I recently attended a conference about new forms of storytelling for newspapers. This included, of course, changes aimed for the digital version: blogs, podcasts, vodcasts and the like. Speakers also addressed new ways of presenting news and information in the dead-trees (print) version of the newspaper.
At first I was quite taken and excited by the approaches, but some of the glow has waned for me. As I watched the front page of my local daily (The Florida Times-Union) slowly morph from a news-filled space to one filled with teases to American Idol, lists, blurbs, pullouts, links to online surveys for reader input, etc., it occurred to me that many alternate story forms meant a dumbing down of the information, much like the comic books of classic novels I read in my youth.
Newspapers are at a difficult crossroads. On one hand, if they keep to the traditional narrative (OK, a few embellishments are allowed), they may well lose readers as the intellectually lazy (note, I didn't say dumber) generations behind the boomers hit newspaper subscription age. If circulation figures continue their downward spiral, more and more papers will bite the dust.
On the other hand, if they continue the ALT/dumbing down of the content, not only will they lose their souls, but the moves will probably hasten the decline in the print product, not save it. Maybe that's inevitable and OK. As I have said before, I believe most print newspapers will continue to shrink and end up as weekly products that largely summarize and provide links to web sites, in much the same way TV Guide drives traffic to television.
Unfortunately I have no recommendation other than think v-e-r-y carefully before you buy into the ALTs (some of which have been around and infrequently used for decades, but that's for another post).
1 comment:
It's scary.
It feels like journalism is dying. All anyone seems interested in are puff pieces meant to distract and entertain.
One can compare it to the pre-labor unionizing pre-yellow journalism of the industrial age.
However, the difference being that we are a much more educated people.
We know where to find information and we have a variety of useful information readily available to us, but Americans don't seem to care.
Do you think we have it to good?
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