I've never lived in Colorado, so it doesn't affect me as much as it does the people out there, but as a journalist, I can't help but feel sad for the death of yet another newspaper. The Rocky Mountain News published its final edition today, just a few weeks short of its 150th anniversary.I don't have personal stories to share about what that paper meant to me, but I'm sure they exist, and I'd be happy to have people share them here in comments.
Journalism remains popular with college students. I see news of new fellowships and grants for journalists all the time, and I hear from college students that they want to get into journalism. So I know the interest is out there. What isn't out there right now is a viable business model that would allow many of the old papers to continue to exist. The old model isn't working anymore.
Papers have gone online, and that's good. I suspect many of them eventually will only exist online. And that isn't as good, because not everyone has access to the Internet. That's a discussion for another time.
If nothing else, I'll reflect on the death of a grand old paper, what it means for the hundreds of people who worked there and their families, and look forward to the future of journalism, because people remain unchanged in their desire to have access to objectively presented information.
5 comments:
As a former newspaperman myself and fan of the medium, I mourn with you, Matt.
Newspapers in general are not just suffering from the lack of advertising - for years we have seen the slow, bleeding death of "journalism." Long gone are the days where you could read a "news story." (President Obama's stimulus package is comprised of A,B, and C. Some analysts say it will benefit the country by [quotes here]. Other say it falls short in [quotes here].) Now you have newspapers shilling an agenda (See New York Times, New York Post, etc.).
Journalism is about reporting all sides of the story and leaving the endorsements to the editorial section. Sadly, that type of philosophy exists in very few papers nowadays.
I couldn't agree more. I've worked in places where the wall between advertising and editorial was slowly pulled down, brick by brick, leaving the editorial department naked. And when confronted about their brazen entitlement attitude, the advertisers said the editor wasn't open to partnerships. "You want our money but not our advice," they said. That's not quite what you're referring to, but much of the system has major flaws.
The vaporized editorial/advertising wall is a whole other hill of gaseous beans (of which I agree with your sentiments). However, I was bemoaning the slanted reporting, which is another sign of the times. Sure, electronic media is currently more popular than print media. But when exactly was the point when gasbags like Limbaugh, Olberman, Hannity, and Maddow became the voice of "news?"
Amen, Anonymous!
These op-ed voices gone wild further blur the perspective of the average news consumer who can't distinguish between news and opinion. I love the Internet and blogs and all that these new technological tools offer, but people need to know that they aren't offering news, they're offering opinion.
People want facts in order to get through their day: Will it snow? What is the traffic like on I-95? How are our troops doing in Afghanistan? But it's hard-to-answer questions like that last one that cause problems. Part of the problem is poor questions. In the rush to get information out quickly, reporters are quick to ask imperfect questions (this is not a new problem) that can be manipulated by a savvy flack or politician or anyone who purposely wants to obfuscate.
But the problem is further exacerbated by economics. For example, reporters need to be where the action is to get beyond the PR/communications firewall, and that means money, which the massive media conglomerates can't afford (on many levels) to spend right now.
I'm thinking that I may have to write a new post in the near future...
I keep thinking of the line from an old Tanita Tikarum song: "News you have to sell." It always bothered me that she was right.
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