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The Sky Is Falling“It’s been an especially rotten few days for people who type on deadline. On Tuesday, The Christian Science Monitor announced that, after a century, it would cease publishing a weekday paper. Time Inc., the Olympian home of Time magazine, Fortune, People and Sports Illustrated, announced that it was cutting 600 jobs and reorganizing its staff. And Gannett, the largest newspaper publisher in the country, compounded the grimness by announcing it was laying off 10 percent of its work force—up to 3,000 people.
“Clearly, the sky is falling. The question now is how many people will be left to cover it.”
No newspapers to report crime, big business and government fraud, declining quality of education, and social injustices... Now THAT'S scary.
ReplyDeleteThe nightmare continues....
ReplyDeleteDefinitely a grim Halloween.
ReplyDeleteDoug Gibson
Ogden, Utah
It would be interesting to see what would happen if all newspapers were completely shuttered for one year.
ReplyDeleteI have a hunch that not only would there be an outcry from the public, but also from the aggregators and broadcasters who rely on newspapers for much of their content.
You don't know what you've got 'til it's gone.
Red Smith, A. J. Liebling and Ernie Pyle are meeting in heaven somewhere and drinking a celestial toast to what once was and will never be again. But wait, hope is on the way, for now anyone with a computer, a keyboard and a narcissistic urge can hose others down with their unedited ramblings. Red Smith said writing was easy—just open up a vein and bleed. Damn little bleeding in the blogging world. Just open up your head and spew. How have we managed to replace what was so good with that which is so unworthy?
ReplyDeleteDan
Question is, folks - what are we going to do about it?????
ReplyDeleteNot much point in crying into our beer, bemoaning our fate....
I cant believe that there isnt a national move afoot amongst journalists and journalism educators to create something new...
I understand the risk and the effects of negativity and depression and inertia and fear of stepping out of the (employed) comfort zone, but hey, that zone aint very comfortable anymore, now is it?
Its so much harder to resuscitate/ revive something that's already dead and extinct (dinosaurs being a good example) than to create an environment where something that's precious and endangered is protected and allowed to take the next evolutionary step....
Now, it seems that the consensus of opinion, on this site anyway, is that the current media model is not the healthiest next evolutionary step for journalism, and its illogical to expect media owners to care about the issue, so who's left to take on the challenge and do something with it?
I'm up for helping create something new ... as I'm trying to do with some of my freelance peers who have to work through vendors to get jobs with the big companies here and have 1/3 - 1/2 of their hourly wage siphoned off by the middlemen - reminds me of the old days when you paid protection money to the landlord's goons or whatever!
Geewhiz - and we're in the 21st Century, for crying out loud!su
I got a note today from a Washington, D.C., journalism internship program which notes that it will be easier to get interns placed in bureaus next semester because of the staffing cuts. BillinDC
ReplyDelete