Despite the what the e-mails fluttering through The Think Tank’s inbox this morning suggested, I rather enjoyed most of Gene Lyons‘ column this morning in the Arkansas Democrat Gazette on the future of newspapers. I particularly liked his account of what he reads; what his wife reads; and why. I like knowing these things about people in the same way I like knowing what you had for dinner at a restaurant. It’s personal without being invasive, and it’s interesting.
There is some similarity between Mr. Lyons’ reading habits and my own.
Since childhood, I’ve begun each day with the sports page, reading mainly about local teams. To keep up with the Cubs, I read the Chicago Tribune online; for the Red Sox, The Boston Globe. Although a fan, my wife rarely opens the sports page, counting on me to keep her informed. Otherwise, I read local and state news, although by no means all. Not unless it involves something amusing or appalling, like a police chief with no pants on or a shoot-out between aldermen. A zoning dispute in a city 150 miles away? No way.
I open to the sports page first, I always have. I read the Globe every morning, particularly during baseball season. And I love the local content features, although there is far too little of it. But then my enjoyment in the column waned.
Mr. Lyons, like John Brummett, Jeff Hankins and Kane Webb before him, couldn’t help but take a swipe at bloggers.
He writes,
Internet users, however, basically refuse to pay. So far, online advertising rates come nowhere near paying for the costs of running a news organization. Many bloggers and Internet commentators smugly anticipating the death of newspapers-there’s a definite generational edge to the rivalry-are essentially parasites.
Dammit this annoys me. I don’t know how many different ways to say it, but bloggers aren’t the problem. Newspaper writers should be furstrated at three entities: 1) Newspapers themselves for not recognizing the influence of the Internet and modernizing the business model; 2) Google, which grabbed newspaper content for free (although they do pay AP) and developed a sophisticated search engine to get it to the consumer quickly and effectively; and 3) Craig’s List, which took free classifieds to the Internet.
Just for fun, imagine if Walter Hussman had taken the free classifieds idea (a strategy used effectively by Mr. Hussman during the newspaper war with the Arkansas Gazette), adapted it for the online space and beat Craig Newmark to the punch. Would the Dem Gaz editorial writers and editorial board be hating on the Internet then? I doubt it.
As I’ve said before, there’s not a blogger I know or read that desires for the death of the newspaper. I also realize bloggers are an easy target, especially for newspaper writers. Bring it, I guess.
[...] Blogger Blake Rutherford takes apart the latest sad sad reflection on the sad death of newspapers from sad columnist Gene Lyons, who is very very saddened by these latest sad developments in his [...]
You know, you say that you don’t know any bloggers who desire the death of newspapers, but the more we discuss it, the more I wonder if it wouldn’t be best. At the very least, it would strip away the publishing infrastructure that underwrites this constant stream of sad little “Whither newspapers?” columns, in which aged newspapermen wring their hands and bemoan their impotence in the face of changing times.
What kills me about the “parasites” charge is that these newspaper guys are looking at what bloggers do today, right now, and declaring themselves superior to that. Well, good for you.
But perhaps someone should point out that blogging and web journalism is still in its infancy — we’re only, what, a decade into this era? — while they’ve had hundreds of years to perfect their model. They assume that blogs and web journalism will always and forever look EXACTLY like they do now, and they will never change or mature or evolve. They assume this because they lack the ability to imagine anything more than what they already think they know, which is precisely what got them into this goddamn mess to begin with.
Wow, really, Gene? Your newspaper, your multimillion dollar operation with hundreds (thousands?) of employees dedicated to producing a daily product, manages to out-report me sitting at my little dining room table with a laptop computer? Well, again, good for you. I hope that makes you feel better about your failing enterprise.
It’s roughly equivalent to me going to the playground and challenging a little kid to pick up a big 100 lb. rock, then when the kid can’t lift it and I can, I feel great about myself for being such a big man. Bully for me!
Then the kid comes back in a few years, much bigger and stronger, and beats me the hell down for acting like such a stupid asshole.
So I’m just about done shedding tears for all these newspaper people and their monumental self-regard.
D.