The Philadelphia Inquirer is hemorrhaging circulation, to the degree that the Circulation Department has gotten members of the editorial staff to start harassing...umm calling former subscribers, asking them to pretty please start reading the rag again.

"If the people I call say, 'Yes, I was mad at your editorial,' then the next thing I say is, 'Would you like to come in and talk about it?' " Ms. Bennett [executive editor Amanda Bennett] said.

What editorial? Glad you asked.

...a daily editorial page series called "21 Reasons to Elect Kerry" that began on Oct. 10 and ran to Election Day, addressing different aspects of Mr. Kerry's proposed policies. That feature was paired each day with an op—ed piece highlighting President Bush's policies and record on the same issue.

As Polipundit dryly noted: Gee, I wonder who could possibly be offended by that.

Evidently, it still has not occurred to MSM types that their continued attempts to pretend that they are an objective news source, while treating the majority of their audience with contempt, is repellant.
Nobody needs the Philadelphia Inquirer, except, of course, for the people who work there.

In less desperate times, editorial staff would have angrily rejected pleas to call up ex—subscribers and humbly ask their continued patronage. No longer.

Lotsa luck! You're going to need it. People have had it with you guys.

Thomas Lifson   1 13 05

Richard Baehr adds:

The newspaper in Philly is losing circulation, and the city is losing population (estimate of  a decline of 100,000 in four years).  But the number of registered voters for the 2004  election was up 150,000 in the city since 2000. Go figure. Kerry captured the state by only 145,000 votes out of almost 5.8 million votes that were recorded.  Barbara Boxer is worried about the validity of Ohio results. The bigger problem may have been next door in Pennsylvania..