Sunday, January 31, 2010

The Dolan Touch

James Dolan and the Dolan TouchJames Dolan is clueless. Sure, you knew that already. But if you needed any more evidence just look at the debacle that is Newsday. A languishing newspaper that Dolan paid $650 million for in 2008.

Poor Ranger beat writer Steve Zipay, for example, has been ignored and in lock down mode for months. Steve who? That guy we used to read almost every day, but since last October he disappeared behind Newsday's worthless subscription service. A subscription service that through its first three months, only 35 non-Optimum, non-Newsday subscribers have signed up for.

The Dolan touch is lethal. Remember that Cablevision once purchased the New York-area electronics chain The Wiz, before closing it.

The Rangers only real long term hope seems to be if Dolan and Cablevision sell the MSG properties, including the Rangers, and they escape the miserable clutches of the Dolans.

NY Observer:
After Three Months, Only 35 Subscriptions for Newsday's Web Site -- In late October, Newsday, the Long Island daily that the Dolans bought for $650 million, put its web site, newsday.com, behind a pay wall. The paper was one of the first non-business newspapers to take the plunge by putting up a pay wall, so in media circles it has been followed with interest. Could its fate be a sign of what others, including The New York Times, might expect?

So, three months later, how many people have signed up to pay $5 a week, or $260 a year, to get unfettered access to newsday.com?

The answer: 35 people. As in fewer than three dozen. As in a decent-sized elementary-school class.

That astoundingly low figure was revealed in a newsroom-wide meeting last week by publisher Terry Jimenez...



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