THE END OF AN ERA: GOOD NIGHT, NEWS

[deadparrot]

NEW YORK -- Every person in my car of the PATH train from 33rd Street in Manhattan to Hoboken, N.J., on Thursday was reading a newspaper. It could have warmed the cold heart of an old newspaperman. But none of them were reading The New York Times or Daily News or Post. Or, for that matter, the Star-Ledger, Jersey's biggest paper.

My fellow travelers, 20 of them, were reading Metro or amNew York, the free newspapers that circulate (or litter) the country's biggest metropolitan area. The popularity of the little tabloids, one of them covering events in Basra in fewer than 100 words, seemed just one more stake in the heart of American journalism.

It was that kind of week in my business. On Tuesday, the day of a memorial service for Peter Jennings, the late, great tyrant who not only anchored but also ran ABC News, the Times announced that it was eliminating 45 jobs in the newsroom where I happily toiled as a younger man.

The same thing was happening in Philadelphia, where the Knight-Ridder chain announced it was cutting 19 percent of the staff of the Philadelphia Daily News and 15 percent of the staff of the Philadelphia Inquirer, which was for a time one of the country's greatest daily journals. The Boston Globe, owned by The New York Times, announced a 4 percent cut. In Birmingham, Ala., the 55-year-old Post-Herald just closed its doors.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ucrr/theendofaneragoodnightnews

[msongs]

1. so what's wrong with people reading LOCAL news the big papers

will not cover or cannot cover effectively? I read the LA Times and the LA Weekly (a throw away freebie mag) and I enjoy both. BTW the weekely is far easier to read on a subway seat than the LAT. Maybe that is why the locals in NY choose to read the local freebie?

Msongs
www.msongs.com/clark2008.htm

[goclark]

2. I know exactly how you feel

I use to read the Los Angeles Times everyday but I would rather read the News short and sweet.

I come to DU if I want to read the TRUTH. I use to go the the LA TIMES and the New York Times.

It's sad but the big papers need to be more honest with the public that they serve. Why pay for BS.

[dogman]

3. Is this just a reflection of the crap the MSM attempts to call news.

What's the choice here? The stake has been driven into the heart of American journalism by the media owners over-riding interest in satisfying the advertisers. Is there a value in fascist propaganda?

[Poppyseedman]

4. newspaper will be extinct like the dinosaurs eventually

at least in forming public opinion.

I haven't picked up a newspaper in years because of internet access and the amount of information available in other outlets. I personalize the information I want to look at.

Plus newspaper seem to have a build in bias depending on the editorial boards or who owns them.

[LiberalEsto]

5. At least the Newark Star-Ledger

(where I worked for 11 years) is pretty liberal and anti-war these days...

TV has gotten people out of the newspaper-reading habit. But at least there are little newspaper digests handed out at mass transit stations, The Washington Post has one too, the Express.

It's time we progressives printed up some little newspapers of our own and started handing them out.

[TomPainesBones]

6. I stopped paying for The NY Daily News the day after

the 2004 election. And I wouldn't be caught dead reading that right-wing rag The NY Post. They both endorsed Bush anyway. I've made a conscious decision to never give money to a news organization that allows the public to be fooled into voting for Bush.

The New York Times is not only more expensive, but trying to read it in a crowded subway car is like trying to open a suitcase in a telephone booth.

I get my news online. But I guess since I occasionally grab those free newspapers on my way to the subway, Richard Reeves would lump me into that group that is supposedly contributing to putting 'one more stake in the heart of American Journalism.'

[muriel_volestrangler]

10. In the past 2 years, The Independent, Times and Guardian in the UK

have all switched to a smaller paper size - with the ease of reading on commuter trains one of the main reasons (The Independent, the first to do it, in particular gained quite a lot of sales). Only the Daily Telegraph and the (low-circulation) Financial Times have stuck with the 'broadsheet' format that use to be the mark of serious papers in the UK. From the comments on this thread, it sounds as if the NYT ought to consider it too.

[Old and In the Way]

7. Open Source Journalism

Seems to me that the old news gathering and disseminating model is dying. It's always been a vehicle for advertising, anyway. By their business nature, they have an interest in framing/presenting it to suit their financial interests.

I keep a window on DU open all the time. Every refresh is like a new product delivery. Newspapers arrive once a day and the info is already stale when you read it. Not only do we have LBN, but we have instantaneous and 1st rate commentary/opinion on the stories, too. There can be many ways to interpret the news from many POV and in many contexts. There are potentially 20,000 contributors posting news, editorials, sports, weather, special interest stories 24/7. For this, I have no problems paying a subscription.

90%+ of what I learn, I get first and in depth from the internet. All other media is, by nature, filtering. I can read and follow-up (via Google or similar engines) on any story of interest. I can even send little bots out to continue the search to brng more info as it hits the net.

[mediaman007]

8. The Internet is the greatest journalism ever!

I only hope that it cannot be shut down by nefarious governments.

[Old and In the Way]

9. I agree....it's the last hope for democracy.

The internet is intimately tied to commerce, so I doubt that it can be hammered out of existance. But we need to be vigilent about how the Republicans will try to limit its potential as a mass communication platform.

[roseBudd]

11. The internet and bloggers need newspapers to gather and compile the ...

news. Without fully staffed newsrooms the internet would have no news/fresh content to post on their websites or portals.