NYT advertising revenue continues to plummet
There’s some pretty grim revenue news coming from the Worcester Telegrams parent, The New York Times Company, today.
New England Media Group - Advertising revenues for the New England Media Group decreased 31.4%, and excluding the additional week, decreased 17.7%. National advertising revenues decreased due to weakness in telecommunications, pharmaceutical/packaged goods, technology and travel advertising. Retail advertising revenues decreased primarily due to weakness in the jewelry/watches, department store, records/books and computer/office supplies categories. Classified advertising revenues decreased because of softness in real estate and help-wanted advertising.
Outside the New England region the numbers look equally terrible with advertising revenues down 13.8% in December from 12 months earlier and just over 6% for the year. Interesting business model ya got there.
A fun and somewhat related anecdote: While at the START Holiday Arts fair this past December I had a T&G employee tell me “it is a proven fact that nobody actually reads news online”. So If you’re reading this and it was news to you, please go back and forget the experience immediately.
Equally fun and anecdotal, advertising revenue here on RB for the same period is up 345.74%
Free online writing courses
Here’s a great list of 10 universities offering writing courses for free, online.
Blanchards 101
Diner food. Pretty good diner food served in an immaculately restored diner car on 322 Cambridge St. My son is an expert on diner car pancakes and gave the place a solid two thumbs up. They’re small thumbs but highly regarded in the Worcester diner car pancake community. Worcester needs more breakfast places. Adding Blanchards 101 to the list will do you no wrong. And when was the last time you had an excuse to go to Cambridge St for anything other than a funeral?
My cold dead hands
People are often surprised when I tell them I’m a ‘gun guy’. Well, I am. It’s not a fetish. I don’t hunt and I don’t pose a threat to polite society. I do, however, find guns to be a rather fascinating tool. So like many ‘crazy gun owners’, I meandered over to the Marlboro Best Western Royal Plaza this past Saturday for one of their semi-regular gun shows.
Holy shit. When did these things turn bat-shit insane? I first went to one of these shows about a decade ago with some co-workers who failed miserably trying to get me into a shooting trap. I remember them commenting on how much things had changed over the years, and after taking a few years off myself, I concur. Here’s the short list of things I saw so you didn’t have too.
1. Junk. Lots and lots of junk. There used to be a time that a gun show in New England would have a fair number of guys in sport coats with leather patches and a not so faint smell of pipe tobacco, buying and selling insanely priced Ithica shotguns. Seems like those guys were replaced by folks who think selling rusty, used barrels for a Mossberg 500 is a solid business model. The latter out numbering the former by a healthy margin.
2. I’m going to go out on a limb and assume the majority of the room were not registered Democrats. If I’m right in that assumption, and following that mode of thinking, I can then assume many in the room have supported some degree of military escalation over the last few years. Is it wrong then that I left very confused by the obvious fact that the National Guard recruiter on hand was being grossly out done by the Nazi memorabilia salesmen? Who the fuck is buying all these framed Nazi flags and medals? Where in your home do you hang such an item for display?
3. A direct descendant of number two. What’s with all the Confederate Flag licenses plates, t-shirts, and bumper stickers, guys? If while getting dressed in the morning you manage to convince yourself that a t-shirt criticizing the ‘war of northern aggression’ combined with a Red Sox hat is the look that really defines you as a modern male, may I be the first to call you out as a silly cunt? Thanks!
4. Prices. There’s an excellent argument to be made for the way in which the Commonwealth has effectively made it impossible to make a living as a firearms dealer since the late 90’s. Tom Riley was a mostly useless prick who did quite a bit of damage to the industry while AG. BUT, it would seem the industries biggest enemy is not the government, but ignorance. These shows used to be a place to get a great deal. Dealers came in and unloaded inventory at steep, yet controlled, discounts. Saturday I was hard pressed to find anything but laughable, outrageous prices. Accessories selling for three times the going price at ebay or ‘cheaper than dirt‘ was a common theme. Used surplus AK and SKS variants selling for 2-3 hundred over value. The remnants of the MA gun industry can only blame the state for so much if they are then going to tun around and ignore the realities of business in 2008. I don’t have to buy stuff from you and you’re certainly not going to convince me of your plight via robbery and/or ignorance of the internet.
5. Idiots. Honestly, I just don’t mind coming off like an arrogant asshole anymore. While there were still a number of the hardy weathered New Englander to be found, the majority of people in attendance were unfortunate white trash. Sorry if if that offends, but holy shit when did it become difficult to form a sentence or even say ‘excuse me’ while pushing your way through a crowd to drool over a Nazi Officers dagger?
