Comments on: OLD MEDIA AND JOURNALISM COMMENTS ON FIRE

By: INTO INVISIBILITY WITH BREATHTAKING SPEED — Passing Thru

INTO INVISIBILITY WITH BREATHTAKING SPEED — Passing Thru — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 20:14:32 +0000

[...] whose knowledgeable and passionate voice lit up our discussion about media and journalism here, and here. We also publicized Becky’s efforts to win a contest that would send her to the TED [...]

By: Ed Brenegar

Ed Brenegar — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 17:32:54 +0000

This is a great post. So much to appreciate in what you say.
You write: “As a newspaper is responsible to its readership, I think its readership is responsible in supporting its newspaper. People have abandoned newspapers, chasing the free content available on the Web. This accelerates a vicious cycle of destruction which will be felt far beyond the newsrooms.”
My paper the Asheville Citizen-Times has gone through a purge. They shut down the print plant. They reduced the size of the paper. They cut payment to columnists, like me. Yet at the same time, readership of both the print and online editions is way up. So, the issue is a bit more complex. People are going to free online content, but also to specialty papers and magazines, most of them free. Our paper produces about half dozen or so of these, and they do well. But it is slicing the advertising pie a bit thin. My concern is that with specialty publications is that don’t look at the community as a whole thing. It contributes to the trend of dividing the community into competing special interest groups. These publications aren’t designed to look at an issue from multiple points of view. So, as newspapers decline, so does one of the only forums for the community to meet and discuss the larger issues. I’m not sure what we should do. Maybe talking about it is a start.

By: Betsy Wuebker

Betsy Wuebker — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 19:15:07 +0000

Hi Dave – I love the work of Jeff Jarvis! I’ll see you that one and raise you with this: http://incontextmultimedia.com/blog/2009/01/who-needs-social-media-literacy/

By: BloggerDad

BloggerDad — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 02:00:06 +0000

I thought this was interesting enough to pass on:
http://www.buzzmachine.com/2009/01/02/bad-news-good-news/

By: BloggerDad

BloggerDad — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 19:46:52 +0000

I agree with Becky in many of her points, if not all. I have only my limited three years of experience at a small town paper to speak of and what I know from my conversations with other journos.

I certainly didn’t mean to pass the blame off to readers, but I will address that later. From stories I’ve heard, Becky is absolutely right about the corporate powers at many papers.

I worked at a small local paper which competed with a big daily. Our paper bucked the trends by reporting the truth even at great cost to us as the powers that be circled their wagons, protected their own and pressured advertisers away. I can’t go into details as I will respect the privacy of those involved, but suffice it to say, my idealism was met with the cold hard reality of corruption, violent threats and the lengths to which people will go to in order to maintain the status quo.

I should preface this by saying that I valued each of our readers. I’ve had great experiences with many who called or emailed or spoke to me in meetings. However, generally speaking, there are a lot of casual readers out there that I don’t think appreciate what goes into their newspapers.

Many think that news should be free. I’ve heard it said thousands of times – “I can get news online for free, why should I buy my news?” And the really weird thing – for as many people that praise papers for going after the stories that matter, several people complain about such stories. They don’t want negative stories which upset the apple cart. They prefer a community newspaper with front pages devoted to chili cookoffs and local weddings.

What’s going wrong at newspapers is a mix of many things. Corporate mismanagement, newsroom cuts, a bad economy and reader atrophy. Yes, some papers have only themselves to blame for ignoring the needs of readers. However, that isn’t the case at all papers.

In an ideal world, this is how it should work: The newspaper writes the stories that matter and that people want to see. Readers buy the paper. If a particular story spotlights something particularly unsavory going on, readers rise up and DEMAND accountability from those in power. And maybe they even call the advertisers who appear in the paper and say, “Thank you for supporting such a fine, outstanding publication. We will keep you in mind when making our next purchase.”

Some readers have done that, but most people are complacent and take no action. That’s probably another argument for another day, though.

Yeah, I told you I’m an idealist.

Thanks Betsy for the thoughtful post which provoked our responses and thanks to Becky for weighing in with her many years of experience.

By: Betsy Wuebker

Betsy Wuebker — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 17:05:06 +0000

http://thewhereblog.blogspot.com/2009/01/notes-about-future-of-urban-journalism.html

Check out this series about the subject!