Having been around the odd world of print journalism (although I live it everyday) the last couple of days at the Tennessee Press Association’s Winter conference, I cannot help but be reflective about the future of the printed news page and where news is going.
There is little talk about web-based news, even though I strongly believe that we are in choppy waters. And I realized something that Brittney Gilbert said in passing at NiT had a lot of weight. In posting about an entry written by Sharon Cobb about the recent statements regarding the New York Times Publisher speaking of the Goliath paper not being in print within five years (which I think Arthur Sulzberger said in a throw away statement, it still made many of us pause) one can’t help but sit around throwing it around the old cranium.
The Times, in fact, has doubled its online readership to 1.5 million a day to go along with its 1.1 million subscribers for the print edition.
Sulzberger says the New York Times is on a journey that will conclude the day the company decides to stop printing the paper. That will mark the end of the transition. It’s a long journey, and there will be bumps on the road, says the man at the driving wheel, but he doesn’t see a black void ahead.
But that wasn’t made me start thinking. It was this sentence by Gilbert that I’ve been chewing on for the last couple of days.
I can’t tell you the last time I read an actual paper.
And here is the thing. I realized I’m the same way. I peruse the NYT, The Washington Post and countless other on-line news sources (not just blogs, which tends as a rule to lend itself to personal punditry and grassroots efforts to effect change for individual causes many times.)
But as I sit here in the early morning hours at the Sheraton in Nashville, waiting for classes today that are about Newspaper Leadership, I’m also going to one class of several that will be dealing with the transition to on-line media where ad-generated content can continue as local news sources will also corner the market in an economically viable venture where my publisher will make money on the new digital media. Newspapers are a business.
We don’t like to say that, but we are.
And when I brought up Sulzberger’s quote to a few people in the news biz yesterday, it was odd. There was a huge sense of, “What does the Times know?” sort of attitude. I think that’s the wrong approach. I think we need to be talking about this and not just shutting it down before a dialogue begins. But that’s apparently just me.
Cobb makes a good point.
Ironically, it is probably the smaller papers that will survive.
She and I agree. But we (meaning small news outlets) cannot be lackadaisical about the new media revolution either. She and I are news hounds and we are utilizing the Internet for our news Jones. I remember about 25 years ago, I asked my parents for a subscription to the New York Times. I got it for three months. It was usually two days behind, but I loved the excitement of the larger newspaper, the fact that I felt more a part of the world. But the two day lapse was torturous and I didn’t extend it further after it expired.
Cobb goes on with this statement which really resonated with me as well.
Having said everything above, I would be a liar if I didn’t tell you I read the Washington Post, New York Times, Jerusalem Post, BBC and the Tennessean when they come on-line around 2AM. I feel it important as a political/social blogger to have the latest news up for my readers when they wake up. So yeah, I cheat. There aren’t any newsstands on corners in Nashville. And even if there was a newsstand on every corner, would I leave my toasty condo with my dog lying on my feet to go out in 20 degree weather to purchase these papers? Truthfully, not bloody likely.
So some of us news folks in rural community like myself are seeking that fine line. Working at my newspaper is what pays the rent, campers. But I hope I have enough vision to see that there has to be a marriage of both digital media and newsprint. Many news outlets are doing this.
Alas, many are not.
And as I sit here, seeing publishers and editors from papers across the state converge for a weekend, I can’t help wonder if I’m the only one pondering this.
And as a side-note, head over to Frank Strovel’s and see what he’s going through this morning. For some reason, I think it’s very telling and although he’s in the broadcast news medium, I think it’s worthy to see what we guys go through sometimes.
