Telemarketing Bans & The HMS Titanic

According to a story in Editor & Publisher magazine, many newspapers that have suffered circulation declines are partly blaming it on recent bans on unsolicited telemarketing to consumers. That made my laugh. Although it is true that the fatalities on the H.M.S. Titanic can be partly blamed on the lack of enough lifeboats aboard, the principal blame of that disaster was a capitan who insisted on sailing full-steam on a course where icebergs had been reportedly seen. The ban on unsolicited telemarketing isn’t to blame for declines in newspaper circulation; the current course of the newspaper industry is.