Who reads newspapers: a new viral opportunity
Jaycee makes a reference to an old newspaper joke in the comments here. It's gotta be at least 10 years old. (Joke below.)
Which started me thinking that it needs to be redone. After all, this was before Rupert bought the Journal. When the L.A. Times, Herald and Chronicle had different owners. It was before newspaper circulation went into a free fall. Before texting and maybe email alerts. It was before Yahoo News became the No. 1 Internet news site. Before Google, probably. Here's our chance to create a viral phenomenon. Let's do it. Make suggestions for the new list.
Here's the old one:
1. The Wall Street Journal is read by the people who run the country.
2. The Washington Post is read by people who think they run the country.
3. The New York Times is read by people who think they should run the country and who are very good at crossword puzzles.
4. USA Today is read by people who think they ought to run the country but don't really understand The New York Times. They do, however, like their statistics shown in pie charts.
5. The Los Angeles Times is read by people who wouldn't mind running the country -- if they could find the time -- and if they didn't have to leave Southern California to do it.
6. The Boston Globe is read by people whose parents used to run the country and did a poor job of it, thank you very much.
7. The New York Daily News is read by people who aren't too sure who's running the country and don't really care as long as they can get a seat on the train.
8. The New York Post is read by people who don't care who is running the country as long as they do something really scandalous, preferably while intoxicated.
9. The Miami Herald is read by people who are running another country but need the baseball scores.
10. The San Francisco Chronicle is read by people who aren't sure if there is a country or that anyone is running it; but if so, they oppose all that they stand for. There are occasional exceptions if the leaders are handicapped minority feminist atheists who also happen to be illegal aliens from any other country or galaxy, provided of course, that they are not Republicans.
11. The National Enquirer is read by people trapped in line at the grocery store.
12. The Atlanta Journal & Constitution is read by people who have recently caught a fish and need something in which to wrap it.
Comments (7)
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My only change would be to substitute "News & Record" for "Atlanta Journal & Constitution." :)
Posted on June 25, 2008 9:41 PM
The News & Record is read and believed by suckers. The rest of us shred it to feed to our earthworms so we can catch more fish.
Posted on June 26, 2008 6:38 AM
The News & Record is about to not be read by me. It didn't show up this morning, again. Second time in two weeks, fourth time in a month, etc. Telling the nice lady who answers the phone doesn't seem to be doing any good, and I figure you'll be letting her go soon anyway, so I thought I'd let you know. I already don't think much of what's in the paper, so if it can't even show up, there's not much keeping me from cancelling it. You once responded to a comment here that the content of this web site is truncated to save some things for subscribers. That's not really doing me much good if my subscription doesn't arrive.
Posted on June 26, 2008 6:48 AM
I called your office to try to get a paper at about 6:20. The recording said the office opens at 6:30. I had breakfast, without a paper to read. Jenny the traffic girl was out this morning, so Channel 11 was a little more dignified than usual, and about the same level of annoying as your paper. I called back at 6:50. When no one answered, I pressed "0" and spoke to the nice gentleman in the security office. He let me know the recording is wrong; they open at 7. I'll be in the shower by then. FYI.
Posted on June 26, 2008 6:58 AM
Sorry, Patrick. We will get on it and fix that.
The rest of you guys....you can do better than that!
Posted on June 26, 2008 12:17 PM
The N&R has no bite in it's bark - it has no real substance and is more for entertainment than anything else -
The one exception to this is the recent weekly feature titled something like "Guilford County's Most Wanted."
Posted on June 26, 2008 2:02 PM
The New York Times is read by The Washington Post.
The Washington Post is read by The New York Times.
USA Today is read by those on the way to the continental breakfast in the lobby.
Posted on June 26, 2008 7:14 PM