One of the things I do at work is collect essays on 'how to save newspapers' and 'why print isn't dying'. I posted the first list here in early February. Since a few essays/op-eds/blog entries have arisen in the past few days (the top few will be in tomorrow's Online Publishing Update), I thought perhaps I should update the list.
Some (many) are worth reading. If you stumble across any that I haven't included here, please let me know or comment below. Thanks!
Doomsayers Debunked – Serious Journalism Won’t Die as Newsprint Fades
March 20, 2007
Mark Glaser
“… an echo of so many newspaper veterans who are so chained to the notion of print uber alles that they can’t see the potential for that same work in other media, namely online. Change is hard, change is wrenching, but change can be good. The old-schoolers would have you believe that we are in a time of horrible crisis in the news business. But when you look at the numbers, they are not as simple as “mounting losses” at newspapers.”
March 19, 2007
Jon Carroll
Newspapers have been worried about the Internet forever, fearing that the Internet might usurp their role in the information galaxy, whatever that role is. (Newspapers are also worried about their role.) Many people have said that newspapers should try to figure out a way to make money off the Internet. Well, hell, everybody is trying to figure out a way to make money off the Internet. It's a national pastime.
Writing off newspapers is premature, irresponsible
March 18, 2007
Tim McGuire (Op-Ed, The Arizona Republic)
“Newspapers under siege create a profound ethical hazard for journalists. Concern over profits and abject fear over ubiquity of the Internet threaten newspaper ethics. In the new media world, concerns such as harm to story subjects, treatment of identified but not charged suspects, privacy, balance, fairness, taste and accountability stand to get steamrollered by a desperate search for profitable audiences and the chaos of the Web where knee-jerk immediacy and irresponsibility often stretch ethical boundaries.”
March 2007
Eric Klinenberg (Mother Jones)
The eulogies are also coming from the newspaper executives and investors whose pursuit of phenomenal profits has turned many dailies into shadows of their former selves. They claim that ending the cross-ownership ban will throw a lifeline to foundering papers by allowing them to merge with TV stations and compete with the Internet. In reality, such a move would only fuel the "cut-and-gut" strategies that generate short-term value at the expense of the kind of journalism that exposed Watergate, nsa eavesdropping, and countless corrupt politicians. To see how disastrous this could be for the future of news, just take a look at the cities where the fcc has already allowed cross-ownership to get a toehold.
February 2007
Robert Kuttner (Columbia Journalism Review)
…A far more hopeful picture is emerging. In this scenario the mainstream press, though late to the party, figures out how to make serious money from the Internet, uses the Web to enrich traditional journalistic forms, and retains its professionalism—along with a readership that is part print, part Web. Newspapers stay alive as hybrids. The culture and civic mission of daily print journalism endure.
Feb. 15, 2007
Steven Rattner (WSJ.com)
In short, it's not the need for profits that's changed -- that's older than Adam Smith -- it's the ability of newspapers to generate those profits. If public ownership for newspapers is problematic, then, why not withdraw from the harsh glare of Wall Street altogether? Some trumpet "going private" -- replacing pesky public shareholders with private equity. However inviting that may seem to beleaguered managers, this option merely substitutes one rapacious posse of shareholders for another equally fierce brigade of capitalists. The fundamental problem -- a declining business -- would remain.
February 2007
Mitchell Stephans (Columbia Journalism Review)
Information is once again widely available to more or less everyone, and journalists, once again, are having difficulty selling news — at least to people under the age of fifty-five. If news organizations, large and small, remain in the business of routine newsgathering — even if they remain in the business of routine newsgathering for dissemination online — the dismal prophesy currently being proclaimed by their circulation and demographic charts may very well be fulfilled.
Feb. 5, 2007
Steve Outing (Editor & Publisher)
I quizzed an assortment of people who I think have a good handle on where media and news habits are heading. I hope that folks running newspaper companies right now will listen to them, because they're telling you what sorts of things you should be investing in to survive as viable media companies.
In Search of Serendipity
Feb. 5, 2007
Jason Fry (WSJ.com)
Online newspapers draw their share of complaints -- and in 11 years in the online-newspaper business, I think I've heard them all. I hate the blinking ads. Reading on a screen is cold. I can't take the paper with me. It won't fold for easy reading on the bus. To all of the above, I say, "Fair enough." I've switched irritably to "Print View" to read a story without multiple clicks, taken the newspaper to bed instead of a laptop, and would much rather get on the subway with a few carefully chosen sections or a rolled-up magazine instead of printouts. There's one common complaint I don't buy, however.
Jan. 18, 2007
David Bowen (FT.com)
Barack Obama, the Democratic senator from Illinois, announced on Tuesday that he was setting up an ‘exploratory committee’ to see if he might stand as a US presidential candidate. It was the way that he announced it – through a website – that intrigued me. It shows that the web can be wonderful, but only if it works hand in hand with the steam-driven world. So don’t go writing off newspapers and television just yet.
Jan. 17, 2006
Lucas Grindley
The reality is that most newspaper companies are not prepared to make the switch from primarily print-focused to Web-focused. So if print revenue can no longer support the cost of doing business, odds are newspapers will stop doing business.
That’s not the way it’s supposed to happen. I know. Our executives have said for a long time that one day they’ll transfer the business online. But the opportunity is ending to move the business by our own will. Now the readers will do it for us.