Comments on: The Death of News As We Know It

By: Megan Edwards

Megan Edwards — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 19:35:48 +0000

Steve, I think your predictions are right on. Well, except the Fox News one, I hope! Mark, here's an article I found really interesting: "J-Schools play Catchup"

By: Mark Sedenquist

Mark Sedenquist — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 18:13:04 +0000

Steve, I like the new avatar — you look “dangerously” out-there! How’d you like to be a dean of a journalism school about now? I’m sure there is alot of head-scratching about WTF are we supposed to be teaching now? Most of the organizational hierarchies that those schools have been preparing graduates for is essentially gone now. Very interesting times for all of us in the content creation/writing business these days.

Mark

By: Steve Fey

Steve Fey — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 21:31:20 +0000

I seriously doubt that all newspapers will go away. However, I don’t imagine that those that don’t go away will be the same as what people have been reading for the past half century. The staffs of reporters, etcetera, that people worry about will be employed feeding information to online news distributors instead of paper ones. And the papers may well look more like the “community” papers we currently see around various metropolitan areas. Less hard news, more things that are interesting only to the people living in the area.

Or, maybe we’ll all get stupid and watch nothing but the Fox News Channel 24/7. I’m thinking that it would be painless, he wrote most cynically.

Steve

By: Tom Herbertson

Tom Herbertson — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 04:21:32 +0000

Megan, I have only the concise Oxford; it goes back only to the 18th c. + Shakespeare.
But I do have an AHD, RHD, a Collins, and an old F&W. Hope there’ll be a Webster’s 4th someday, but I’m told there’s no money in unabridged dicts.
Do have 4 world atlases though.

By: Megan Edwards

Megan Edwards — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 20:45:45 +0000

OMG! Atlases! I love paper maps. And wall maps — may they live forever.

On the sad story of newspapers, the Los Angeles Times is a shadow of its former self. When I go to LA, I almost can’t bear to look. It’s like visiting a friend with a terrible wasting disease.

I read the paper in the bathtub this morning. Now there’s something I’ll miss.

By: Kit

Kit — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 18:55:33 +0000

My dictionary (American Heritage) is less than 15 years old, as is my hideously expensive atlas.

Most of my adult life, I have started my day with the newspaper. It’s easy to skim and won’t spit sparks if I spill my tea on it. At the moment, I live the the Washington, DC, area and I think the Washington Post (along with the New York Times) will last longer than most. I know that the San Francisco Chronicle of my childhood is threatened.

I’m with Peter on the friendliness and utility of newpapers and I shall miss them.

By: Megan Edwards

Megan Edwards — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 19:32:47 +0000

Peter — I love newspapers, too, and you just don’t “happen upon” things the same way on the Web as you do turning pages. On the other hand, I just Googled “rhubarb tart” and learned that Monty Python rhymed it with “Descartes.” Nice one! As for dictionaries, I’ve always been told that it’s not their size that matters, but whether you use them. On the other hand, a big one does make a better doorstop.

John — Publishers Marketplace has done an excellent job of establishing itself as the clearing house for book publishing industry news, sales statistics, and analysis. Quite brilliant and well worth the money for those who want and need what they deliver.

Anne — You are so right about how all types of media have to keep tweaking their products — we really are in a vortex of change right now. By the way, I actually have a 2005 Webster’s College Dictionary! Can’t say I use it every day, but it does come in handy for Scrabble. Not as good a doorstop as the OED, though.

By: Mark Sedenquist

Mark Sedenquist — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 19:19:51 +0000

@Peter, Actually, these days I am far more likely to learn and/or or see “new” words (to me) via news alerts sent via Twitter. Breaking news pretty much arrives at my desktop via Twitter and other social media — I look at the newspapers for the editorials (but less and less every day) and the… comics.

Like Anne, I’ve been involved in some element of the news print business since my stint as editor of my high school newspaper (a few too many decades ago) and I tend to resist the rising tide of change as much as anyone, but the newspapers that I’ve held dear over the years are, for the most part, only a whisper of what they once were.

Magazines on the other hand still are a vital part of my weekly read — but even those tend to be tightly focused on my professional interests — “American Road”, “Overland Journal” and “Via”. I still get the “Atlantic Monthly” and some other slightly less intellectual rags, “Jazz Notes”, “Newsweek” and the like but they capture my attention less and less.

This is an interesting time to be in the business of publishing original articles and other forms of content. And “the ride” continues.

Mark

By: Anne Sponholtz

Anne Sponholtz — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 18:49:40 +0000

With ink in my veins most of my life, I found it sad to see the beginning of the end for many newspapers. Many of those on the road to failure so quickly embraced the Internet, only to discover it would be the kiss of death, failing to understand how to integrate the Internet and utilize it to enhance their existing product.. The greatest failing may have been failure to hit the “refresh” button for their newspapers.

This article was a great read, lots of fun and right on target. And how true it is that all media today, even Web publications, must continue tweaking their products.

Raise your hand if you have a hard-covered dictionary or thesaurus on your bookshelves that is less than 15 years old.

By: John Olsen

John Olsen — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 18:19:24 +0000

Good article. Charging for targeted delivery of something that could be found for free is a viable market. The old adage that “Time is money” still holds true. Maybe more so today. Add some analysis on top of it and you sweeten the deal.