Friday, November 02, 2007

"Deaths" vanish from Joplin Globe website

It's possible I am just overlooking them, but it appears the Joplin Globe has removed its "deaths" link on its website.
This, of course, leaves only the paid obituaries accessible to online readers.
The move goes along with the mercenary policy followed by the Globe and most other newspapers across the United States these days. Unless your survivors are willing to pay, your life did not mean a thing and your death is not news.

The decline of the Globe began with that first decision to move in that direction and the disconnect between this area's leading regional newspaper and its readership has grown ever since.

Not only does the policy disparage the lives of those who cannot afford to fork over money during their time of grief, but it also keeps the Globe from being able to stay on top of one of the items shown in survey after survey as a top readership item in newspapers.

In the past, it has also kept the newspaper from covering deaths that had even greater news value, because the people in the Globe newsroom did not recognize some of the names of former officials or people who were involved in important news stories of the past.

I hope I just overlooked it and that the "deaths' link is somewhere else on the Globe's website. I hate to think that now, not only are the people who won't give in to the Globe's highway robbery kept from receiving full obituaries, but their deaths are not even worthy of the solitary paragraph that has been provided over the past few years.

People who want their loves ones' obituaries written in a certain manner should have to pay, I have no argument with that policy, but the deaths of people whether they be ex-presidents of the United States or the retired truck driver who lives down the street, are news, and when the corporate suits who call the shots at our newspapers forget that, they are hastening the day when newspapers are going to be totally irrelevant, and perhaps non-existent, in our society.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ironically figures from a salesperson at the News Leader indicate that the obits/deaths section is one of their most visited pages and highest billing ad spots online.

Anonymous said...

It still shows up on the site map page.

Randy said...

Thanks for the information. The Globe may have made it a little harder to find (its previous location was at the top of the homepage), but at least it is still there.

Anonymous said...

So did the did the decline of the Carthage Press begin when they also started charging people to die?

Anonymous said...

Yes