The biggest difference between the auto industry and journalism right now is that nobody thinks journalism is worth the trouble and expense of a taxpayer-funded bailout.
At The New York Times, Maureen Dowd discusses a preposterous idea that nonetheless has come to fruition — the outsourcing of newspaper work to India, a survival tactic that Denver Post honcho Dean Singleton finds appealing and Mo’ clearly does not.
Closer to home, Ralph Routon of the Colorado Springs Independent opines about the decline of the Gazette, the Bibleburg daily we both slaved for back in the Seventies. This is something of the pot calling the kettle black — the Indy isn’t what it once was, either, and it never approached the muckraking quality of Westword or New Times, preferring instead to concentrate on its annual “best of” issues and making snarky comments about the competition. But I still pick up an Indy come Thursday, if I happen to be out and about. We croaked our subscription to the G quite some time ago.
These days I get my news online, from a variety of sources, some better than others. A few are extensions of traditional, high-powered news outlets, like The Times, which is still just about the only place you can find a story like this one about retired Gen. Barry McCaffrey, the one-man military-industrial complex. Others are lefty blogs and online magazines, a few of which I still get delivered in hard-copy form. I even check the Gazette‘s website from time to time, because it’s free, which is about what it’s worth most days.
If I’m on the road, I usually buy a copy of the local paper and thumb through it over breakfast. It’s almost always a depressing experience. There are a few local bits scattered here and there, but your “local” paper these days is mostly a collection of canned features and wire-service news that was hot online the day before, but is as cold as last year’s horseshit by the time it sits unfolded next to your oatmeal and OJ. TV fashioned the newspaper’s casket and the Internet is busily nailing down the lid. Reporters and editors are following Linotype operators and printer’s devils into the hellbox of history.
Any of you still take a local paper? And if so, are you still driving that ’64 Bel-Air, writing letters on a Smith-Corona portable and waiting for The Beatles to get back together?
Mad Blog Media 
I just got back from Corvallis, where I was visiting my aunt and uncle. I didn’t get a ride in, which is mighty disappointing. I love riding the gravel roads in McDonald (MacDonald?) Forest or heading south on Bell Fountain Road. It was dry and windless. Go figure.
However, I did go to Friday Night’s Corvallis Christmas Parade. The republicans seemed to be over-represented in the parade. Most “floats” were just a pickup truck owned by some business doing advertising. The non-profit and charity groups were walking. I was hoping to see some Ron Paultards. For some dumb reason, Comcast was represented by some installer driving a van. He was heckled by many and took it in good stride. I hope he got some overtime out of it. Some sort of gay and lesbian high school student group had a “float” that was decorated with Jeff Gordon rainbows. Nobody clapped for the kids, but nobody boo-ed them either. Everything just got real quiet when they went by. It was surreal. Some high school kid sitting in front of me was sucking on a Hershey’s chocolate syrup squeeze bottle. Me thinks he as getting a little drunk.
I read my uncle’s copy of the Corvallis doggy house-training aid. It typically takes about 5 minutes. If you don’t care about OSU Beaver sports, there isn’t much in the paper.
The town is in mourning cuz the Ducks crushed the Beavs hopes of a Rose Bowl. Neither team played any defense.
I absolutely love sitting down to a cup of coffee with a hardcopy newspaper. And I do it maybe twice, every other year, when I’m traveling somewhere and have two hours to sit and think while my wife is in the hotel room, doing her hair.
Like you, I usually pick up the local rag… and after fifteen minutes, go back and pick up a Times. It’s worth the extra two bits for a paper that is guaranteed 100% “Cathy”-free. (And the odds that a small time paper carries “Non-Sequitur” are slim and none, and Slim just left town.)
The downside to the electronic medium is that it’s harder to just browse. In two seconds, you can scan an entire page and decide whether to actually read any of it. That way, you eventually find the little gem on page C17 about whatever esoteric topic float your boat. The web is a bit of sensory overload, and you’re more likely to stick to the headlines. If you thought that USA Today was not good for journalism and reporting, as it dumbed-down the entire industry, well the web is that on steroids.
I’m not so sure that newspapers will completely go away. There’s still a very small market for airline travelers, hotel guests, coffee shops and college libraries. I believe the cadets at West Point still have the Times delivered to their rooms, and the plebes are expected to read it and be conversant on its contents before the breakfast formation. But the numbers are definitely against them.
Sorry… typing too fast… brain can’t keep up… third paragraph: meant, you can scan a real paper newspaper.
Aha, so there you are. I’ll be right back after I fix the blogroll.
Our local rag is good for five or ten minutes on a good day, and is the only way to keep up with local events here in the middle of nowhere. When I became chair of a county commission, I figured I better get a subscription so I wouldn’t be blind-sided by events too often. I’d use their electronic version, except it doesn’t contain much except for so many hidden spam links that my employer blocks most of it.
The Albuquerque and Santa Fe papers are more paper for the buck. Of the two, the Albuquerque Journal has more meat on the bones than the New Mexican (sorry, Patrick), at least on Saturdays, when we buy it to read over breakfast burritos. Almost always some nice, diverse op-eds from national columnists. In addition, since newspapers actually seem to care a bit about what they print, the letters to the editor have to be marginally thought through and civilized, unlike some of the flame-bait one finds on the Web nowdays.
