Archive for December 4th, 2008
Really Sad News from the World of Newspapers
A friend who works in newspapers pointed me to this item in Editor and Publisher — as the economy continues to languish in recession, there’s speculation that some cities may be without daily papers by 2010.
That’s staggering to me. I grew up in a city with two papers (the Seattle Times and Seattle Post-Intelligencer), and I believe the papers pushed each other to greatness and helped define the city. Newspapers are essential to articulating what makes cities so unique. During the Katrina aftermath, I went to the online version of the Times-Picayune to read heartbreaking yet compelling accounts of what was happening. There was great reporting from a variety of sources, to be sure, but getting the New Orleanian perspective was crucial to understanding the magnitude of loss and the possibility of rebirth there.
It’s hard to imagine any city without a paper to capture its essence. We’re in an age where social media can step in and fill the vacuum that a paper closing its doors would leave, but it’s still shocking to conceive of this possibility.
