, as SEIU has done, to let the content be real news, and not just a bunch of puff pieces about the sponsoring organization.

Comment by Lakefront Liberal Friday, Mar 20, 09 @ 2:55 pm
I am finding that the small dailies and weeklies address local issues much better than larger papers.

Comment by Fan of the Game Friday, Mar 20, 09 @ 3:08 pm
Online or on dead tree guts, the news needs RIP - Real Information Please. I’m tired of having to check back to see if the story has changed, or proven to be a rumor, or is someone’s opinion….

Comment by Belle Friday, Mar 20, 09 @ 3:13 pm
Sun-Times increase is DUMB DUMB DUMB. The Sun-Times troubles began when the last time they raised prices to keep up with the Tribune from .35 to .50. It was their best competitive advantage and they just lost it, particularly now that the Trib comes in a newsstand tabloid format.

Sun-Times just expedited its demise. So sad.

Comment by Chicago Cynic Friday, Mar 20, 09 @ 3:39 pm
WSJ is a well written paper. good features and enough in depth facts to understand why the economy is in the dumper. Edit page is right wing,cover-up rants which can be ignored. Doug Belkin is covering IL as well as any local reporter.
Most local papers seldom get beyond the official word.
It took a week for the Peoria pape to cover last weekends near gang war outside the HS hoops tourney
No one has given us the 911 tapes of Gary Skoien’s nude Guitar Hero beating. TMZ would have been wall to wall.
Chicago Reporter did the best story of the week with the ISP scandal, but forgot to call anyone and suggest they crib from the website.
Go figure
Have a great weekend

Comment by Reddbyrd Friday, Mar 20, 09 @ 4:07 pm
The SJ-R in Springfield for a while had an on-line subscription of around $7 or $8/month. Spouse and I decided to save a few trees, pay the bucks and get the subscription on-line because the FREE on-line version was not as complete. Then the SJ-R had an epiphany and decided to put everything on line. I didn’t understand their strategy nor do I still. The on-line version is still not as complete as the newsprint and now that I can recycle again, I’ve chosen to have something to hold in my hands and read.

Comment by Little Egypt Friday, Mar 20, 09 @ 4:33 pm
yeah, you guys are right — i can see it now…someone walks up ye olde newstand, $4 coffee and $300 Blackberry/iphone/ipod in hand, flips two quarters to the vendor, who then tells him of the 25 cent increase in the cost of the sun-time and the wouldbe reader steps back and says, ‘whoa! a whole quarter more! no way, i can’t afford that! then walks away and picks up a red eye.

the sun-times has expedited its demise with a 25 cent increase? what a ridiculous argument. really.

Comment by shoelessj Saturday, Mar 21, 09 @ 1:39 am
My guess is that the trib won’t be far behind, in terms of the cost hike and the whole demise thing.

Comment by anon Saturday, Mar 21, 09 @ 10:24 am
The sad state of today’s newspapers was evident when I read about Oprah’s dog dying. It wasn’t in the back of the newspaper but was instead at the front of the newspaper and rated as “a top news item.” That is when it suddenly hit home for me.

Three years ago, I attended a Berkshire Hathaway annual shareholder meeting in Omaha, Nebraska. Warren Buffett answered questions from the shareholders while I was there. He was asked if he planned on acquiring anymore newspapers in the future for Berkshire Hathaway? He said, “No” because the newspaper industry as we knew it had gone the way of the carrier pigeon and the dinosaur. The Internet had served as the executioner. Warren said that unless the newspaper industry re-invents itself, it is doomed to follow the path of the buggy whip manufacturing industry.

I read my local newspaper online even though it is delivered to my house. My wife insists that we continue our subscription to the newspaper because she likes to do the crossword puzzle in it. Otherwise, I would have cancelled my subscription to it over a year ago. I like the Chicago papers because of their investigative reporting. My local newspaper refuses to engage in anything controversial for fear of alienating any business that might advertise in it or upsetting an elected official who might withhold future news stories from their paper if they get upset with the paper. Pretty sad situation. I feel sorry for the people who work in the newspaper industry.

Comment by Beowulf Monday, Mar 23, 09 @ 4:47 am