Money | 03/14/2009 6:00 am
Technology Kills Newspapers: Now What?
Editor’s Note: Molly Wood is an executive editor and on-camera personality at CNETTV.com. Molly hosts the weekly Buzz Report video blog, a sort of "Daily Show" for tech news, and co-hosts the hilarious "Gadgettes" podcast, which proves that girls can (and should!) be geeks, too.
The news about newspapers has been unavoidable in the past few weeks, with stories on everything from the insane cost of printing and publishing some newspapers to the extremely imminent death of others.
As someone who went from journalism school to a wire service to a website, I can’t help but feel slightly culpable — but I also feel protective of newspapers and the services they can provide to a community and a country. Some would argue, as my colleague Tom Merritt does in this week’s Buzz Report video, that the Internet is merely a delivery mechanism that doesn’t have to fundamentally change the way reporting and writing are carried out.
Sometimes, I think that’s true — there is amazing journalism happening on the Web, here at wowOwow.com, at Salon, at Huffington Post, at CNET, at Perez Hilton (OK, just kidding). On the other hand, blogs are easy to start and even easier to abandon, and the institution of a newsroom can provide air cover for deep digging that isn’t necessarily available at every online publication, as well as the legitimacy that gets you access to the really good sources.
I hope we can see the difference between publishing technology and the intellectual pursuit of journalism as we cast aside our newspapers for netbooks and Kindles
And in other news this week, I hope that a new Apple netbook, should it appear in the near future, be a whole lot better than the new Shuffle they just announced. More on that in the video. Enjoy!
Got thoughts on the death of the newspaper? E-mail me! molly.wood@cbs.com.
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44 Reader Comments (so far…) Sign In or Register to comment
Personally I like having that paper newspaper in my hand. I can keep whatever article(s) I want and know where they are…..on the internet there is just sooooooo much that I forget where I saw this or that. Of course the internet is good as it provides me a more wide range scope of just what is going on. I can just hunt and peck.
Long live journalism…..but no rags…..and I really want the no slanted, no bias approach please.
I see where the Washington Post has ridded itself of the Financial Section. Our local paper keeps shrinking is size of both content and the actual size of the paper in hand. I think it is too bad. And, who will keep an eye on the local issues at hand?
I agree with Charlie Rose…..newspaper/coffee/kitchen table in the a.m.
I don’t know Rocky. I just love the print, the font, pages, etc. Leisurely sitting at the table with coffee and paper in hand, marking it, ripping something out…seems so much easier to me.
Just like books, I will stay with them as long as I can.
Beau, I have been saying that for a long time. If the Real Reporters had done their job properly, we wouldn’t be stuck in Iraq because they would have called the Bush administration out on their mis-representations. I think one major reason we have so few Journalists (in the strongest sense of the word) is the major outlets are owned by corporations and/or people like Rupert Murdoch. I distinctly remember people like Cronkite, Roger Mudd and Ed Newman warning about this happening way back when it started.
Love your expression, "schlock jock". I will remember that one…..
Diana …
I feel like I am reluctant part of the death knell for a dying breed. . our beloved newspapers. We remember when our newspapers were healthy - well fleshed out, solid, intelligent, a source of interest and knowledge. Part of our family, we looked forward to their arrival eagerly. Each and every day a gift had arrived that could be read at will, lounging in any position with that cup of coffee, and just the feel and heft of the paper in our hands.
But suddenly, we saw the first evidence - so much like that of a dying patient. We watched the newspaper begin to get thin . . and then almost skin and bones. There was slippage in content, parts were removed one after another. The newspaper staff became skeleton size. The many smaller newspapers throughout the country died quietly, most without notice. Large death notices have been more prevalent as papers that have been with us for a century or more quickly have come to an end.
Some still remain, but most look like they are not long for this world. Our generation mourns - and rightly so. But in our world change is rampant. Out with the old, in with the new - and then the newer. Why now - with the texting - you don’t even have to write whole sentences; you don’t even have to write whole words. Just single letters will do. Reading, truly reading? Passe. People want instant news. Big headlines will do. Or some are taken in by the loud tumult and the shouting from the rent-a-pundits who have never heard of balanced coverage, but convince with slanted coverage delivered in high-pitched voices and quick answers to about anything.
Please God let the New York Times in newpaper form hold in while I am alive … but that is too much to ask. And so I believe that there will be a whole generation of us who will be grieving - and rightly so. As sorry as I am to say it, we are seeing the last days, the last years of what was part-and-parcel of our daily lives - our newspapers. Seeing the projected substitutions, I would say we have a right to mourn.
I was validated, Joan, when Charlie Rose very sadly said a few months ago to a guest, that he wasn’t willing to give up his coffee with paper in the a.m. The thing that really bothers me is: how are we going to 1. Keep an eye on the local mayor. 2. Look at the obits. 3. Movie/comic section. 4. Local(and I mean really local) letters to the editor. There are certain subjects and issues that people want access to without having to go find a computer and access it. Now, I must admit one thing…I am not about to learn about a Kindle for the reason I don’t want to. I have a full library with hundreds of books. And , what I don’t have, I can go to the local library or a branch and find what I’m looking for.
