Kelly's Journalism Blog :)

What I Learned

2010-01-12T09:10:00.000-08:00

After doing this project, I learned so many new things. When I first started this project, I was very pro-newspaper and didn't really have a reason for it. I think I was pro-newspaper because I don't really like change. As I tried standing up for newspapers, I was unaware of the internet's capabilities.

The biggest learning point for me was realizing that we don't need the newspaper. Yes, many jobs would be lost, but is that really the point? I was so stuck on saving newspapers that I didn't even realize that the internet offered so much more.

I also learned that this whole issue's outcome is based on what the people do and what the people want. Some people want a paper in their hands and others want to browse the internet for news. The newspapers will still be around if people still by them or they will be gone if people choose to use the internet.

At first, I thought that newspapers were completely over... until I read an article about the history of the newspapers. I came across a section about how the newspaper can make alterations based on its competition. If newspapers survived radio and television, maybe they can survive the internet. The only thing is that the internet has many more features over those types of recieving media. The future of newspapers isn't a predictable as I thought it was.

I think this was a very long project (and a little painful the last few days) but it was on I topic I actually liked. I want to be a journalist, but if I can't, I will definitley go into english. I'm happy about the way I did my project and I hope the class learned something new from this topic.

Picture:

Where I Stand: An Outline of My Presentation

2009-12-16T09:23:00.000-08:00

As the deadline comes closer, I'm beginning to put together an outline of my presentation. Since the Media topic is so broad, it is important that I manage my ideas so that the presentation makes sense.

The first thing I am going to talk about a summary of the topic.
-What is the Media
-Why the media is important
-What the problem is
-Some more..

I'm going to talk about the history of the media
-Starting with newspapers
-Talk about where/When/why began
-historic figures
-etc.

Why the internet is overcoming newspapers
-what it has over newspapers/what it has that outlasts the newspaper
-why people want the internet
-Stats

Why Newspapers Are Crumbling
-Its problems
-Stats of number of papers still around, sales decreases
-What they have that internet does not
-Why they are less effective

Do we still need newspapers?
-What we need from the paper
~such as local news
-talk about some job loss, although it is not the main point
-is the loss for the better?

Future
-My theory of the future
-Others theory of the future
-What form I think the news will be in

At some point:
-Mention the quote from my wiki page: It's a good quote that summarizes the future of the internet/newspaper

Show my video
-Video contains
~input from other people.... all ages
~snippets of Youtube videos, quotes from all different professionals
~Not very long
~contains the song "Breakdown" by Jack Johnson

Presentation Preparation
-Type a similar to this one with my actual facts- much more detailed and in depth
-Finish the Video
-Research the history of the paper, have started but haven't had the opportunity to get more in depth
-a main thing I want to do is to get the local peoples input
-6 sources of news (saved on my digg account)

Goal:
To get an A!

"Creative Destruction": Seeing it from a Different Point of View

2009-12-10T09:16:00.000-08:00

As I continue to do this project, I'm still trying to find the most useful information. My topic is so broad and I often get confused about what I'm actually going to be talking about. I'm still trying to find my topic title and I'm trying to narrow down exactly what I'll be presenting to the class. As I was using digg.com, a web tool I'll be using for my project, I came across an article called "Why It's Okay For Newspapers To Die." The title jumped out at me because all you see are articles about what newspapers are doing to save themselves. Not only does this article give a different perspective, but the comments on the article are also really helpful.

In the article written by Sonia Arison, I immediately noticed the caption under the heading because it narrowed down the article in a few sentences. It simply stated:

"The transition that's taking place in the news publishing industry -- from print to online -- is a healthy step in technology-driven evolution, though there will undoubtedly be some short-term pain. The loss of print newspapers is akin to the loss of the horse and buggy. The Internet offers the potential for broader and deeper news reporting."

