U.S. newspapers' revenue structure, 1880-2007
Traditional print newspapers’ current troubles have roots early in the twentieth century. In 1880, newspapers’ revenue structure was quite diversified. Subscription revenue and print revenue was evenly balanced, with each accounting for about 40% of total revenue. Other revenue (job printing, book binding, and other miscellaneous revenue sources) amounted to about 20% of total [...]
Tagged: advertising, newspapers
COB-34: bureaucratic recordkeeping
Recordkeeping is a core bureaucratic function. A recent scientific article, while cowardly eschewing the term bureaucracy, described these findings from economic experiments investigating recordkeeping: Recordkeeping improves memory of past interactions in a complex exchange environment, which promotes reputation formation and decision coordination. Economies with recordkeeping exhibit a beneficially altered economic history where the risks of [...]
responding to the maharaja and the ogre
Garden & Cosmos: The Royal Paintings of Jodhpur, a recent, magnificent exhibition at the Sackler Gallery, included paintings memorializing the life of Maharaja Bakhat Singh. He was an eighteenth-century Rathore-Rajput ruler of the Jodhpur-Marwar kingdom, now in the Indian state of Rajasthan. A number of paintings depict the royal, cultured Bakhat Singh at his Nagaur [...]
Tagged: illuminated manuscripts, review
begging
It isn’t fair. He’s starving, you’re surfeited. Twenty years three children not even a kiss good-bye. He’s lost his job and doesn’t care. Will work for love.
print music in different media worlds
The U.S. printed sheet music business was mass media, continued to grow in value through 1929, and generates about $1.7 billion in wholesale revenue today.
Tagged: music
desperate times for traditional Yellow Pages
Yellow Pages are now available at my local CVS just outside Washington, DC. In my apartment building, few residents bother to pick up the Yellow Pages that are dropped in the lobby. CVS seems an even less propitious place to distribute Yellow Pages. After all, a Yellow Pages book is relatively bulky. A shopper at [...]
Tagged: Yellow Pages
police call box history
At the recent unveiling of Southwest Neighborhood call box art, the DC Metropolitan Police Department Historian, Sgt. Nicholas Breul, talked about police call box history. His enthusiasm demonstrated the Police Department’s new appreciation for its illustrious history. Sgt. Breul suggested that police call booths helped to inspire later telephone call booths. That gives the call [...]
behind a door
Jesus, get out of here! No way! Christ, just leave me alone. Back off. I need to pull myself together. God, don’t you understand…