Publishers: getting busy in the (terminal) milking shed

Bit of a farmyard metaphor at work in the journalism blogs this morning:

Roy Greenslade:

You have to hand it to Newsquest/Gannett. They certainly know how to milk a cow to death.

Jeff Jarvis:

Some say those brands are diminishing anyway. So sponsored content is just another way to milk the old cows as they die.

This is what people often miss about the more bizarre decisions some publishers make: they’re not trying to build sustainable business models for the future – they’re milking what profits they can out of titles before they die.