From: Dale Thorn <dthorn@gte.net>
Date: Sat, 16 Nov 1996 21:58:05 -0800 (PST)
To: Duncan Frissell <frissell@panix.com>
Subject: Re: One Big Telecoms Company
In-Reply-To: <3.0b36.32.19961116165519.00cebb24@panix.com>
Message-ID: <328EA1DB.64FC@gte.net>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


Duncan Frissell wrote:
> At 09:23 PM 11/15/96 -0800, Dale Thorn wrote:
> >Progress?  Most major cities (when I was a kid) had *several* competing
> >newspapers,

> Few realize that NYC today has circa 20 daily newspapers (circa 5 in
> English and circa 15 in other languages).
> In addition, I can read a hundred daily newspapers (or more) on the nets.

I'm jealous.  And I'm not kidding.  The NY Times costs $1.50 or $2.00 for
a daily in L.A., and considering the La-La Times is $0.25, paying 6 times
as much for the NY paper seems almost reasonable.

Out here in Disney Hell, we have 2 (count 'em) papers for 12 million or
so people in the L.A. basin, the O.C. Register (same as L.A. Times, but
reflavored for the suburban white folk in Orange County), and of course,
the (barf) L.A. Times itself.

A few years ago, the L.A. Weekly (free) enjoyed both an immense distribution
and a pretty good reputation.  Gone.  Long gone.  There's a much smaller
free weekly in O.C. (of all places) that has much of the credibility that
the L.A. Weekly gave up, but sadly, very limited distribution.

But I'm sure that goes to all levels in comparing NY and L.A.  If you
wanna collect a good stack of independent reading material in NY, I'll
bet you don't have to drive through 100 miles of hell to get the stuff.

So far NY has been pretty well insulated from what goes on here, and I
suppose that's because anyone who values such things as intellectual
freedom would prefer to live there as opposed to La-La land.  But if
you're saying it can't happen there, or that things really are getting
better, no.

Media consolidation is a public fact, it's been all over the financial
pages for some time now.  Have you not heard (just to name a couple of
examples) of the big weapons manufacturers like GE and Westinghouse
buying up NBC, CBS, etc.  Most Americans, you should know, get their
news from these guys.