The Newspaper Industry's ASNE: R.I.P.

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The Associated Press is reporting today that one of the standby annual events of the newspaper industry will not be held this year in order to help the struggling newspaper companies save money, as they concentrate on how to survive the deepening depression.

For only the second time in its 87-year history, the American Society of Newspaper Editors (ASNE) has cancelled its annual convention. The only other time this occurred was in 1945 during the final months of World War II.

ASNE’s announcement coincided today with the final edition of the Rocky Mountain News, a Denver-based newspaper that had been publishing for almost 150 years.

The newspaper editors’ convention was supposed to be held from April 26-29 in Chicago.

Every day brings further evidence of the impending demise of an entire industry, yet there are still many insiders living in denial. The main question for ASNE now is whether it will be to able reconvene next year, when there will be a dramatically smaller number of member papers still in operation, or whether its time is over.

I’ll just go ahead and put it on the record. ASNE, as presently constituted is dead. To make a comeback, it will need to reconstitute as an online media society.

(Thanks to Ricardo Sandoval for pointing me to this development.)

Tags: Industry, Online Media, ASNE, Newspaper Editor, Strategy, Management, David Weir

In addition to serving as a BNET Media analyst/blogger, David Weir is a veteran journalist and the author of several books. Weir is a co-founder and vice-president of the Center for Investigative Reporting, as well as an editorial board member of The Nation.

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1

macnamband

02/27/09 | Report as spam

RE: The Newspaper Industry's ASNE: R.I.P.

It's as though with each day the speed of collapse is increasing, and not just with newspapers. You can feel the whirlwind, and as you say there are still people in denial....
2

hotweir

02/27/09 | Report as spam

RE: The Newspaper Industry's ASNE: R.I.P.

You're absolutely right ... This collapse is accelerating faster than I or anyone predicted. The analogy of what has happened/is happening to the stock market comes to mind.