The media revolution has reached a new and important stage: The American public is being let in on the discussion. In the last two weeks' articles in the New York Times and Time Magazine have helped push the question of "whither news media" before a much bigger audience. I say it's about time. Of course, it's not as if the industry's increasingly dire business outlook has been a secret. The Chapter 11 bankruptcy filings of the Tribune Co. and the Minneapolis Star Tribune were plenty telling. So was the Detroit newspapers' decision to limit home delivery to three days a……
Tag: newspapers
LA Times editor
Journalists, accountants and bankruptcy experts found accord Thursday on the No. 1 issue facing Tribune Company as it begins its Chapter 11 bankruptcy adventure: It isn't owner Sam Zell. It isn't the company's huge indebtedness. The question, said Los Angeles Times editor Russ Stanton, is "whether this is a viable business." In one way, Stanton told a gathering at USC's Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism, the answer is already clear. "I think big-city newspapers, the way we have known them, are not long for this world, as they're now configured."……
It’s about time newspapers started fighting back
The editor of the Tampa Tribune, Janet Coats, got the attention of her Facebook friends last Saturday when she posted this message: "Janet is preparing to fire a shot over the bow." I figured Janet's staff at the Tribune was about to score a scoop in the Sunday paper. But a quick check of Tampa Bay Online didn't turn up anything that matched her provocative post. Then I saw it. "This Newspaper Is Fighting Back." And before I read on, a quick word came to mind: "Yes!!"……
In financial crisis, the objective story shows its limits
The financial press has been taking it on the chin lately for its coverage of the nation's economic mess. Some of it's well-earned. At least several financial writers have acknowledged they should have asked more questions about the long period of easy credit, soaring asset prices and ever-growing leverage on Wall Street. To my eye, the criticism is overcooked. Even a casual reader of the business press the last few years would have known that big trouble lurked. The two dailies showing up on my doorstep in Washington the last 13 years, the Washington Post and New York Times, regularly……