I actually don't buy the business about book sections being expendable because they don't generate ads. And sports isn't the only thing that newspapers cover that don't advertise. Restaurants generally don't and certainly the government doesn't. One covers what one thinks readers are interested in, because if you attract readers, you attract advertising. Newspapers think book sections are expendable because they don't think people read that much. They think people watch TV, go to sport events and movies and concerts. And of course many people do. But the number of people at a lot of the rock concerts that are reviewed is often a fraction of the number who attend a classical concert. The obvious strategy would be to focus on the core constituency of people who like to read, period. There are plenty of such people.
I think that as soon as a publication lets editorial content be dictated by how much advertising it attracts, that's the end of that publication.
ReplyDeleteTo take the example in your post of book reviews, if you let that be dicated by advertising you would fill the section with reviews of books by people like Victoria Beckham or whoever is their US equivalent.
Actually, I like the idea of Posh Spice reviewing for me - just kidding.
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