The Village Voice, a New York Icon, Closes • Hacker News Board

Re: The Village Voice, a New York Icon, Closes

#31

Post by drcode » Sat, Sep 01, 2018, 1:16 PM UTC

anoncoward111 wrote: post #27

drcode wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Advertising works just as well on you as it does on everyone else.

What have I bought lately that I've seen an ad for? I signed a lease for an apartment after searching google maps for the closest corporate apartment buildings (Bozzuto) near my job. I bought Verizon internet because that's what the building is wired for. I bought an LG phone because I impartially reviewed the specs and played with the phones at the closest Walmart to my house. I bought a bag of onions and some groun…

It's all about the moment you're standing in the phone store and there's two phones in front of you, one from "LG" and the other from "Hyvver7" and like 99% of other people you're probably going to get the "LG" phone even if the Hyvver7 phone has a similar price and seems to work just as well after poking at it for a few minutes.

The reason you know the name "LG" isn't because you somehow heard the name through a complex series of coincidental events... instead, it's because LG spends money in a way that directly or indirectly imprints their brand in your mind.

Re: The Village Voice, a New York Icon, Closes

#32

Post by hluska » Sat, Sep 01, 2018, 1:22 PM UTC

anoncoward111 wrote: post #22

jmspring wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are just of an age where the periodical wasn't really relevant any longer as another poster mentioned -- it started it's decline in the early 2000s. EE Cummings was known for way more than just the village voice.

It wouldn't have died maybe if it did an OK job of connecting with people born after say 1977

Tell me about your experience in publishing. How many publications have you run?

Re: The Village Voice, a New York Icon, Closes

#33

Post by anoncoward111 » Sat, Sep 01, 2018, 1:27 PM UTC

drcode wrote: post #31

anoncoward111 wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What have I bought lately that I've seen an ad for? I signed a lease for an apartment after searching google maps for the closest corporate apartment buildings (Bozzuto) near my job. I bought Verizon internet because that's what the building is wired for. I bought an LG phone because I impartially reviewed the specs and played with the phones at the closest Walmart to my house. I bought a bag of onions and some groun…

It's all about the moment you're standing in the phone store and there's two phones in front of you, one from "LG" and the other from "Hyvver7" and like 99% of other people you're probably going to get the "LG" phone even if the Hyvver7 phone has a similar price and seems to work just as well after poking at it for a few minutes. The reason you know the name "LG" isn't because you somehow heard the name through a com…

Except most of the phones in Walmart were Iphones, Motos and Samsungs, and I bought the LG regardless of brand because it was the lowest priced phone that was snappy and responsive

Re: The Village Voice, a New York Icon, Closes

#34

Post by Spooky23 » Sat, Sep 01, 2018, 1:32 PM UTC

drcode wrote: post #31

anoncoward111 wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What have I bought lately that I've seen an ad for? I signed a lease for an apartment after searching google maps for the closest corporate apartment buildings (Bozzuto) near my job. I bought Verizon internet because that's what the building is wired for. I bought an LG phone because I impartially reviewed the specs and played with the phones at the closest Walmart to my house. I bought a bag of onions and some groun…

It's all about the moment you're standing in the phone store and there's two phones in front of you, one from "LG" and the other from "Hyvver7" and like 99% of other people you're probably going to get the "LG" phone even if the Hyvver7 phone has a similar price and seems to work just as well after poking at it for a few minutes. The reason you know the name "LG" isn't because you somehow heard the name through a com…

You buy LG because of marketing and placement. Few people know anything about LG.

Re: The Village Voice, a New York Icon, Closes

#35

Post by optimalsolver » Sat, Sep 01, 2018, 1:37 PM UTC

anoncoward111 wrote: post #26

b5 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I consume content voraciously What kind of "content" are you "consuming"?

Hours and hours of youtube and HN per day. All non-fiction and all different topics. I work a very boring job so I will read nearly anything. I also read a ton of ebooks, some even fiction but mostly non-fiction. Things like Naomi Klein's Shock Doctrine, or Jason Fung's books on fasting.

