Dave’s Take

Pity the magazine publishers. It seems no matter what their strategy, people just don’t want or need their product any more. Blame it on the Internet; blame it on the economy; blame it on the proliferation of style over content, but don’t blame the decline in magazine subscriptions to rising prices. Despite the majority of pubs lowering their subscription costs, customers simply aren’t buying their rags at any cover price.

A recent survey of the top 344 magazines revealed that despite a decision by nearly 75% of the publishers to reduce their per-copy subscription price, paid subscriptions continue to decline. According to the study recently completed by the Audit Bureau of Circulations, cheaper magazine prices have failed dramatically to spur sales. Even when major titles like US News & World Report, Newsweek and Time all cut their rates to a mere 75 cents a copy, readers still weren’t interested.

I firmly believe the magazine biz is absolute proof that pay walls will never work for the vast majority of Internet content. Like magazines, news and opinion websites simply don’t have the timeliness or unique content to merit additional charges. After all, when was the last time you really read any “news” in Time or Newsweek that hadn’t been analyzed to death by TV pundits and other web-based sources? Exactly.

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It appears that the downward spiraling economy is taking a toll on another fabric of society – the jury pool. The Los Angeles Court Systems are complaining of a new and highly disruptive trend in seating citizens for jury duty – the economics of service. It seems that the California courts are having a difficult time in finding people who can afford to take the time off jury duty can require. And not only are those being asked to serve attempting to beg off on hardship clauses, they are becoming more militant in their persuasive techniques.

In a recent case involving a civil suit regarding a severe emotional distress case, potential jurors not only asked to be excused, but once denied that out, decided to yell their objections from the actual jury box. The case in point involved a decorated Sheriff’s deputy suing a supervisor for duress over alleged gay lifestyle charges. Two jurors who were denied dismissal due to economic hardship, forced their own dismissal by one stating in open court, “I think severe emotional distress is what is happening in Haiti. I don’t think you could have such distress from that.” Their spontaneous outburst spurred the rest of the jurors to express their doubts loudly as well, forcing the judge to dismiss the entire pool and try the case himself.

In another case involving asbestos damages, 66 of the 107 prospective jurors were excused for purely financial reasons. They simply couldn’t afford to take the time off work and had no choice but to decline the request. Even under the threat of a $1,500 fine, a lot of Los Angelinos are refusing to honor their $15/day duty. Experts maintain that even if California raised their jury pay to the whopping $40/day they’ve been trying to get for decades, it would make little difference. Apparently Justice is broke as well as blind in California.