Is It Newsworthy That People Shopped Online For Holiday Gifts?

from the shocking dept

Yes, I realize that this is a very slow news week, but it never fails to amaze me that every single year, we see press reports breathlessly claiming that internet sales went up over the holidays. Isn't that like saying "lunch sales increased around noon today?" The specifics may be interesting. How much sales increased and in what areas, but simply saying that they increased seems like the type of article a vacationing reporter could have handed in well before they took off for the holidays.
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  1. identicon
    Mousky, 30 Dec 2005 @ 10:36am

    No Subject Given

    Investigative reporting is all but dead in the mainstream media. They would rather write articles about internet shopping and the death of or attack on Christmas.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  2. identicon
    ZOMG CENSORED, 30 Dec 2005 @ 10:56am

    Newsworthy?

    What I love about this is the irony... Posting a news post about the lack of newsworthiness of a news post. :D

    Actually... I like to hear which sales went up (what people bought more of) and what went down (what people bought less of), as I find it interesting to see how psycho people were for certain trendy things.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  3. identicon
    Rikko, 30 Dec 2005 @ 11:16am

    No Subject Given

    Speaking of which, I'm off to join the screaming mob to try and get some lunch... Just that time of year I guess.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  4. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 30 Dec 2005 @ 11:41am

    No Subject Given

    Is an article about something being newsworthy really newsworthy?

    Well... I'm fucking confused now thanks!

    link to this | view in thread ]

  5. identicon
    haggie, 30 Dec 2005 @ 11:42am

    No Subject Given

    The rampant consumerism of the United States, specially around the Christmas holiday, creates an almost unending stream of vomit and bile in me. What a country! What values! What pride! What respect! Now get the fuck out of my way so I can grab the last $10 DVD player. The founding fathers are spinning in their graves.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  6. identicon
    Mikey, 30 Dec 2005 @ 11:50am

    Wrong article?

    The article linked has specific numbers littered throughout the article, including estimates of total and percent increase over last year's online sales (18.1 million, +25% according to one, 30.1 million, +30% to another). There are quotes from ComScore, Walmart, Sloan Center for Internet Retailing, L. L. Bean, Piper Jaffray and even joe average. There are many ideas presented on why revenues went up.
    Sure, there are fluff articles out there, but this doesn't seem to be one of those once you get past the headline.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  7. icon
    Mike (profile), 30 Dec 2005 @ 12:02pm

    Re: No Subject Given

    Is an article about something being newsworthy really newsworthy?

    Heh. I knew that might come up. But, part of what we cover here is media criticism for how the media covers the tech industry -- so it seemed relevant.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  8. identicon
    Bob, 30 Dec 2005 @ 5:05pm

    No

    No, it's not newsworthy.

    It's not even worthy enough to be on this blog.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  9. identicon
    Mousky, 30 Dec 2005 @ 5:52pm

    Re: No Subject Given

    Rampant consumerism of the United States? How about Europe? Australia? Japan? Canada? Or just about every so-called western civilization. The founding fathers are smiling in their graves.

    link to this | view in thread ]


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