- The Chicago Tribune declared bankruptcy, throwing the fates of America's most respected newspapers into question.
- The New York Times used its own brand new building as collateral on a loan.
- The Detroit newspapers decide home delivery is a thrice a week option
- Small town newspapers close their doors.
- Washington bureaus from papers all over the country continue to shrink or disappear
I could fill this blog with sob stories, or with worries that storied newspapers will tell their last.
But, despite the obvious snark in the Onion article, which declared "Dying Newspaper Trend Buys Nation's Newspapers Three More Weeks," there is a legitimate truth. Newspapers cover the death of newspapers, and while I might look on with horror and desperately try to suppress the panic that comes from watching my plans grow vague and hazy, I have to admit, it's a great story.
I get to watch--and be part of-- the evolution of something that, I believe, will be, ultimately, fascinating.
There is a real need for news. Whether it be to revel in victory (photo essay of people waiting in line for the Nov. 5 papers to follow) to follow, or mourn a tragedy, or to understand the intricacies of scandal and failure, there is a need for reporters, writers, and editors.
Despite our low job approval ratings, I'm not sure readers are ready to give up on journalist-driven news and opinion all together.
The question is, how to make sure people see that, and how to profit off of the way readers consume their news.
There is an answer. There has to be. And this evolution is something that I will tell my children about. Not only so they can laugh at their old-fashioned mother, but also so that they understand the evolution of industry that will be shaping, exposing, and probing their world.
Watching my industry -- or any industry for that matter -- struggle is painful. But I can't help thinking about the Phoenix and how the bird, who combusts and then is born from ashes enchanted me when I first discovered it in E. Nesbit's books.
In reading parts of the book, this line seems particularly apropos:
"It was felt that Robert, as the pet of the Phoenix, ought to have the last melancholy pleasure of choosing the materials of its funeral pyre."
It seems to me that the reporters, the ones who are still proud to call themselves ink stained wretches, should be the ones who figure out how to let this incarnation of news die, and how to facilitate the next one rising from the ashes. Or, to keep the analogy withing this particular phoenix mythology, they should be the ones to build the pyre, but then to throw the golden egg back into the flames.
The death and rebirth of news might be one of the biggest story of my time. And I'm glad that it's one in which I can participate.
0 Responses to 'Haze, Hope, and a Phoenix'