Don’t panic. You can always panic later if/when there’s something to panic about.
Let this process play out. We did just get bought but I would think they’re going to want some value for their money and this board is part of that perceived value. So just hold on.
Hey, leave this “we” stuff out, thank you. If the moderators get moved to Atlanta to act as CEO fanners/grape-feeders/general serfs, we’re not coming too.
That’s weird. I just got my credit card statement and there’s a charge of $29.95 on there and it says “Straight Dope monthly subscription fee.”
Any mods know what that’s about?
Oh, c’mon! I’m just kidding!
I’m truly mourning the loss of one of the last great alt weeklies still primarily owned by its founders.
Another huge victory in the continued corporatization and centralization of the alternative press, and media in general.
If speculating is so bad, why do story sites have speculative fiction as a category?
I really haven’t noticed a panic going on.
Huh. Keeping my fingers crossed… I’d miss this place if it all went tits up.
But what about Ed?! Will someone think about Ed?!
Yeah, but.
It’s a worldwide general phenomenom. Media in general has been under attack for more than the last year. It’s not as if some giant monolith is causing small media to fold. Every newspaper in the world is losing revenue, again NOT because some giant meanie is gunning for them.
Nah, that just means that they wanted to own the only message board around with me on it. 
I humbly disagree. The “giant monolith” would be the corporations that in effect force independents to sell out or go under. Media is destroying itself. Community weeklies are being run, both editorial and advertising, from a corporate office hundreds of miles away. First thing to get cut: editorial. And what you’re left with is bland generic “regional” copy filling the pages. Ad prices skyrocket to cover the giant corporate overhead, while costs are cut through consolidation of departments. But yet very little revenue remains in the communities the papers “serve.” And local businesses can’t afford to advertise in their own community paper anymore. So neither the reader nor the local businesses benefit; only the corporation does. And lord knows the employees don’t benefit (speaking as a former “working-poor” editor of a corporate-owned community newspaper). Many independent upstarts are quickly run out of town by the “giant monolith” they’re competing with.
Similarly, alt weeklies are quickly becoming a part of the national corporate culture they once ideologically fought against.
IMO, the trend to consolidate the media has killed the newspaper more than anything else. Running newspapers with a traditional corporate business model has removed the relevance, readability and uniqueness from the communities they serve. People that would’ve once produced such a relevant, readable and unique print product are unfortunately turning toward other (cheaper-to-produce) avenues (i.e. the ol’ Interweb).
But don’t blame the Internet. Newspapers have always survived and thrived even when new forms of media were introduced. It wasn’t until about 1990 when newspaper circulations took a real hit-- several years before the Internet was even a relevent media option for your average American. The late 80s is also when my community weekly was first bought by a corporation, and I suspect that wasn’t exclusive to my community. So I don’t blame the Internet for killing the newspaper; I blame illogical and distant media corporations that have bought the independents. The rise of the-Internet-as-the-media-source has mostly been in response to the slow death of the newspaper, not the cause.
“People aren’t reading newspapers? Hmm, let’s lay off half of editorial and sell bigger ads.” This sums up the giant monolith’s plan.
Sorry about the soap box. End of rant.
Why think about a horse at a time like this
Yes, but in the past, whenever the “value” of this board has come up, it’s always been followed with a phrase like “is how much it costs the Reader to operate this board and the income from subscriptions and ads haven’t fully compensated the Reader for the costs.” Let’s not forget that the news of this sale comes on the heels of the announcement of the death of that other great bastion of journalism. So pardon me if I feel a bit uneasy about this. Maybe someone should bump those threads where people have suggested alternative revenue streams for the boards that the Reader never implimented? Perhaps the new owners will be more willing to listen, since they’re going to want to recoup their investment.
Maybe they’ll dust off and truly finance a modern production of the Straight Dope Tv series. Jamie and Adam need some competition. They could have something more authoritative with true PhD experimentation and snark.
Worth throwing some investment mnoney into…they could get a sweet deal with bravo.
[Arthur Dent]Who said anything about panicking? This is still just the culture shock. You wait till I’ve settled down into the situation and found my bearings. Then I’ll start panicking![/AD]
Like an airplane on a treadmill? :eek:
Isn’t that reserved for a buy out by Murdoch and his News Corporation.
Me, too. I read that as “advertising potential” which gives me nightmares of pop-ups, pop-unders, moving banners, and flash animation.
:shudder:
Still, I’ll try to be hopeful that nothing will change too much.
Maybe they’ll breed stronger, faster hamsters. That’ll end the useless spinning of wheels. 
Just remember, things always look darkest right before they go completely black. :eek:
I’ll find a nice girl? Cool!