pulp fiction

NEWS IS A VERBは１９９８年に書かれたジャーナリズム論なので現在の状況は変わっていますが、当時既に即時性の点ではTVには敵わないのは明白でした。
Newspaper can no longer compete with television on breaking news. Certain older features--narrative comic strips, short fiction--have also been supplanted by the pulp fiction and sitcoms that dominate television entertainment. The huge newspaper circulations of the past might never be seen again (although I believe they can be much larger). But if news papers don't service the city that is--instead of the city that was--they will just keel over and die.
上の引用文に出てくる "pulp fiction" が気になります。新聞に書かれた小説もパルプの上に書かれた小説と言えそうですが、ここではその意味では可笑しい。辞書を見ます。
・Wikipedia: Pulp fiction may refer to: pulp magazines, short stories presented in a magazine format, printed on cheaply made wood-pulp paper
・Infoplease.com: fiction dealing with lurid or sensational subjects, often printed on rough, low-quality paper manufactured from wood pulp.
・Online Dictionary for Library and Information Science: Sensational fiction of no enduring literary value, popular from the 1920s through the 1940s. Written for the mass market, usually according to formula, pulp fiction was printed on poor-quality paper, bound in softcover, and easily recognized by the lurid design on the front cover. Popular genres include romance, adventure, westerns, etc.
引用文の最後に "keel over" が出てきますが、これは先日取り上げた "on an even keel" とは反対の意味ですね。