To survive, newspapers will have to learn the era of their ways
WE NEWSPAPER hacks have been deluding ourselves. Outblogged by teen “citizen journalists”, outpaced by 24-hour celebrity-wrestling channels, no amounts of DVD giveaways can keep us relevant into 2006. If papers are to survive, we need to ditch this outdated obsession with “facts” and print the stories that genuinely get people talking.
Read the article by David Rowan, Times (UK).
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It seems to me that too many newspapers have already take up the suggestion to ditch the facts. They have also failed to get their readers involved. People today want to express their opinions. A few papers have caught on like the Globe & Mail in Toronto (CAN) which offers a blog line for immedate comment on stories. But I suspect it may be too little too late. As a former journalist I have lost faith in many of the papers I once respected like the Torono Star which has guided itself willingly into the arms and hearts of every leftist in its market. The only facts which it chooses to publish are those that fit its Liberal-leftist agenda. The blogs have won the battle altough I’m uncertain as to whether they have won the war. With television at least you know you are getting infotainment. Not so with newspapers. I am loathe to predict their demise, but rarely when a horse is last out of the gate, does it win the race.
Comment by Bill McIntyre — January 6, 2006 @ 12:03 am
The Times vs Bloggers
Recently, Daily Ablution blogger Scott Burgess was told by a Times journalist he contacted that "I am not supposed to have contact with bloggers". This blanking of bloggers seems rather curious, given that the Times itself has its own Typepad…
Trackback by Frank notes — January 12, 2006 @ 12:32 pm