Gary Pruitt, chairman and CEO of the McClatchy Company, which this week made the successful bid for Knight Ridder's properties, writes in
The Wall Street Journal about why newspapers have
plenty of life in them yet. Pruitt comes at his readers with the kind of passion that suggests he actually cares about the medium, not just the profits it can throw off. His points are familiar:
newspapers in many markets are still making good money, they are finding ways to live amicably in the new-media world, they perform a much-needed service. Pruitt: "Even the biggest bears among
newspaper analysts acknowledge that the companies still make good money. Their rap is that we're losing readers so fast that the good times can't last. But are we in a precipitous decline? The answer
is no.... However, no competitor in local markets has held onto audience as well as newspapers have. Others proliferate--more TV channels, more radio stations, infinitely more Web sites--but the
number of daily papers stays steady." All in all, a sturdy defense of papers by someone who's just put his job on the line by buying a bunch of them.
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