Monday, March 21, 2005

The time is now

Great news today! Crain's Chicago Business reports that the Reader is losing circulation. Between Time Out, RedEye, UR and the Onion, the doughy rag that has passed for this city's "alternative" news outlet may finally begin its long and painful decline into unmourned oblivion.

Crain's doesn't let you buy single articles, much less read for free (speaking of Chicago pubs that SUCK...) so here's a summary of the news for all to enjoy.

Under the savory headline "Reader? Less so, as circulation dips," we learn that the current 8% drop is the SIXTH consecutive decline since 1999! They can't even give it away! Crain's adds that "retailers [are] balk[ing] at letting stacks of newspapers clutter their entryways." A Borders spokesperson says, "When someone walks into the vestibule, their first impression shouldn't be papers on the floor." Especially not bricklike hunks of moth-eaten hippie platitudes.

The story also deals neatly with the Reader's bleating about how its online content has drained circulation. It points out that "freebies elsewhere, such as the Village Voice and LA Weekly...have put much more content online than the Reader does without seeing the circulation plummet." It's almost as if there's some unique factor contributing to the Reader's troubles. Like, say, complete and utter suckiness...

I've hated the Reader for years, and finally there's hope. If you're sick of groundless self-satisfaction, ponderous windbaggery and 7,000-word articles on some octogenarian granddad's picturesque Depression-era adolescence, stay tuned as the death-spiral continues.

2 Comments:

Blogger Matt Maldre said...

One of the reasons Readers get spewn all over the floor, because people only want a certain section. So they hunt and peck for just their section, and dump the rest on the floor. The Reader should really reconsider their format. I don't pick one up, because it wastes so much paper. Figure out how to more concisely represent your content.

10:23 AM  
Blogger Spiky said...

Yeah, and how about Section 4? Does anyone actually read Section 4? There are better ways to find virtually everything advertised in those classifieds. But if you want Dan Savage and maybe one of the comics, you've got to haul home an extra 1 1/2 lbs.

4:13 AM  

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