Gun owners are becoming a more marginalized breed everyday in legislatively liberal states like MA. We all know this to be true. The unfortunate part of this is the extreme measures the industry goes in allowing itself to be marginalized by its customers. If you really want average people to understand shooting sports, coming off as a bunch of overtly racist, military fetishists (and fetishizing the wrong military at that) is probably not the way to go. Not that I’m an expert on such matters… but when other gun owners ask me why it is I don’t belong to the NRA or GOAL, this is why. Your cause has been co-opted by idiots who are so comfortable with their idiocy it ends up scarring off the reasonable people who view keeping a decent firearm around no different then owning a reliable hammer..
The Wednesday short list of stupid
Half-Assed state agency websites
After reading today’s T&G story on the increase of local coyote sightings I figured I would wander over to the MA Department of Fish and Game website to do a little research on coyote population growth since the 1996 trapping ban in the state. Well as reality would have it that is impossible since the department website only lists three mammals as living in the state.
* White-tailed Deer
* Black Bear
* American Beaver
Of note; it would appear humans are no longer living in Massachusetts. Shame, they were an entertaining species.
link
Median family income
After being called out, repeatedly, for being misinformed about the cities median incomes, I’ve finally figured out why everyone believes me to be wrong… the city is making shit up. I’ve found at least two places where the city of Worcester is using what appears to be the county median family income instead of the city median family income without making that very clear. One is page two of this presentation which has us at $71,000. The other was in the cities most recent economic development email which lists the area median family income as $72,800. Both are about 20k over the actual city median family income. The key is the use of the word area in that last one. Since there is no such official number (the census bureau American community survey looks at city/county/state) it would seem that the city is cherry picking which towns they want to fold in to pad the city median. It’s important for anyone who actually takes Worcester’s future seriously to note that fudging reality doesn’t actually help us.
Adult zoning
Today’s T&G also has a story on reworking the cities adult zoning regulations. Debate over the merits of burlesque aside… does anyone ever stop to think that maybe, just maybe, the reason why people always want to stick a strip club or porn theater into a city like Worcester is because there is a genuine market for such business? Just a thought.
link
In other news…
Worcester hero to the stupid Henry Ventura Landa, who was accused last month of urinating on Wrangler brand jeans in a local Wal-Mart has had his case continued without a finding. Now personal feelings on Wal-Mart and Wrangler brand jeans aside, I’m not sure this is the appropriate use of the CWOF plea. Personally, I think anyone who harbors the desire to pee on consumer goods they have yet to purchase should be identified and shunned by society. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not knocking water-sports, diaper fetishists, people who drink allot and urinate OUTside of buildings or even folks who urinate on their own clothing for fun… but the people who want to pee on someone else’s clothes without permission, we kinda need to keep a good eye on.
For the love of god, enough already
Everywhere I turn these days is a buffoon wrapped snuggly in a veil of pseudo enlightenment, that’s mostly fine and mostly funny. But someone has to call in a reality check when the newspaper of record for a relatively large city is printing crap like this in their letters section:
Thursday, January 3, 2008
God made everything some 6,000 years agoTo the millions of people who think and believe that God created life millions of years ago, they should read their Bible, Genesis I.
Remember, it’s Satan’s master plan to deceive the whole world if he could and he knows exactly how to do it in a very cunning and deceitful way, especially now in these latter days. He works through the media, television, scientists and mixing paganism with Christianity. He’s the ultimate deceiver.
It’s written in the Bible, even though we don’t know because God didn’t reveal it to us exactly how old the Earth is, we do know when he created life, the seas, vegetation, the moon, sun and stars some 6,000 years ago.
THERESA A. ELLIOTT
Brookfield
What fucking year is this again? It’s been mostly obvious for some time now that T&G corporate doesn’t actually give a shit about the paper or reality. I had one of their employees tell me recently that ‘it is a well known fact people don’t actually read the news online’ which pretty much sums up their entire business model in one dreadfully misguided statement. But printing this sort of crap goes one step further and embarrasses me as a citizen of Worcester. Believe in whatever deity you want, but IT IS NOT OK TO THINK THE WORLD IS 6000 YEAR OLD. That sort of belief is worthy of scorn and ridicule, nothing more, nothing less.
Now someone please tell me this is a joke.
Worcester Star Wars remake circa 1977
Came across this via metafilter:
In June of 1977, Jim Jongsma, John Jongsma, and Gary Baker saw Star Wars at White City Cinema in Worcester, Massachusetts. They were impressed. In the months after seeing the movie, so many costumes and models were made that they decided to remake a few scenes on super 8 film. The project grew into a fifty minute film.
A 15 min version of the film is here and it’s amazing.
The site describing the film is here and it’s almost unbelievable, the work that went into this 30 years ago.
Gracie’s in Providence RI
I’m not actually going to ‘review’ Gracie’s in Providence, there is just no way I could do the restaurant justice. You’re just going to have to take my word that every aspect of the four hour, 7 course experience was perfect and if you’re within a days travel of the place you’re doing yourself an injustice if you have yet to go.