I get the Saturday and Sunday editions of the local paper. The effect of the internet is that I mainly look for local news. I wonder why local papers don’t focus on that. I get the impression that people who look to the internet for the news are looking for national and international level news, and the internet news servers do at least a half-assed job providing it. But not the local. What happened at exit 24 on I-83 on Wednesday afternoon that blocked it for 5 hours? What did my state sentator say about the impasse on health legislation that ended the session? That’s the kind of stuff I’ll continue to buy the local paper for as long as they cover it.
The Chicago Trib re-did their layout a few months back. Now it looks like a bad parody of USA Today. It took weeks to find the comics, which now require a 4x magnifier to read. And what’s with Dick Tracy anyway?
Thank god/local deity/force of nature for the Times. I can still hide behind that Gray Lady without shame during my first caffeine and sugar infusion of the day.
Small town paper in south central Wi, losing GM SUV plant in 22 (21, 20, 19…) days.
Janesville Gazette unveiled new angle this year- “local matters”. About the only reason to read it is just that- local, and they do a pretty good job.
National political columnists run daily. In spite of their stated Repub leanings, they are balanced. They jettisonned Coulter and Malkin over the years when they both got too weird- but O’Reilly they kept. Too bad.
Other than that, the thing gets skinnier by the day. I might have the record yesterday covering the whole Sunday edition in less than an hour. Oh well……
Well Pat I have a 1983 RANS Stratus, and a 2004 RANS Fusion that I built up from a discarded frame and fork this summer. I compose all my literary works on this computer. And I know that both George and John are dead, so the Beatles are not getting back together.
And I read the Dallas Morning News every day. I have to admit though that I’m getting less and less for my money. The comics section was just cut by a third, and the classifieds were combined with the business section a couple weeks ago.
I have online subscriptions to the Tucson Citizen.
I also get articles from the online edition of the Albuquerque Journal that my aunt that lives there sends me sometimes.
Opus
Patrick,
Here in the land of McClatchy (five blocks away actually!) I read the hard copy of their fishwrap only on the weekends, and only at the local caffeine dealer. I don’t pay for it, some other dirty fingered coffe-addict does that. If they are reading, muchas gracias senor(ita)! Sadly the news here is that the local daily is slashing staff as their own personal fire sale. Revenue is down. Ad sales are down. And coverage of anything more local than a county away is almost non-existent.
Nothing would make me happier than to see them survive, but with the fact that they are cutting staff, and coverage, it is hard to see the proverbial ‘bright side.’ That being said I have taken a few chances on a local newspaper stand’s convenience of print-on-demand copies of select papers around the globe. A bit hefty on the $$$-side ($6.95 for 50+ pages), but reading about goings-on in Sydney a day BEFORE they are printed here is nice. I wish I could remember the web-address to post for others that offers this fee-based service, but alas I don’t have a copy of the “paper” at hand. The one thing I do like about it, regardless of the cost, was the feeling of the paper in my hand. That is what I may miss with the decline of the American paper.
James
On good weeks, I read local paper (2x week), Austin every day (though many days it’s quite slim and now for sale). The better the weather, the less I read on the weekend and the more I ride and get outside. When forced to travel by air for work, I’ll pick up another paper usually NYT or WSJ. I run a million miles an hour during the week and scan the papers more often than read them. When I get the time, the paper is a good way to relax and share stories with hubby. And I love, love, love the crossword puzzles!!
My local paper has been in a full nose dive since Gannett bought it out. This summer they canned the weekly Outside section, which in Burlington VT, constitutes about nine tenths of the local news. I’ve been boycotting the print edition, and only occasionally stop by their Pluck powered trash can of a web-site to see how badly the headlines are misspelled.
I live outside Aspen CO where the formerly reputable local, The Aspen Times, was absorbed by Swift Communications (the Clear Channel of print media?), Swift has bought the local papers in Aspen, Snowmass, Carbondale, Glenwood Spgs, Vail. Eagle, Summit Count, Grand Jct. Leadville, and several other CO small and not-so-small towns. Locally, the editorial content of the AT has gone hard right on all local issues, especially a rabid oppo to the ballot issue promoting public funding of local elections. I read the front page stories, scan the obits, and recycle. For a coffee-mug sitdown I go to the NYT online, perhaps in conjunction w/HufPo, TPM, and Firedoglake.
Our local rag was bought by Landmark Community Newspapers. Even the wrapped fish are not happy. ‘Nuff said.
We still do but, perhaps in a sign of declining intelligence (mine) or maybe higher standards, I don’t know which, I don’t read it much. I skim the headlines and the local section called cleverly, the New River Current even though it is decidedly a right-leaning and therefore prejudiced section devoted to spelling and grammatical errors and refusal to state facts that don’t suit the operators convenience. It’s actually a good place to to see local people write in with the real information and they usually print it. This, of course, irritates the editorial board as the information contradicts what they write. But I did say the USUALLY print it.
Where am I at? Blacksburg, VA. We voted in such numbers during the election that we forced the county to go “blue,” the only one in SW VA that did that. That makes the biggest local paper The Roanoke Times. So, our area is a blue dot in a sea of red. That redness is what the Current serves.
Personally, I’d like to save the $200 per year even though that’s not much, every little bit helps. My wife reads a lot of it though so she’d not like that. And considering my DSL habit, I think it’s a fair trade.