Profit & Loss… Mostly Loss

(A Precision Guided Humor Assignment)
In a cost saving move, the New York Times will soon be printed on smaller sheets of newspaper, and will cut over 1000 jobs.
Apparently blabbing the details of secret anti-terrorism programs isn’t the money-maker they thought it would be.
And this is only the beginning of the exciting changes at the Gray Harlot. A number of other cost-saving and revenue-enhancing moves are in the works:


  • Switching to discount brand “Gee, Your Whiz Smells Terrific!” urinal cakes.
  • Eliminating wasteful i-dotting and t-crossing.
  • Dumping over-paid reporters and getting news from know-it-all cab drivers.
  • Instituting firm “no seconds” policy when hosting DNC fundraising dinners.
  • Siphoning ink from New York Post printing presses.
  • Hiring street-corner squeegee bums to clean the Times Building’s windows, and cutting their harness ropes just as they finish the top floor.
  • Switching reporters to a flat salary instead of the current pay-per-lie arrangement.
  • Refinancing mortgage on the Times Building and paying off those high-interest Mob loans.
  • Switching from regular printer’s ink to much darker Hudson River water.
  • Explaining to their paperboys that, for a mere $20 a week, they’ll “make sure nuthin’ bad happens to that nice little bike you’re ridin’… which would be a shame”.
  • Using regular newsprint instead of that fancy, quilted kind.
  • Stopping unrealistic “news stories unchallenged by bloggers for 30 minutes, or it’s free!” ad campaign.
  • Firing their fact-checkers. They just sit on the computer playing solitaire all day, anyhow.
  • Cease using William Hung songs as subscription order line hold music.
  • Waiting until Democratic candidate bribe checks actually clear the bank before giving endorsements.
  • Replacing boring news stories with hilarious “Fun Facts About the 50 States” pieces.
  • Which would also increase the paper’s overall accuracy quotient.
  • Saving on expensive photographer’s fees by replacing pictures of President Bush with royalty-free chimpanzee clip-art.
  • Replacing ink-wasting word “insurgents” with shorter “dudes”.
  • Three words – Arthur Andersen Accounting.

With these changes in place, the paper should be back on its feet, in the gutters, and raking muck in no time.

9 Comments

  1. During the time when the NYT telemarketers would call my Chicago suburban home to ask if I wanted a subscription, I’d tell them no. They then went to the next question on their script, “Are you aware of the journalistic reputation of the New York Times?”
    To which I would always respond, “That’s exactly why I have no interest in a subscription.”
    After Jason Blair, I no longer received those calls.
    Francesco, maybe it’s opposite day in bag-on-the-side-land. I mean, normally you are wrong, but at least when you see something you do not automatically call the exact opposite, you are just wrong in how you interpret it. So a leftist rag is going under, Conservatives in Germany and Australia are elected and pro-war leaders in the US and UK are reelected, but just because Spain wets itself to worldwide detriment – as was totally off topic of this post, and this is a sign of “global right wing collapse”?
    I’m having flashbacks to car shopping with my ex-wife, dude.

  2. Maybe something as simple as cutting out the pages devoted to Democratic Party talking points could save the paper a ton in printing costs. How much could it cost to print that one left over page with obits and a recipe?

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