I liked how it related the transition to the loss of horse carriages. Yes, it was a big change, but it was definitly for the better. There is some "short term pain," like the loss of jobs for the newspapers. Personally, my theory is that you will always need someone to write the news.

As I stated in the title of my blog, the author mentions this process by calling it "Creative Destruction." Creative Destruction is known as "the process by which a new technology or structure replaces the old and builds a new infrastructure." The author of the article believes that a situation like this won't go down without a fight, relating it to the government bailing out automobiles. Some say that people are panicing to the thought of not having the news in print anymore, and others are praising the fact that the news is getting out faster.

There is more to the article, but I feel like the comments on the article were much more important. One commenter made an interesting point saying that newspapers aren't the problem but journalism itself. The commenter stated that too many forms of journalism are being created and it is getting confusing for people choosing their college major. One commenter mentioned that they are just going to miss holding the hard copy with a cup of coffee in the morning. People are also saying that the quality of journalism is going down becuase the importance of the media is how fast you get it out, not the quality of the writing.

I highly recommend reading the comments on that article because they have really good points. I like to hear normal peoples point of view on the issue. This article gave me new ideas for my research paper and I'm definitley going to refer to those comments for more ideas.

Picture cited: http://dculibrary.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/newspapers4.jpg

Final Project: Where to Begin?

2009-12-02T09:17:00.000-08:00

It's the start of December and we were given our final project for the class. A few months ago, we chose a topic and have done multiple projects on it. I chose the topic of Media because I am personally interested in what goes on to get the news out and how it is recieved. The media is such an important topic because of its changes and evolution. As time goes on, people have more options than just the newspaper, which is beginnning to be a problem for the newspapers. The internet has made getting the news fater and easier. People are opening up their laptops for the latest news, whereas the newspaper is publishing news that is already sometimes already known. At first I didn't know where to begin on this project because the topic is so broad, but now I think I am on my way.

I started off really confused and didn't know where to begin. We were told that we needed to use 3 tools that we haven't used before to collect and present information. I spent quite a few days on go2web20.net, which is a website that has hundreds of online tools to choose from. It allows you to narrow down your search by clicking on different topics. I started by clicking the "To-Do" button because I wanted to find sites that would help manage my time. I would post due dates and post updates on what I'm doing. I found a website called diary.com, which allows you to do all the things I just mentioned. A cool thing about Diary is that Mr. Miller can accept my request and view my page and recieve the updates. This website is where I am storing some of my ideas, but I'm also using Google Documents. It doesn't count as one of my tools, but I think it is a really good way to use an "online version" of Microsoft Word.

One of my main ways of presenting my information is a video. I personally like making movies so I decided to do something that I enjoy. On Window's Movie Maker, I am going to edit a video of the Changing Media using clips of people I interview and pictures. I am also going to use people's YouTube videos and chop them up and insert them into my video. I've seen people do it but never knew how. I then found a tool from go2web2o.net called Online Video Converter. This tool will take the youtube video and convert it to the form you need to edit. It will save on my computer and be easily accessed. This tool allows me to get opinions from people online who I have never met before.

I am not totally set on my final tool but I think it may be digg.com. Digg.com is a social bookmarking site that you can join and view articles of people who like the same things as you. The other day I was experimenting digg.com and found great articles on the newspapers dying out. I will use digg.com as a tool to collect information and easily save URLs.

I hope to get this project done and manage my time. I don't mind presentations and this is much better than doing a research paper. I'm actually excited to make a movie because it is something I like to do on my own time. I'm unsure of using Digg, but if I am using a different tool, I hope to find it soon.

Picture: from Photobucket by spotus

Hartford Courant: It's All About Plagiarism

2009-11-19T14:49:00.000-08:00

To keep up with the changing media, I decided to find an article to write about that is relevant to the struggling newspaper industry. I immediately came across an article about the Hartford Courant. I had just saw a TV commercial from the Hartford Courant that was showing their "newly added sections" into the paper, so I assumed that they were trying to get more readers interested to keep the paper alive. When I clicked on the article, I could not believe what it was saying. The headline was "Hartford Courant sued by another paper for Plagiarism." This didn't make sense to me! I had just saw a commercial for the newspaper and thought they were making an effort to get their paper back on track.

