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The Bad News About the News
- cratermoon 12y agoThe article doesn't note that at least for the major networks the news divisions that weren't expected to turn a profit. They were allowed to run at a loss and revenue from the entertainment and sports divisions was used to make up the difference. At some point in the 80s profit became the be-all end-all of corporations, including the media. The news division was no longer allowed to be purely a cost center, it now had to at least break even in its own revenues. While this doesn't help newspapers -- they pretty much are going away as printed ad revenue disappears -- it still matters to TV and online sources. As long as the news reporting function is expected to be a profit center it will be at the mercy of whatever ad revenue it can directly generate. Thus you see click-bait stories and instant "rehosting" sites overwhelmingly growing because they generate the revenue.