It's been a week of horrible news for the newspaper industry, and I can't stop thinking -- who dropped the ball?
I miss journalism, but I don't miss the head-in-the-sand approach to the newspaper business. It isn't like nobody saw it coming.
I simply don't get why newspapers are dying, especially in the Bay Area. We have more entrepreneurial talent, more writers, more READERS than practically anywhere in the country.
If journalism is to survive the passing of newspapers, it ought to survive it here. And it's not.
The idea of newspapers going out of business doesn't really concern me. What concerns me is the death of news. The fact is, newspapers are the first source of many, many news events that get picked up by other media like radio, TV, film, and Google. And in this respect, the death of any newspaper, no matter how bad, is concerning.
Because there's nothing taking it's place. OK, we have blogs, social networks. But there's one less organization going after the who, what, where, when, why and how, like only a newspaper can.
One opinionated blogger doesn't have the manpower, objectivity or legal assistance. One TV news report doesn't have the time.
I thought I was done with journalism. Yet I'd be lying if I wasn't secretly thinking about a way to somehow make it work.
2 comments:
Most of my friends used to work for newspapers. Used to. Eventually they all left. Part of the reason why is that for some reason the higher-ups at newspapers think treating their employees like shit is a management style.
I've got a suspicion that part of the problem is with the greed-fixated investment economy -- newspapers can still earn money, just not at a rate that attracts investors. I wouldn't be at all surprised if an employee-owned corporation could run a newspaper and thrive.
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