My first instinct was "Wow, now that is embarrassing." I thought this because the Hartford Courant is the oldest newspaper in America. They've always been looked up to for basically starting print journalism. The Hartford Courant brought the news to where it is today. You'd think that such a prestigious paper would write their own articles and not rely on another newspaper's articles.

This whole issue began over the summer when locals were noticing similar articles in the Courant and in the Journal Inquirer. The Journal Inquirer is "Northern Connecticut's Hometown Paper" that competes with the Courant. The Courant also used articles from the Bristol Press, The New Britain Herald, Torrington Register-Citizen, and Waterbury Republican-American. The Journal Inquirer has posted on their website that they will be seeking damages, attorney's fees, and punitive damages.

I noticed a comment on that article from a guy named Lou. What he said made total sense to me and I would agree with it.

Lou wrote on Nov 19, 2009 11:55 AM:
"While I do like the Courant, they seem to be spiraling downward...between their dispute with Mr. Gombossy and this issue, the COurant is becoming almost Titanic like.

The newspaper plagiarizing other articles makes me not want to read their paper. They should write their own articles like other newspapers do. This is not the way you try to save your paper. Plagiarizing?! That's just dumb, it gives your paper a bad name. Whether they really plagiarized or not, it still makes me look down on them.

Picture

Social Bookmarking: A Fast, Easy, and Growing Trend!

2009-11-17T09:30:00.000-08:00

When I first started this project, I really didn't know what I was researching. The name "Social Bookmarking," is pretty self explanatory. I assumed "Social" means you can interact and comment with other people over the web. I assumed the Bookmarking part had to do with marking sites so you don't forget them. After viewing a few different articles on what it is, I understand why it is becoming popular.

Social Bookmarking is the practice of saving bookmarks to a public website and the ability to tag them with keywords. Basically, it is "bookmarking" a site publically, so it is easily accessed by anyone. Social Bookmarking is done on a social bookmarking site such as digg.com or delicious.com where you can save articles into your favorites on that site. For example, a professor at a university wants to show an article to his students. He saves it to his Digg account, where it can then be accessed from anywhere. If the professor had saved it to the bookmarks on his own computer, he would not have been able to access it from another computer. One of the main reasons why people social bookmark is because of the social aspect of it. On Digg.com, people can interact with other people based on the articles they've bookmarked. Therefore, you can talk to someone who likes reading the same things as you.

I personally don't social bookmark (..yet) and feel like it changing the way the internet is used. As the internet changes, more and more things are relating to "social." The internet is making things faster and easier, and its also allowing you to interact with people with similar interests. Social Bookmarking makes things saving URLs easy, while making it fun at the same time. Doing this research made me realize how much easier life is getting. It is getting to the point where we don't even need email anymore. Social Bookmarking can be very similar to Social Networking becuase you're instantly connecting with people from all over the world. After looking through multiple social bookmarking sites, Digg was definitley my favorite because it showed the "most popular" articles of the day. It knows this because people "digg" the articles they like. It shows what is popular right now. I like how social bookmarking is so instant and easy. It makes life a tad bit easier...

This google document is a presentation I did in class. If you want to find out more on social bookmarking, this powerpoint sums it up to make it easier to understand. It also shows (the very few) downsides to social bookmarking. My research page shows very detailed research on the topic and also has our cited sources.

Picture (top right corner)

A 2-Day Layoff Spree by Time Inc.

2009-11-04T09:18:00.000-08:00

As I was looking through my Google Reader, I came across a newly posted article on the New York Times' media blog called Media Decoder. Media Decoder was my original blog that I used to get research, and it continues to post things that are very relevant to my topic. I came across a post about Time Inc. issueing that they will be laying off 280 people. As I continued to scroll, I noticed a whole series of posts just relating to the layoffs. A blogger was continuously updating posts as she found new information.

