Obsolete? Hula Hoops, Buggie Whips and Newspapers

Are Newspapers Going the Way of the Hula Hoop?
by Rhonda Roland Shearer
StinkyJournalism.org


Will newspapers follow the Hula Hoop in obsolescence? South Carolina Press Assn. wrote a canned Op-Ed for its members in honor of National Newspaper Week that says "No." The late Richard Knerr, on right, and Arthur Melin, left, co-inventors of the Hula Hoop, were shown in happier times

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Will newspapers follow the Hula Hoop in obsolescence? South Carolina Press Assn. wrote a canned Op-Ed for its members in honor of National Newspaper Week that says "No."

It was “ National Newspaper Week ,” Oct. 5-11, 2008, according to the promotional material orchestrated by the Newspaper Association of America. South Carolina newspapers chose their theme -- “Newspapers ... still going strong” -- for their statewide campaign. Among the bromides, such as “newspapers aren’t dead yet,” Dianne Owens, SCNow.com, website for a SC media group, wrote, “ As one S.C. newspaper consultant and co-owner said in an opinion piece about newspapers ‘Newspapers aren’t going the way of the hula hoop.’ ”

Turns out the quote was taken from a stock Op-Ed offered-up by the SC Press Assn. for its members. The canned Op-Ed was titled, " Newspapers aren't going the way of the hoola hoop." The unnamed "consultant" was Jerry Bellune, a past president of the SC Press Assn. and co-owner of the Lexington County Chronicle & The Dispatch News. The SC Press Assn. page instructs , " To receive the text of the following [Op-Ed] pieces, please highlight, copy and paste the text.
"Continuing to celebrate National Newspapers Week".

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by Rhonda Roland Shearer
image: Stinky Journalism.org