The Liberal Order

A Hilarious Parody of Special Interest Television News Reporting

Via Craig Newmark (the economist).

It's Not the High Cost of Living, It's the Cost of Living High

Hearing President Obama remark last night that the middle class worker is working more and harder for less and less, brings to mind this great reason.tv clip, "Living Large."

It Wasn't About Democracy

Edward Klein, the pseudonym for Walter Scott who pens the Personality Parade section of that newspaper insert, writes in Parade last week,

John Adams and Thomas Jefferson had “the most robust connection. There was a common intellectual perspective and a sense that as Founding Fathers they had launched this experiment in democracy that was working.”

What is this love affair with democracy? The founders hated democracy, especially Thomas Jefferson. He hated any concentration of power and considered democratic rule to be nothing more than a majority forcing its will on a minority. There was a great line in the movie, Patriot, where Mel Gibson states, "why should I trade one tyrant 3,000 miles away for 3,000 tyrants one mile away." I say more here. Mike Munger has more here.

Democracy is not what the founders revered; it was the rights of the individual to be free to choose to live their lives in ways meaningful to them. It was never about living their lives in some way meaningful to some majority - or more likely some minority - diktat.

Signaling In Retail Sales - Snuggie Edition

It's difficult to believe that products sold via infomercials generate much revenue whatsoever, but apparently it's a lucrative way to market a product. The fact that a product is sold via infomercial and not through a traditional retailer signals (at least to me) that no reputable retailer considers that product to provide its customers sufficient value per dollar to make it worth carrying. Why, even the Snuggie is apparently of poor quality.

Consumer Reports tests rhetoric versus reality for a number of infomercial products. The bottom line:

The secret lies in neuroscience. Infomercials are carefully scripted to pump up dopamine levels in your brain, says Martin Lindstrom, an advertising expert and author of "Buyology: Truth and Lies About Why We Buy," which details how ads affected 2,000 research subjects.

"Infomercials take viewers on a psychological roller-coaster ride," Lindstrom says. The fun starts with dramatizations of a problem you didn't know you had, followed by the incredible solution, then a series of ever more amazing product benefits, bonuses, and giveaways, all leading to the final thrilling plunge of an unbelievably low price. After the ride, Lindstrom says, "dopamine levels drop in 5 or 6 minutes. That's why infomercials ask you to buy in the next 3 minutes."

"The magic of TV and film editing and shooting can make anything look good," says Christian Holiday, CEO of Global Media Marketing, an infomercial producer in Santa Ana, Calif. According to Larry Nusbaum, managing director of Vertex Capital Management and CEO of Ronco, which Vertex bought in 2008, "About half of infomercial products deliver on their promise, 30 percent do what they say but are a bit expensive, and the rest are junk."

And I liked these two bits of advice:

Whatever their length—"short form" up to 2 minutes or "long form" up to 28.5 minutes—infomercials move at an excited pace. Slow things down with your DVR remote or by watching the Internet video version. An infomercial on YouTube promises that the Hercules Hook holds up to 150 pounds. But click back and pause and you'll see three 50-pound weights hanging from three separate hooks. Do the math: That indicates each hook has only a 50-pound capacity.

When a pitchman cites "a $40 value," then says he'll give you two for one, that means the value is only $20—and probably less.

Anti-trade Bias In Automobile Retailing

Click on this link to Capital Chrysler/Dodge/Jeep in Garner, NC. Right under the phone number and zip code in the upper right-hand corner is a yellow box with "Radio Ad." Click and listen to this ad. Notice the use of racism and anti-trade bias to induce people to "buy American." 

Here's a different Dodge dealer. What is it with Dodge dealers and racism? (And don't forget the Red House Furniture Store.)

The New Business Model

An Open Letter to Jon Stewart

Dear Jon,

      I've been watching you since the mid-80s when you hosted Short Attention Span Theater with Patty Rosborough. You were funny.

      You are a comedian hosting a news parody show. It's funny and it works when you stick to your strength - being funny. You fail, however, when you take yourself seriously and step out of your comedic character to publicly berate your guests for their views. 

Reading the New York Times or the Progressive or The New Republic does not make you an expert on some topic. In fact, given your narrow political views and your refusal to familiarize yourself with alternative points of view, it makes you an ideologue. It must be that Liz Winstead influence. (Remember, she's not that funny, she's just bitter, much like you're becoming.)

Stick to what you do best, which is comedy, lest you end up like Bill Maher, an idiot crank who takes himself seriously and ends up hosting a show with a parade of morons for his half-witted mindless audience. Have you paid attention to your audience lately?

Be brave, be bold, but most of all, be funny. Nobody can take you seriously, or nobody will take you, seriously. 

Yours truly,

Me

As the Dominos Keep Falling

More casualties on the way in the rapidly changing newspaper industry.

On Monday, the Ann Arbor (Michigan) News announced that it will publish its last edition in July. Taking its place will be a Web site called AnnArbor.com.
Three other Michigan newspapers announced Monday they are reducing their publications to three days a week. The Flint Journal, The Saginaw News and The Bay City Times will publish print editions on Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays, according to the mlive.com Web site, as research shows those are the highest readership days for newspapers.
And the Charlotte Observer announced Monday it will cut its staff by 14.6 percent and reduce the pay of most of the employees it keeps.
The situation now looks grim for The Tucson Citizen. In the past 25 years, circulation at Arizona's oldest newspaper has dwindled from 65,000 to 17,000. The Gannett Co. paper could fold if a buyer can't be found.
At least 120 newspapers in the U.S. have shut down since January 2008, according to Paper Cuts, a Web site tracking the newspaper industry. More than 21,000 jobs at 67 newspapers have vaporized in that time, according to the site.
More bad news could be coming this week as newspapers struggle to meet challenges posed by changing reader habits, a shifting advertising market, an anemic economy, and the newspaper industry's own early strategic errors.

And who's next?

Despite arguments like Boice's, newspapers are losing their relevance in the lives of a majority of Americans, particularly younger readers.
Many industry analysts agree many more papers will soon become extinct. Most two-newspaper towns will likely disappear, perhaps by the end of 2009, some experts say.
Among the next newspapers to go, experts say, are major metropolitan dailies relying on an expensive business model that requires costly newsprint consumption and gas-guzzling deliveries.
The quirky San Francisco Chronicle is reported to be circling the drain. If it were to close, San Francisco would be the first big U.S. city without a major daily paper.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and the Boston Globe are bleeding about $1 million a week, according to a media report issued by the Pew Center for Excellence in Journalism. Experts say more big-city papers are expected to follow the example of Gannett's Detroit Free Press, which started cutting back on print edition delivery in December.

Lastly:

But easily accessible, high-speed Internet connections and smart phones have dramatically shifted the way people get their news. Ironically, news is still in strong demand. It's abundant, accessible and usually free on the Web.

And that portends the future of newspapers. At one time every city and town in the world was surrounded by farmers who provided food to local residents. Farmers markets in most every city are remnants of this past. Transportation changed that, however, allowing a greater concentration of farming and greater economies of scale. The same will be true of newspapers.

A few major newspapers will provide major news stories to the world. Consequently, there will be a decline in the overall number of reporters hired, resulting in a highly concentrated market for those who have proven themselves best in their specific field. The outcome will be a winner-take-all market for those few reporters. 

Another Domino Has Fallen

The Seattle Post Intelligencer joins an increasing number of newspapers to stop distributing a print edition of their newspapers.