On November 3, 2009, a Media Decoder blogger, Stephanie Clifford, posted an article about the job cuts. It didn't have definite statistics and was a very general post mentioning that the cuts were going to start at the Sports Illustrated. It did mention that 15-20 employees were laid off just that night, right around when she posted the blog. The post also mentioned that they were predicting more job cuts for the next day. Laying off all these people will save the incorporation over $100 million. At 10:13 am the next day, she posted a much longer blog mentioning why there will be so many job cuts. The blogger said there will be no magazines being cut and these job cuts will save the company millions of dollars. She followed this by saying that there was going to be a 10:30 conference call from Time Inc. giving more information. At 12:07 that day, Stephanie posted another blog updating people on the reasons for the cuts and how the magazine is doing with it's renevue. There were a few more continuous blogs about the job cuts because it was an ongoing issue throughout the day.

One of the points I'm making is that the same blogger posted blogs throughout the day to update people on the issue. In a newspaper, you wouldn't be able to hear the changes in the story because once it is in print, it can't be changed. Someone who reads the paper in the morning wouldn't know that there were changes or updates in the story.

I also decided to write about the 280 Time job cuts because it makes me nervous about the future. I hope to someday work for a magazine, and it never really crossed my mind that magazines were doing bad too. To me, 280 job cuts is too many, and it is a scary number. The economy and the vast internet makes me nervous about the future. The only reason why I'm not totally nervous because maybe the magazines will move to the internet. You will always need someone to write the news. This issue relates to my topic about the changing media, but it also relates to the economy and how it is affecting our lives.

Photo Credit: Time Magazine uploaded by zawmyonaing

A New Layout

2009-10-16T09:08:00.000-07:00

I think a blog's layout says a lot about its author or topic. When I made a blog, I just picked any random design and started blogging. As I started to view different blogs, I immediately judged it on the way it looked before reading it. If it looked plain and boring, I would instantly think it would be boring. Whether it was boring or not, the layout is still a huge part of the way I view a blog. After viewing many blogs on my topic of journalism, I had a pretty good idea of what I would want a blog to look like.

When I went back onto my blog, it wasn't engaging and looked kind of corny. The colors were random and the template had a random star in the corner. I assumed I would quickly go change the layout and color choices but it was harder than I thought it would be. This was so different from the first time I made my blog because the color choices didn't really matter to me. This time, I was changing templates, then changing the color, and I couldn't make up my mind.

I finally settled on a simple layout with colors that didn't distract you from the entries. I also made the background white opposed to the original lime green color because it was hard to read the entry. If some person came to my blog and had trouble reading it, they would move on without reading the important aspects of the blog. I also made the links a dark orange that are easy to read and that stand out.

To me, a layout is equally important to its entries. Originally, my blog looked childish and any person would judge it based on the color choices. Now the blog is engaging, easy to read, and colorful to a certain extent. If I hadn't viewed other blogs, I would have thought mine was fine. Viewing other blogs is an important aspect of this class.

A Review of Journalism Blogs

2009-10-08T09:18:00.000-07:00

In Journalism, my goal was to find blogs that relate to the Media and its changes. I simply typed "journalism blogs" into Google and multiple sites came up. The first one I clicked on was "Save the Media." It was really interesting because it showed the differences in journalism and blogging... etc. The best part about this woman's blog was that she had a blog roll, meaning it led to blogs she liked and ones that relate to hers. This opened up so many doors to me because the blogs she linked to linked to even more blogs! These are some of the blogs that I found helpful:

Save the Media: This blog gives ways of the changing media. It has a great article on how blogging is different from the journalism blog. This blog had a great blog roll that led to other great blogs.