You and I come from a generation of benchmark journalists. Great writers and thinkers. The words in print that encourage us to grab our scissors to cut the article/commentary out and put it on our fridge. Great ads. Pictures of the blushing bride. The comics. And, Joan, I am not willing to give all that up. No. I’m not ready…..
Agree totally … but would add that we will see - in fact, already have seen - a general deterioration of the quality of writing in general (a few papers excepted) … the quality of writing that made us want to read no matter what the subject as we gloried in the phrasing, the choice of words, the wide variety of subjects.
The Kindle. The name itself? Doesn’t the name itself turn you off completely? A huge mistake. But I don’t want to lounge on the sofa with another plastic version of what looks like an Etch-a-Sketch like a little kid. Frankly, the feel of plastic - as against the touch of good paper and text, the turning of the page and looking forward to what may lie ahead, becomes a plastic mechanical toy. A book is more than words. There is the look and touch of the cover. Have you felt some of the almost velvety paper covers that entice you to pick them up NOW? So much is the psychological effect the book itself - all its elements - has on us. At times, I am so stunned by the writing that I may go to the back cover and the author’s photo a dozen times - usually saying to myself: I can’t believe that person can have so much depth, be so talented. There is something so teasing of having bookmarked a page and seeing the bookmark sticking out, enticing you in its own way to pick the book up and continue. As a book addict, I believe I could write an essay on the appeal of the real thing. At a bookstore, I enjoy seeing the piles of books all saying "pick me, pick me!" I love cover design and deep borders. What does one do about the coffee table size books with the king-size photos that would be nothing in a cameo version?
Doesn’t all of this - and so much more - books and newspapers in print form — seem beyond sad. Most will replaced with NOT something better but something so much lesser. If mute accepting is keeping up with the times — I will say that I do not like the times. Not at all.
Diana - my life work has been libraries and non-profit work and writing books - on the board of all Chicago libraries early on - and now concentrating on making one the best. Libraries will not go away, they will assume a different function. And are. We are here to give the taxpapers what they want so we can have huge attendance and it goes up constantly and more cards are taken. Any book we don’t have - we can get it from all over the country so we don’t have to be a depository of not-used books that take space and keep bright looking current ones. Medical books have to be weeded and gone as people could be killed with old editions, and so many other sections like travel are weeded constantly to keep only the latest so not to deceive people. So much else. We have 350 magazine subscriptions - down - but if they are not used, we change them out. As most info that is in books is also available on computer, we have more computers all the time for kids, for adults who are proficient = but if they are not, we have classes free to teach. People wait every morning out side the door to use them. Every sort of amenities, especially to sight impaired, shut ins, tutoring, and more programs for adult and kids to open their worlds. The trick there is to move with the times. If a book is not used in 5 years, it is sold at used book sales as we constantly have to have room for the thousand a month that replace them. No more putting them in plastic in the library and putting security tags on — it is all done out of house so we just have to put them on the shelves s0 we have all new books the first day they are out. Most of my books as they are specific unusual non-fiction come from other libraries by truck - but come so fast it is a miracle. When our re-vamp of the library is done — I am kingpin in that - it should be inviting more than now and the warmth will draw people in. All libraries have to have security cameras now and those mirrors as people are not mannered and try to steel and make love in the library stacks. You would be surprised what goes on and usually you have to hire unobtrusive security people and try to keep police out — but this is not known by general public. A library is heavily used by homeless of course, as a warm place so there are rules —if they stay awake, they can stay. No sleeping. No making out in the evergreens — the nicest place in town and the things done are an eye-opener. But it is hush-hush.
I don’t look thru the shelves. I order by computer all my books and DVDs, books on tape, the works. I get instant notification when they arrive - usually within days in a metro area - and often have read them weeks before NYT reviews them.
I think it is the loviest total service there is in this world — everything but meals on wheels but they tell you where to get them, what nursing home to go to, and what doctor. It is heaven. And I am there just about every day — and am buttonholed on all sorts of things - desired, wanted, and knowledgable. All eyes. Instant gratification of almost all my needs - as my husband would say. He doesn’t use it as he uses as very specialized library that caters to his interests.
And I meant to say FONT when I said TEXT —yes, "the look" the layout mean a lot. I correspond with authors, catch their errors in writing, and we write. The added interest I have. . and they can’t believe me. My outreach is very large. I have a book I worked on with a well-known in business author in galley form that should be coming up — green housing — but title has been altered so can’t tell you when or the final name. I believe that one must never sit at home — so I have a finger in all sorts of pots and always have, ready to make the next move which could be in a different direction. How can one learn — and help others - without getting out there??? I do what it takes. Joan Ganz’s husband and I worked together on LaSalle Street - financial street - in Chicago in early days - 6 feet apart — and I follow his career so closely as one can start small and like you and me and become a billionaire that he is. Fascinating. Life is wonderful.