“In this market-driven world of easy-to-digest events, news increasingly becomes almost a parody of the term. News is no longer something ‘new’ but instead becomes a commodity that can be passed off as something interesting or original.
“Unfortunately, the lack of real news in the newspaper – news that gives a sense of depth and insight and context to surface events – is the one solution market-minded managers won’t consider when they analyze why readers are abandoning newspapers.
“‘Corporate managers want predictability,’ says David Johnston. ‘Readers don’t want predictability. Newspapers print old news. They spend all their time printing what people already know.’ …
“Newspaper executives are ‘increasingly editing the paper for people who think life is a beer commercial,’ says Donald Kaul, a columnist for the Des Moines Register. ‘We are on the same path that TV followed,’ he adds. ‘And we’ve seen what happened there.’” – Doug Underwood, “When MBAs Rule the Newsroom: How the Marketers and Managers Are Reshaping Today’s Media” (1993, 1995)
Roland Klose 