Journajunkie: If you scroll down on this page, there is a really good post about how newspapers should learn from the paperboy. Another thing I liked about this blog was that it had "tags" on the side for topics the blogger writes about. This filtered the articles and made it easier for me to find what I was looking for.

Newspaper Death Watch: This blog basically predicts newspapers dying out, and that's not what I want! The thing that jumped out at me was the "R.I.P" column for all the newspapers that are no longer running. Besides for that, the blog posts were kind of boring.

Newsosaur: The first thing that jumped out at me was the title because I could already tell that the author of this blog is probably a veteran in the media business. My favorite thing about this blog was the headline under his main title at the top. It uses the term "extinction" when talking\g about the print industry. How clever is that?!

Scooping the News: This blog is cool because it is updated by a bunch of professors who talk about media changes involving social networking and other popular Internet tasks. Another interesting post talked about Journalists on Twitter.

Notes from a Teacher: This blog is so cool because the author is a current teacher but a former journalist (...sound familiar??). His most current article is about how the newspaper industry in Canada is doing a lot better than ours. This popped out at me because all I've been thinking about is the struggling newspaper industry in the U.S. and never thought to think about how it is in other countries. Just by reading his posts I can tell he's pretty intelligent.

News After Newspapers: This is a very simple blog compared to the others, but it majorly relates to my topic. Even though the blog is bland, it still has good information or specific facts about the industry. I will definitely be referring to it in the near future.

I wish I had the time to write reviews for these blogs because there are so many out there! I was so surprised to find as many blogs as I did about the changing media.

Media Bloggers

2009-09-29T09:04:00.000-07:00

A part of this project was to read blogs about our topics. I was thinking of using the Media Decoder again, but I had already referred to it in a previous blog entry. I decided to use a website given to me by Mr. Miller called 10,000 Words. This is a blog about blogs, journalism, social networking, and more. I can't say I found this blog on my own, but it has been helpful.

A blog I came across was the 10 Ugly Truths About Modern Journalism which is about the changes in journalism from what it once was. A certain point that I get out of it is that there is too much information out there for journalists to use. 10 years ago, journalists didn't have all the reference books and information they needed right in front of them like it is for us today. The job doesn't require as much effort because now, journalists can sit in front of their computer and get information right then and there. One of the bullets on that blog mentioned how journalists use Wikipedia all the time now. I personally feel like the computer is taking over so much of this occupation. It worries me that even now almost everything is done over the computer and what the job will be like in 10 years.

Another point is made that journalists are doing more than just dedicating themselves to one story. Ten years ago, pink slips weren't being tossed around like they are today, so modern journalists are getting worried by having side blogs and writing books. These journalists aren't spending as much time on their certain assignment and are scrambling to do more.

One of the points is one that I can easily relate to. It is about how entertainment news is viewed more than the serious news articles. I wish I wasn't like this, but I always read the stupid, pointless, and exaggerated news articles about what's going on in Hollywood. I worry myself because I know that this is what other girls my age are doing around the country and I think CNN news is more important. Don't get me wrong, I will check CNN from time to time, but I will always check People Magazine. Anyways, this point leads to my next which is about "writing news articles that sell." Basically I view this as what InTouch, US Weekly, and People Magazine do every week for their cover story. They will write a huge headline on the cover that will get people to buy the magazine. If they put an article about how Kate kicked John out of the house, it will most likely sell. Whether it's true or not, these magazines just want to make money.

I think it's cool that there is news on the news. The news is how we get our information on breaking news and current events. I think it's awesome how blogs are trying to save the Newspaper industry... as weird as it sounds. The internet itself is taking over how we do things in our everyday lives, and one of them is the way we get the latest news. If I want to read about the death of Patrick Swayze, isn't it easier to go on a magazine website instead of waiting to buy the magazine? Things like this are killing the printing industry and everything is going digital. I hope newspapers are still going to be running in the future and that the internet doesn't take over everything. I know I don't want to stare at a computer screen all day!

