"Stripped for Parts" - PBS documentary on the destruction of the US newspaper media

[CousinIT]

Last edited Wed Oct 8, 2025, 11:59 AM - Edit history (1)

"Stripped for Parts" - a new documentary on the billionaire destruction of the newspaper industry.

https://www.pbs.org/video/stripped-for-parts-american-journalism-on-the-brink-dyEAIs/

[eppur_se_muova]

1. WHOA ... defunding Corp for Public Broadcasting was part of that effort ! Maybe not the smartest move, tactically ?

Now documentarians know RW billionaires aren't going to spare them if they hold back, may as well say it all out loud -- and lib funders know how to find them.

[SocialDemocrat61]

2. The corrupt corporate media

is chiefly responsible for the current state of this country. They will relentlessly hold democrats to a much higher standard than republicans. They give air time to right wing liars and not correct their lies. They waged misinformation campaigns against the Clinton's, Al Gore, John Kerry, Obama, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. They are rich and entitled and can't be trusted.

[GreatGazoo]

3. Only newspapers

PBS describes the doc as: "A handful of journalists rebel against a hedge fund that is gutting newspapers nationwide."

That hedge fund is Smith Management LLC, a firm founded by Randall Duncan Smith, initially using the $20,000 cash prize he and his wife won on the 1968-1970 gameshow Dream House.

They established Alden Global Capital as a division which targeted legacy newspapers that were valued lower than the real estate the owned, similar to what was done to the Boston Globe which sold in 2014 for $70-million yet owned RE worth $75-million+

Legacy newspapers were a very different business than television news aka cable news. The customer for cable news is advertisers, PACs and lobbyists who seek to profit from influencing government policy changes. So although viewership is relatively low, under 1-million for most programs, cable news is still treated as the scoreboard within the DC beltway. IOW they aren't paying to reach average viewers but rather are paying a premium to reach the ~10,000 beltway types.

The customer for legacy newspapers was the both the reader and advertisers, a double dip. The two paid for different things. Readers paid for information, sport scores, stock market prices, crossword puzzles and the classifieds. Advertisers paid to have their offers and branding mixed into that content (ETA: with rates tied directly to total circulation / readership).

The internet destroyed readership and put newspapers in a very bad position. Many paywalled their content which gave them even less reach which decreased their value to advertisers.

Journalism moved to YouTube, Substack, etc.

[CousinIT]

4. Thank you for the clarification. n/t

[GreatGazoo]

5. It is a complicated business but

I am optimistic that the trend of making the reader pay the journalist directly will decrease the influence of big money, filters, etc.

Delivering newspapers was one of my first jobs in media. 20 years later my job included skimming all seven major NYC dailies every day before 10AM. Loved it. Loved the smell of newsprint in the days before they polycoated everything.

[Kid Berwyn]

6. Free Reach

Network News: 25 million people

My neighbor’s Substack: 17 subscribers.

Rich win.