By Dan Postema
In his March 13 letter to editor, Langdon Moore shared with us his assumption-based assessment of why The Herald had been forced to make changes: “You have finally and completely alienated all conservative readers and many center-of-the road readers; you are left with a left-wing reader base who by and large do not know how to read.”
Well, in this unfortunate case, it seems obvious that the business model must be quickly modified.
After all, selling papers to a readership that can’t read has always presented a daunting challenge; similar in difficulty I suppose, to convincing blind people of their need for traditional print news.
But meanwhile, now that the problem has been identified, I’d like to encourage my fellow left-wing illiterates (we were also deemed “ignorant and violent”) to adopt an approach that I’ve been successfully employing for years. Hire a sixth-grader to come over and read your paper to you each day.
It’s nice to look at just at the pictures, but you’ll find the paper even more interesting when you understand what all that printed stuff means. Kids are happy to earn some spending money and for a little extra they’ll write the opinion letters you dictate to them.
Further, my experience has been that it’s always refreshing and reaffirming to spend time with young people who have not yet had time to become angry, hateful and bitter. Besides, they seem to like and respect me even though I can’t read!
Dan Postema lives in Everett.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
