Comments on: Newspapers and tough love http://www.buzzmachine.com/2006/09/04/newspapers-and-tough-love/ by Jeff Jarvis Tue, 02 Dec 2008 00:22:01 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5.1 By: BuzzMachine » Blog Archive » Starship Telegraph http://www.buzzmachine.com/2006/09/04/newspapers-and-tough-love/#comment-126468 BuzzMachine » Blog Archive » Starship Telegraph Thu, 07 Sep 2006 15:31:03 +0000 http://www.buzzmachine.com/index.php/2006/09/04/newspapers-and-tough-love/#comment-126468 [...] The Telegraph also announced layoffs as part of this process. It’s a necessity of the new economic realities of news and also of the opportunity for new efficiencies. Says Roy:There is a mixture of apprehension and enthusiasm for the new regime, but several of them are also very upset because of the announcement that more than 50 people will be made redundant. . . . It is sobering to learn, even after the passing of hot metal printing 20 years ago, that many articles currently pass through 12 pairs of hands before reaching the reader. That is obviously unnecessary and a key reason for job losses. [...] [...] The Telegraph also announced layoffs as part of this process. It’s a necessity of the new economic realities of news and also of the opportunity for new efficiencies. Says Roy:There is a mixture of apprehension and enthusiasm for the new regime, but several of them are also very upset because of the announcement that more than 50 people will be made redundant. . . . It is sobering to learn, even after the passing of hot metal printing 20 years ago, that many articles currently pass through 12 pairs of hands before reaching the reader. That is obviously unnecessary and a key reason for job losses. [...]

]]> By: Danny L. McDaniel http://www.buzzmachine.com/2006/09/04/newspapers-and-tough-love/#comment-124454 Danny L. McDaniel Tue, 05 Sep 2006 00:12:31 +0000 http://www.buzzmachine.com/index.php/2006/09/04/newspapers-and-tough-love/#comment-124454 I must be the only person in the United States who believes newspapers are not relegated to history. The newspaper industry is still a vibrant sector to invest. I still don't understand the necessity to break up Knight-Ridder for the sake of investors. The circulation numbers are still impressive although greatly down the past several decades, and I believe the "golden age" for newspapers is just beginning. This is not to say the weblogs and the internet haven't hurt newspapers because they have. I see newspapers keeping weblogs honesty and actually helping newspapers reach the segment of the population that need and take serious daily news. It is true that newspapers are the functioning part of American democracy in search of information, and weblogs are information in search of democracy. Both medium have much to learn from each other and over the next five years will learn to compete as well as compliment each other. The days of the family owned newspapers are long over. The Hearsts, Scripps, Gannetts, Grahams are now for graduate journalism students and the history books. But the lessons each gave can still be utilized in todays highly competeitive newspaper industry, which is what a free-market economy is all about. Can anyone name a cable news show that doesn't quote several newspapers daily and have multiple reporters and editors on for guests? Similiar to the two major political parties, newspapers are often describes as irrelevant and dying, sometimes by the very people who work, operate and write for them, but they are still needed and desired by the public to achieve the nations agenda. I know that instaneous news via a sorted array of high-tech gadgetry is here to stay. But fear not, when the Generation Xers reach their 40s in a decade or more and those tiny screens get harder and harder to see their only cure will be eyeglasses and newspapers. Danny L. McDaniel Lafayette, Indiana I must be the only person in the United States who believes newspapers are not relegated to history. The newspaper industry is still a vibrant sector to invest. I still don’t understand the necessity to break up Knight-Ridder for the sake of investors. The circulation numbers are still impressive although greatly down the past several decades, and I believe the “golden age” for newspapers is just beginning.

This is not to say the weblogs and the internet haven’t hurt newspapers because they have. I see newspapers keeping weblogs honesty and actually helping newspapers reach the segment of the population that need and take serious daily news. It is true that newspapers are the functioning part of American democracy in search of information, and weblogs are information in search of democracy. Both medium have much to learn from each other and over the next five years will learn to compete as well as compliment each other.

The days of the family owned newspapers are long over. The Hearsts, Scripps, Gannetts, Grahams are now for graduate journalism students and the history books. But the lessons each gave can still be utilized in todays highly competeitive newspaper industry, which is what a free-market economy is all about. Can anyone name a cable news show that doesn’t quote several newspapers daily and have multiple reporters and editors on for guests? Similiar to the two major political parties, newspapers are often describes as irrelevant and dying, sometimes by the very people who work, operate and write for them, but they are still needed and desired by the public to achieve the nations agenda.

I know that instaneous news via a sorted array of high-tech gadgetry is here to stay. But fear not, when the Generation Xers reach their 40s in a decade or more and those tiny screens get harder and harder to see their only cure will be eyeglasses and newspapers.

Danny L. McDaniel
Lafayette, Indiana

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