“Newspapers … Black and White but Never Re[a]d and Therefore Dead”
At the beginning of April, I came across a web article where the New York Times Editor Bill Kerry stated that “Saving the New York Times now ranks with saving Darfur as a high-minded cause.” I was absolutely stunned by this opinion for a number of reasons. First being the ironic aspect that without disasters such as Darfur, Somalia, Virginia Tech etc. etc. most of these print rags wouldn’t have anything to pontificate their Liberal views about. As a result, Bill thinks the industry based on talking about what other people do is more important than the actual event. Second is an assumption that the emerging generations do not actually bother getting their fingers dirty reading newspapers. There are way to many avenues for information flow these days from the ubiquitous nature of the web and the instant gratification of a Tweet. Additionally, once a readership is obtained, the roving journalist is no longer tied to a media outlet much like musicians no longer need the middleman to reach their listeners.
The other major issue newspapers have is the press time lag. As of late, I have been teasing my wife at the breakfast table. She will start reading me an article she finds interesting in the local paper and I’ll quickly give her the details from the Yahoo News, Drudge Report or local news webs I read at least a day or more previously. Quite frankly, the only reason I get the newspaper these days is for the Sunday adds and the Police Beat of the Local Section … with a little effort I could even obtain this information on the web.
But there is still one reason Bill’s comments are way off base. That reason is pure and simply the fact most articles are horribly written or do not focus on the aspects I want to know and care about. I have scanned in a few articles from our paper to help prove this point. Follow the jump to see them.
Continue reading Newspapers RIP 1690 – 2009
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