Blog by John Miller

The worst is here

November 22nd, 2012
Warren Buffett, whose portfolio includes newspapers, once said: "Thirty years ago if you had an idiot nephew, you bought him a newspaper to run, but it's not that easy anymore.”Wait a minute. Can't idiots still become publishers? Based on recent evidence, Buffett may have been wrong -- it still seems ridiculously easy enough. And it usually has disastrous results.We take you now to Niagara Fa ...

Can we change?

November 13th, 2012
Why are newspaper publishers so obsessed with shooting themselves in the foot? The Toronto Star's John Cruickshank performed the feat wonderfully the other day when he announced a new subscription plan to deliver "exclusive long-form journalism" to readers on-line.Here is exactly what he said about it: "Each Star Dispatches eRead will take about 30 to 40 minutes to read and offers more insigh ...