As a long time Chicago Cub fan I just heard from Geraldo on Fox News that the Tribune Company could file for bankruptcy as soon as this next upcoming week.
Never mind my love for the Cubs and how this can/may affect their new ownership, this is huge news for the traditional advertising (newspapers, trade publications) industry which has been slowly loosing ground to online advertising.
Now what? We bail-out the newspaper industry as well? As a proponent of advertising and marketing I have clients who do well with traditional advertising. This medium of advertising is very important to the stability of business practices as we know it. Sure the internet is proving a less expensive avenue overall for growth for small and medium sized businesses, but print advertising will never go away, and in my opinion will only get stronger again with time. People have a way for bringing the past back into everyday concepts of life, and people still like to have a tangible object in their hands to read with a ‘cup of joe’ in the morning. Will this lead to another bail out?
If Geraldo is correct and the Chicago Tribune is indeed filing for bankruptcy this is another example of another company who has been blinded by success and profits and is looking for help where they have never asked for help before.
Bailouts certainly have their need, but is a bail the solution or the answer? Is this a band-wagon attempt for “free funds” at a price to tax payers, or another failure in an industry which is just as common as getting into your car in the morning on the commute to work?