OK, I have been getting some feedback that I am discounting the evolution of the online newspaper's video and multimedia capabilities. Seems that a lot of the larger papers are "re-training" their photographers to create video. OK, I get that's where the web is heading, but I think, once again, that newspapers as the last harbinger of in-depth analysis and journalism have an opportunity or even responsibility to maintain that role. If they stop analyzing and providing depth, what happens to our society? Who will fill that role? CNN? I doubt it! CBS? Not likely! It's like everything is converging into one giant TV station. As the devices get smaller and more mobile, we run the risk of jettisoning the core of our social and educational systems--literacy.
Sam Zell is a great example of what's WRONG with the direction papers are headed. He is selling off the very core of what made the Tribune Co. valuable. He is gutting the newsroom, selling infrastucture (OK, that might be right), trying to save himself. If I ran a paper, I would return to the core values that were used in the founding of said paper, and build the distribution and revenue models around today's realities. I would NOT kill the news functions. I would FOCUS on them. Grrrr. This makes me crazy!!
I mean, I guess the alternative is to cede the whole landscape to CNN and Entertainment Tonight! Sad.
Posts
0 comments:
Post a Comment