Could I ask what line of work you're in that gifts you so much free time?

Re: The Village Voice, a New York Icon, Closes

#36

Post by booleandilemma » Sat, Sep 01, 2018, 2:36 PM UTC

drcode wrote: post #31

anoncoward111 wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What have I bought lately that I've seen an ad for? I signed a lease for an apartment after searching google maps for the closest corporate apartment buildings (Bozzuto) near my job. I bought Verizon internet because that's what the building is wired for. I bought an LG phone because I impartially reviewed the specs and played with the phones at the closest Walmart to my house. I bought a bag of onions and some groun…

It's all about the moment you're standing in the phone store and there's two phones in front of you, one from "LG" and the other from "Hyvver7" and like 99% of other people you're probably going to get the "LG" phone even if the Hyvver7 phone has a similar price and seems to work just as well after poking at it for a few minutes. The reason you know the name "LG" isn't because you somehow heard the name through a com…

Let me just add that I picked up my Hyvver7 yesterday and I’m loving all the cool features.

Re: The Village Voice, a New York Icon, Closes

#37

Post by coldtea » Sat, Sep 01, 2018, 3:02 PM UTC

irrational wrote: post #11

iCannotEven wrote: post #3

When they removed the good cartoons and the horoscopes, the writing was on the wall. It was very clearly over. That was back around 2005.

Removing something as useless as horoscopes was a sign they were going down hill? I would think that would be a sign the content was improving.

A media _business_ going downhill and its content improving or regressing are two orthogonal concerns.

Re: The Village Voice, a New York Icon, Closes

#38

Post by iCannotEven » Sat, Sep 01, 2018, 3:05 PM UTC

chillwaves wrote: post #29

_Codemonkeyism wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"didn't even have the budget to syndicate horoscopes" A clear sign, and only 14y later they closed.

No doubt predicted by the horoscope.

Okay, like I give a fuck. Go back and look at the moment in time when they changed formats.

They dropped a bunch of extras, and their journalism got bland when they stopped paying for good people.

It was obvious that there were cut budgets behind the scenes. The paper was thinner and smaller, and a number of regular columns and features dried up.

The most visible difference was that after you flipped past the table of contents, you saw no comic strips, and flipping through the concert section, the end of the section was no longer the horoscopes, and it ran directly into the red light district, so to speak.

Re: The Village Voice, a New York Icon, Closes

#39

Post by coldtea » Sat, Sep 01, 2018, 3:09 PM UTC

_Codemonkeyism wrote: post #18

iCannotEven wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's indicative that they didn't even have the budget to syndicate horoscopes . Does that make a little bit more sense?

"didn't even have the budget to syndicate horoscopes" A clear sign, and only 14y later they closed.

>A clear sign, and only 14y later they closed.

For someone who knows the industry, such a sign is not as irrelevant as it appears - nor is closing down a sudden affair. Unlike SV startups which can fold in 1-2 years, news outlets are surprisingly resilient in their dying. It's a long process of decay with several milestones along the way...

As someone that has worked in the print business, and am familiar with the history of lots of businesses (although in a different country), alot of media businesses had a decade or more of struggling before they finally give up the ghost -- and it indeed starts with signs like these (first they cut some expensive syndications, a first round of lay-offs, then they give up some subscriptions to news services like A.P. and Reuters, call off special reporters stationed abroad, a few major columns are cancelled because they can afford their top columnists, the quality of photography drops, and so on. In the end, the content is mostly sloppy rewrites from whatever wire service they still have, plus amateur "opinion pieces", then a final round of layoffs, and they die...

The cancelling one or more expensive features, like syndications, are a sure fire sign of a decay process starting...

Re: The Village Voice, a New York Icon, Closes

#40

Post by coldtea » Sat, Sep 01, 2018, 3:11 PM UTC

nine_k wrote: post #13

mirimir wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe it should be "... History of Journalism School".

Journalism is nit limited to paper journals.

In theory no, but in practice it sure looks that way...