Why I Chose Media

2009-09-23T09:48:00.000-07:00

When given this assignment, I knew I wanted to choose a topic about something I enjoy and would want to learn new things about it. I'm not interested in the environment or anything having to do with science, and knew I would end up doing media. To me, the media is so important and I've always been interested in news. After I get all my homework done, I quickly log onto my computer and look around at the news going on right now. As weird as it sounds, I love when the bar comes up at the bottom of the T.V. with breaking news. I then want more details and will even look online for more information. I think this topic is important because the media is how we recieve the news, opposed to the other topics that are news (...if that makes any sense).

I started out on the New York Times and typed in "newspaper bailouts" in the search bar because that is one of the topics I wanted to discuss. I then came across a New York Times blog Media Decoder. This blog is about "behind the scenes" of the media. Once I found this blog, it was smooth sailing from there. This blog linked to other articles about the failing newspaper industry and what Obama thinks of it. I feel like I've past the hardest part of the assignment and that the Media Decoder has really helped me move along. As I continue with this project, I hope to find more articles on media today and how it is changing.I am also going to be looking into how the news is going to be distributed as time goes on.

Photo Credit: Media Decoder by New York Times

The Developments of the Media

2009-09-22T09:18:00.000-07:00

Everyday of our lives, the media is changing. In today's world, to get the latest news, the average American will go onto the computer and read articles instantly. A decreasing amount of people will read the paper over a cup of coffee in the morning.

Currently, it seems as though the internet is overshadowing the newspaper, even Barak Obama agrees. Obama, a "newspaper junkie," is hoping that the tough economic times won't stop people from buying the newspaper. Told to the Toledo Blade, the President said, "Journalistic integrity, you know, fact-based reporting, serious investigative reporting, how to retain those ethics in all these different new media and how to make sure that it's paid for, is really a challenge."

This article is newsworthy because they way we recieve news is rapidly changing. We went from reading the newspaper every morning to skimming articles on our laptops. These changes are hurting the printing industry because almost everything we look at now is a screen.

I know teens would much rather want to read about who Rob Pattinson is dating, but the media and how it's distributed is a huge topic. I honestly can't tell you how I'll be getting the news in 5 years because everything is changing. My dad and mom grew up with the newspaper everyday, and even now they still read it, but not as much as they would have if the internet was not around. It's my generation that would be keeping the industry going. My parents are still buyers of the newspaper, and the only thing that would change that would be the newspapers going bankrupt. I don't want that to happen because I don't want to be staring at a screen all day.

This issue also makes me wonder about my occupation when I'm older. I want to be a journalist for a newspaper or magazine, but what if there are no more?! Yes, I could still write for a "website," but I don't want the industry to die out. In the Toledo Blade blog, there was talk of passing legislation for saving newspapers. I think that is such a good idea because we don't want life to be computers 24/7. The media and how it is recieved and distributed is such a broad yet interesting topic.

Political Cartoon that fits this topic.

TTYL

2009-09-16T09:19:00.000-07:00

Blogging is the start of a new trend for expressing your opinion and even handing in papers. Although it has been around for some time now, I never really thought about blogging and never understood its point. The only blog I had ever heard of was Perez Hilton's, which basically trashes every celebrity in Hollywood. All different sites offer free blogs for a multiple of reasons.

To me, the most effective way to use a blog is when your a teacher to post the assignments there. Instead of wasting tons of paper for assignment sheets, you can just post it on a blog. Students can check the blog for the assignment and can post their assignment on a blog also. Another upside to blogging is that the text is easier to understand and isn't written in a tough format.

A downside to a blog is the fact that I'm using "I" a lot, which isn't a good habit to get into. You don't want to get in the habit of these grammatical errors and want to make you remember how to properly write. Refering to an article about how blogs are affecting our language, I came across a section of the article about how he (the author of the blog) reads text differently now that he is a "blogger." Blogging could affect the way the younger generation writes and reads. Since they are exposed to the internet at such a young age, they start to soak in the "slang" terms that could be used in a blog. What could happen is "IM lingo" starts to mix into our language. Instead of saying, "talk to you later," people will be like, "TTYL!"

