We agree about reprinting AP, but I’d hardly call the NY Times liberal at this point.

In what way are you beholden to Robert Murdoch?

I’d say the WSJ has taken a sharp turn for the worse since he took over, into doctrinaire laissez-faire economic ranting, along with disingenuous neocon politicking. It used to be that what was written in the WSJ was interesting and influential. At this point, most of it is predictable and trite.

As just one small example, the WSJ is encouraging tax fraud. You can’t get much more bankrupt intellectually or ethically.

The times is also getting slaughtered by online news sources -just like everyone else. Furthermore - most news agencies don’t even produce their own news any more - they just reprint AP articles. So what’s the point of having all these news media outlets, when they are all just reprinting that same crap from AP?

There is still a place for news - but it has to be well thought out, researched, verified and reliable. The Times doesn’t do that - the Wall Street Journal does. That’s why the WSJ continues to survive, and the Times (along with many other crummy “news” organizations) are dying off like the dinosaurs that they are.

Thanks for the link to the Rick Edmonds Q & A and that hilarious cartoon. Normally I loathe flash, but Buy Safe is using the bandwidth well.

My issue is not the circulation numbers but the mismanagement of the online potential at the NY Times. There’s no way they should be struggling right now - they had great content and traffic and should be able to turn that into hiring instead of firing.

Partly it’s bad commercial decisions, but it’s partly bad editorial decisions. I don’t trust the NY Times anymore. They have so often been mouthpieces for propaganda from the Bush administration, various neocons and/or the Pentagon that I prefer to seek my own information from critical weblogs. When there is a really good article in the NY Times someone will link to it. But I won’t read it as the paper of record anymore. There are lots of others making similar complaints.

Credibility and opportunity have been squandered at the NY Times over the last seven years. They shouldn’t be in this position. But they earned it.

They could fix the commercial end, relatively easily. And the story about the Pentagon propaganda indicates there is some hope for the editorial end as well.

There seems to be a lot more to the picture than it seems. The one thing that’s certain is that the only real way to tell what’s going on is through the use of audited circulation statements. Furthermore, though there may be a shift to online media that only reinforces the need for the development of realistic audit processes for that medium. We’ve been working with a group called Buy Safe Media and they’ve got some good info on the value of audited media.

It’s difficult to get the NY Times or ABC News to bite on a story.

What they like to do is poach their news from other news organisations. If you had a good local article published on the topic, the NY Times might see that and do a piece of their own exploring the issue further.

News is highly cannibalistic, especially American news. I recommend you contact your local paper and give them the full scoop. The journalists there will be hungrier for some original news. If the story is good, other news organisations will follow.

To address the substance of your story, the behaviour of corporate America is truly horrifying and seems to be getting worse. With the Bush government and GOP judiciary smiling on such ruthlessness, it’s very difficult to fight back.

Keep up the good fight and bring your story to light.

Based on NY Times performance during the Bush years, I think it is.

The sinking circulation and their red financial ink seems to have woken them out of their torpor. The article about the Pentagon propaganda talking heads was something of a scoop, very long and certainly undesired by the Bush administration.

But we haven’t seen much of that investigative reporting in the last five years. If we had, their circulation and reputation would be in better condition.

I’m always keen to know what Verizon is up to. Could you share some of the story with us?