On Mon, 15 Jun 2009 14:32:38 -0700, Mark Thorson wrote:

> The Ranger wrote:
>>
>> Those polls are never about "The Best" when the general public is involves;
>> it's only about what's the most familiar. We have several bakeries in my
>> little burg that outstanding but Safeway always seems to win that catagory.
>> "Best sandwich" is the catagory that Suckway and Quizbarf trade
>> back-and-forth. Cheesecake Fuctory and Sapplebee's also get kudos in this
>> paper's annual polls so these are immediately suspect.
>
> I guess you don't know very much about the newspaper
> business. What makes you think any "poll" was involved?
> Was it because that's what the newspaper said they did?
>
> If there was a poll, I'd guess it was of the staff in
> the sales department. The winners were the outfits which
> buy advertising regularly. They'd be real popular among
> the staff whose job is to sell them advertising.
>
> This strategy worked back in the 20th century, when
> newspapers had a virtual monopoly on "lifestyle" and
> "living" news (what used to be called the "women's section").
> TV had some participation in that, but not much because
> of their limited air time. Newspapers had the bandwidth
> to run long articles with mouth-watering descriptions of
> what you can buy at popular chain restaurants and
> supermarkets.
>
> But now, the Internet has broken that monopoly. It was
> always a racket, and now they must try to survive without
> it. That's why newspapers are dying. I will not regret
> their death. It is well-deserved, and none too soon.

this sounds like a pretty bizarre reason to cheer the death of newspapers.

your pal,
blake