Now that I exposed to blogs, I think they're actually pretty cool. I like hearing other peoples opinions and I like to give mine. Blogging would make life so much easier because my printer only works when it feels like it. Instead of printing out papers, I could post a blog entry. Plus they're free!

Photo Credit: Blogging by funkyphani on September 17, 2009

The Next Generation of Journalism

2009-09-15T09:05:00.000-07:00

The most interesting thing I learned in 21st Century Journalism was when the NYU student came in and told us about some of the internships she had to do. I thought it was really odd that people are getting paid to update Twitter and Facebook pages. Journalists are going to these top-notch schools to go on Facebook! It makes me wonder what job I may get assigned to when I get a job or internship. In this class, I hope to continue to learn more about the journalist job itself and its pros and cons. In the last 2 weeks, I've learned about hard news, deadlines, and how to catch attention in the lede. Speaking of lede, I've learned new journalism terms that are found in articles from newspapers, web pages, and magazines. I still want to know new things about the job such as the hours put in to the job per week, and if they vary depending on your job. I also want to know if breaking news happens during the night, are there people in the office ready to update the paper for the next day? Are there people in the office all night long? Lastly, I think we should continue to talk about current events going on around the world. I think it's important for students to know what's going on outside the high school world.

photo credit: Journalism
by angelicdevil619 on September 15, 2009

Are Americans pushing the brand name aside to save money?

2009-09-03T16:29:00.000-07:00

New York Times 9/3/09

As I was looking through various articles on major newspaper sites, I came across one from The New York Times. It's not a "hard news" article, meaning it's not hot off the press or going on as we speak. The article is about the decrease in sales at major retailers for the back-to-school season. You could almost assume something like this would happen, especially for the back to school clothes. It is said that the economy is stabilizing, but after reading the statistics, I have trouble believing that.

On the first day of school, students all over the country want to show off their newest clothing items. With job cuts and a plummeting economy, some parents couldn't afford the expensive clothing their children wanted. As a whole, there was a 2.9% decrease in sales for this back-to-school season. The biggest drop in sales was at Abercrombie and Fitch, a teen store that sells overpriced clothing for men and women. There was a 29% decrease in sales. It's no surprise to me that a store selling $30 t-shirts isn't making any money. An alternative to Abercrombie is Aeropostale, which sells similar clothing for cheaper prices. Aeropostale was one of the few clothing stores with an increase in sales and was up 9% this August. Other clothing stores with increased sales were TJ Maxx and Kohl's. TJ Maxx, up 5%, re-sells in style, cheap, and normally-would-be-expensive clothing. In these statistics, it's really showing that the average American is going for a cheaper wardrobe opposed to expensive clothing.

Do you see where this is going? The stores with the more affordable clothing obviously had sales increases over the expensive stores. I personally could have predicted these increases and decreases. I have shopped at each of the stores I named and TJ Maxx, one of the most increased sales, is definitely doing great in the economy. It has designer labels for men, women, and children with unbeatable low prices. Abercrombie is very overpriced; even the clothes on the sales rack. This decrease (and few increases) makes me wonder how the Christmas shopping season is going to be. Are people going to spend more in order to please? Or are they going to spend less to get more?

I think this article will draw people's attention because almost everyone can relate. The economy is affecting almost everyones lives and prices at retailers are a big deal. If Abercrombie sells a $50 sweatshirt, and Aeropostale sells a sweatshirt for $20, are people going to put the brand name aside and save money? This August, many Americans put the label aside and saved their money for more important things for clothes. I think this article has Human Interest because almost everyone can relate. Who knows what will happen to the retailers with expensive clothing. Will they lower their prices to sell more clothing? What do you predict?