Corey Vilhauer at Black Marks on Wood Pulp as an extremely thoughtful post on the joys of reading a good newspaper and how the Sioux Falls Argus Leader is, in his opinion, not a good newspaper.
An excerpt:
First of all, instead of improving the quality of the writing, the Argus hasdumbed it down. Instead of writing about things that a newspaper readerwould care about, the topics are geared towards the average American.An American that gets his or her news from the Internet or from themorning news. Not from a newspaper. In other words, the Argus is searching for an audience that is tuned out to words on paper.
The newspaper isn’t dying. There will always be people who will longfor the touch and smell of the actual, physical product. But it isdwindling. And no amount of change can help that. It’s part of a shiftin culture. Films and theatre didn’t die when the television showed up.But it did dwindle, and a higher level of production was needed to makethem seem more important than their new rival – more prestigious. Moreexclusive. A place for high quality articles and a Sunday morning ritual.
There was a time, not so long ago, when I could not possibly conceive of not getting a morning daily newspaper. I didn't know how an intelligent person could otherwise start the day.
Absolutely. As a fellow news junkie, it's hard to imagine not starting the day with a good dose of current events. More:
But a few years ago, that all stopped. I could get the news I wanted online--for free. The papers are clutter, something that needs to be recycled--a waste of resources. Now, with RSS feeds, I read more news from more sources than ever before. Just not on paper. [Edit: Indeed]
I adapted.
But reading the Argus is no longer a pleasure, as Corey so nicely describes. Reading a major daily still is--the Strib, the Houston Chronicle, the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Boston Globe, the Chicago Tribune, the San Francisco Chronicle, and the KC Star come to mind. [Edit: I agree, all fine papers] Even some midmajor dailes like the Austin American Statesman are enjoyable.
I believe my Boomer generation is the last to be avid newspaper readers. As I've written before, most of the kids I've worked with in political campaigns do not read a physical newspaper.
I'm glad I'm not a newspaper publisher. I don't know what the solution is to bring back readers like me and bring in the kids.
But times have changed, along with the means to obtain information. And perhaps, as Corey suggests, newspapers have changed TOO much for those who truly love them.
Yes. It's all a very scary time for the newspaper industry. The Argus Leader has failed to understand where the future is taking them, and has adopted useless policies to counteract its demise. Even I'm starting to give up on newspapers, which I thought would never happen. I'm a paper clipper / pack rat / historian and prefer hard copies, but I can find news articles in an instant and print them right off from where I sit. Of course there are other forces at work that are forcing the Argus down a path it's not prepared for, but it's also a new digital age, and it's something the Argus has failed to come to terms with.
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