Can design save the newspaper?
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- plash0
It is the content that has been compromised.
there are still excellent examples of print media that have a web presence as support. The Guardian and The Economist to name a couple. So isn't it the content that is making papers struggle?
- PonyBoy0
still can't make that horse drink though, Nairn...
... that's all I'm saying. :)
Those regional/local papers etc are going under because people 'choose' to not read them... right? I can't think of any other reason that they'd fail to stay afloat other than the fact people aren't interested in reading them anymore. So - if you cut them slack, make them tax exempt... perhaps even throw them a bone ($)... how will that make people want to suddenly read them again?
- Nairn0
It's not 'dying' though. It's just that the evolution of the delivery systems are out of phase and there's a very real risk that current relatively transparent, contextual forms of news delivery will be superceded by more opaque, shallower pastiches of news.
I dunno. If I want quality news, I go to a newspaper site and read something in-depth. This is fine and functioning for national and international level news, if I refer to a couple of the big brand newspaper sites... but the situation is starker for those regional or local papers with a necessarily smaller budget.
Community and county level news is that which is most at risk and, I think, what your Senator up there is referring to.
The big media congloms can just buy up tomorrow's failing newspaper brands, and they likely will. They'll probably not bother with the less lucrative local stuff though.
- PonyBoy0
If people aren't using something... and it just... 'sits there'... dying...
... i see no need to give it a leg-up.
It's an illogical argument... regardless if I agree w/you that it's sad to see it go... which I do. :)
- plash0
Doesn't content come into the mix somewhere..
example. if you can find great jobs, consistently. does it matter if its from online or print? ..i don't think it does. content sends me to the medium.. you still buy design books. yet a lot of them are available online.
- Nairn0
Surely the established textual-media infrastructure that newspapers represent deserves a leg up whilst it makes its transition? That's all I'm saying.
Newspaper journalists have, for a century now, represented the sharp thin end of comprehensive investigative reportage.
A twittering amateur blogger is not a good replacement for a well-trained, fairly-paid journo.
- (I say this as someone who pretty much abhors journos too - fucking savage egoist vultures that they are...)Nairn
- PonyBoy0
Nairn... you're now discussing two different things...
Getting News... and saving a 'section' of a business that allows folks to get that News...
I don't disagree w/you at all on your assessment of TV media and I even approve of your use of the word 'Aphorism' as it's both appropriate and fun to say...
... but my point is that Newspapers aren't our only means of Journalism / News... there's the web... talk radio... etc - hate on some of it if you like... but at the end of the day - you can't FORCE people to read what you feel is 'good reading'...
... now... getting back to what I was speaking about above - giving newspapers tax exempt status will -not- make people want to read newspapers... thus it's a rather dumb... useless idea.
The old saying 'you can lead a horse to water... blah blah... ' comes to mind.
- Nairn0
I mean, PonyBoy, that the service merits of the industry should be worth fighting for - worth promoting. I'm not saying the form of media itself is due a governmental break (though don't think it's a necessarily a bad idea either), but rather the content and public purpose it serves - be it on paper, on screen or ebook. Televised media is a highly poor substitute for educational news (next time you're watching the news, do a word count, then go find a decent comparative newspaper article, and compare depth and breadth of coverage). Fuck the trite aphorism that 'a picture speaks a thousand words', it gives nothing by way of educated opinion or analysis by relevant thought-leaders.
Leaving things to market forces, as you seem to be suggesting, would only lead to the further degradation of service and replacement with fetid sleb culture and vacuous gossip and feel-good nothingness that continues to erode mass-media.
Of course, I'd rather we had a viable micropayment model to sustain transference to a functional new media model, or assurance that a quality service can be delivered online, paid solely by advertising (which seems to be a viable proposition, if the success of NYT online or purchase by Murdoch of the WSJ recently are anything to go by).
- twokids0
i am so tired of the newspaper industry giving itself press about how it is going to die! who cares....it should die! less trees cut down, more oxegyn! give everyone an iphone and shut up!
and that goes for you too books...kindle! who cares!
- I'd argue that books fulfill a different need and brain response.harlequino
- so did rolled up parchments, and cave drawingstwokids
- TheBlueOne0
First, I don't think it's the format itself, I think it was dumb business decisions in the consolidation of the publishing industry the last decade or so. Just lik ein other fields, papers were bought with huge amounts of leverage by companies that knew jackshit about publishing. Now that the leveraged purchases are falling apart, people think it's because there's a dearth of advertisers or that newspapers themselves are a dying format...
Secondly, the publishing industry isn't staffed with geniuses. Far from it:
- rosem0
That's like saying can design save the 8-Track, Cassette, CD, DVD, or any other obsolete medium.
We should be focused on making the digital world more intuitive and more accessible. Design is about solving problems, not putting patches on a sinking ship.
- Point50
nobody reads newspapers anymore! Seriously, I haven't browsed a newspaper in almost 10 years; there's no reason to. Good luck to design saving an inconvenient medium.
- boobs0
I definitely prefer to read the newspaper on my iPhone.
- poor people should be able to read the news as well.dropdown
- In this day and age if you don't have access to the internet, you have other things to worry about than the news.rosem
- Someone that has just been laid-off, and had to cancel their internet service may want to know what's going on...dropdown
- they can goto the library thenPonyBoy
- PonyBoy0
^^get it where you want, man... but don't ask that yours and my cash be tossed to another failing business...
- harlequino0
I'm with Nairn on that (at least if i interpret his gist correctly). I'm more concerned about the current range of journalistic integrity and competence, than the media that delivers it. It's pretty fucked up when we can point to better and more complete coverage coming from a 17 year old with a cell phone, than most major (US anyhow) news outlets.
- vicious cycle, less people read newspapers because content quality is declining, so they lay off staff and , uh, content quality declines more.....vaxorcist
- TheBlueOne0
So, we'll be getting more news from TMZ then?
- PonyBoy0
"We are losing our newspaper industry," said Cardin. "The economy has caused an immediate problem, but the business model for newspapers, based on circulation and advertising revenue, is broken, and that is a real tragedy for communities across the nation and for our democracy."
BULLLLLLLLLSHIT...
... some papers / media outlets are THRIVING... if a paper is dying it's because NOBODY WANTS TO READ IT!
wow.
- dropdown0
There's still something to be said for physically holding and interacting with a paper in the morning while having a coffee.
- Nairn0
Also, for Americans, this might be of interest..
- Shit, sorry - direct article:
http://www.sfgate.co…Nairn - interesting idea.baseline_shift
- Shit, sorry - direct article: