From: rnlee@sdcc3.ucsd.edu (Profess'nal Agitator)
Newsgroups: alt.rush-limbaugh,alt.fan.rush-limbaugh
Subject: Re: Conservative Chronicle Commercials
Date: 4 Sep 92 18:49:48 GMT
Followup-To: alt.rush-limbaugh
Organization: MAWL - Mudd Alums Without Lives

In article <nate.541@psygate.psych.indiana.edu> nate@psygate.psych.indiana.edu (Nathan Engle) writes:
>    The town I live in (Bloomington, Indiana) isn't very large, and it 
>has only one newspaper. Yet when I visit my corner news stand, I can buy 
>papers from New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Washington DC, Indianapolis, 
>and Louisville (in addition to the local Herald Telephone). I couldn't 
>say for sure, but I'd speculate that the news stands are similar or even 
>better stocked in towns big enough to support 2 newspapers. So my problem 
>is that I'm still not convinced that there's anything to be gained by 
>buying columns with the express intention of shelving them even in a 2 
>paper market. If people want to read conservative columns they can get 
>them even in areas with *no* local newspaper. 

But how many people will do that?

Taking your example, I want to read three columnists who do not appear
in the local Bloomington paper.  But, what if no two of them are in
the same paper.  I just bought the Detroit Free Press, the New York
Times, and the Chicago Tribune for my conservative fix.  But, what if
I want local news?  Obviously, there's not going to be much
Bloomington area news in either the Press, Tribune or Times, so now I
buy a fourth paper.  Finally, because the columnists I want don't
always appear on the same day of the week, I have to do this every day
of the week.

Now obviously this is a little contrived.  I could go to the library
or find someone else with a copy of each of the other three papers to
find out whether I want to buy them for that day, but you should get
my point.

I contend there is a market for The Conservative Chronicle simply
because there are more conservative columnists than any paper will
regularly carry, esp. any that claims to be "balanced".

I was raised on the OC Register, hardly a haven for the left.
Nevertheless, I had never read Joseph Sobran, Brent Bozell, or Charley
Reese until I subscribed to the Chronicle.  And of course, there was
no chance of reading Paul Harvey who is the property of the LA Times.

Arguably, OC is a two-paper market, but I don't see the Times buying
Sobran just to prevent the Register from running him.  The Register
makes very few inroads across the county line, so the Times largely
ignores it.  Their marketing policy in OC would be inconsistent with
shelving columnists.

My experience was similar with the San Diego Union (before it merged
with its liberal sister, the Tribune).  Only then, it was no Don Feder
or Suzanne Fields.

Maybe the Manchester Union Leader or the Washington Times runs every
columnist in the Chronicle, but I doubt it.

There simply are too many columns per week.  The Chronicle prints 31
pages of commentary, essays, and cartoons.  Assume an eight page
Sunday section.  Now divide 23 by the remaining six days (though some
papers have a shrunken Saturday section).  In order to get all the
columnists, the daily Opinions section must be slightly less than four
pages.

Therefore, there is a market even if your paper is chiefly
conservative.  And if you don't like that argument, *no* paper runs
all the cartoonists in the Chronicle.  And even the Chronicle is
missing Asay.

Agitator
  #->

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Roderick Lee, HMC '91      "The Professional Agitator"      agitator@ucsd.edu
Newsgroups: alt.rush-limbaugh,alt.fan.rush-limbaugh,alt.politics.bush