good reads like good eats feed your soul
The Tampa Tribune is touting itself in house ads these days as both the old and new media. I’m not sure what that means exactly, beyond that modern newspaper circulation is either static or declining so news executives are shifting resources away from print to online operations that can react immediately like television to breaking news and provide updates throughout the day and night.
Unlike television, Web sites also offer opportunities for interactivity, hyper-local news and enhanced versions of stories that can include audio and video. In the Trib’s case, it’s owned by Media General, which also owns WFLA NewsChannel 8, as well as TBO.com, so it can coordinate between all three media platforms.
In an ideal world, people would take advantage of all these news outlets. But the world is far from ideal these days; time is short, interests often narrow.
Which means that a lot of really good stuff in the newspaper - even though it may be available online - doesn’t get read, sometimes simply because the Web sites are hard to navigate.
In Sunday’s papers, for instance, exceptional things in the St. Petersburg Times included Howard Troxler’s column on the new airport in the Florida Panhandle.
Rebecca Catalanello took readers to New Orleans and a very special mail carrier who is watching the agonizing process of rebuilding in his old route in the Ninth Ward. A companion piece in Latitudes is a compelling look at a survivor who is also a newspaper columnist.
Eric Deggans’ story on the reaction in Chicago to the purchase of a popular local alternative newspaper by Creative Loafing is a delightful read.
The Trib had some good stuff, too, including John Allman’s story about two men who have watched changes in Tampa’s Central Park Village for 50 years from their home across the street.
Karen Haymon Long’s look at the Ernest Hemingway Home and Museum in Key West is a delight, as is Richard Mullins recounting of his day at work as an air conditioning repairman.
There was a lot of good stuff in both papers - yes, I read both. There’s something about the feel of the newsprint, the smell of the paper, the ability to drink coffee while reading without worrying about spilling something on the keyboard, or sitting on the dock to catch up on the world without fretting that I’ll drop the laptop in the bay.
I love personal computers and tampabay.com, TBO.com, Sticks of Fire, Google, Wikipedia and a host of other Web sites.
But a newspaper … I can’t imagine life without one.
Tags: media, news, newspapers, online
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August 20th, 2007 at 12:11 pm
Free press is the backbone of America. We should never be without a newspaper. A trackable, accountable (LOL) verifiable source not something that disappears in a bit/byte second. If all communication ceased a newspaper or printing press would be essential.
Thanks for sticking up for newspapers.
I hope they showed how the New Orleans Mayor Nagy and the NO code enforcement are bulldozing peoples’ homes to the ground while the poor folks are waiting for government funds to repair them.
The govmint is all ‘confused’ yknow?? Doesn’t know which houses are going to be fixed and such despite the huge signs posted thereon.
Same as Tampa.
Only in Tampa they’re a little more stealth and waiting on a Katrina.
Same bulldozing and scraping.
August 20th, 2007 at 10:32 pm
I am a lot older than you. So let me tell you I use to allways sit on the floor and read the paper. My first historical event was when my aunt and uncle took me to New York for a relatives wedding which my parents could not attend and I was the family representative. We went by bus-on the way back we read the paper-headlines were TRUMAN LOSSES ELECTION TO DEWEY-we were devastated-the latter news aswe were arriving home TRUMAN WINS ELECTION DEWEY LOSSES. I will write more tomorrow it is past my bed time.
August 21st, 2007 at 8:11 am
“Both old and new media”… The Trib obviously doesn’t know what that means either.
August 21st, 2007 at 8:35 am
The ad in question is a Newspaper Association of America ad, and it has appeared in the Times as well as the Trib. Intended to be more of a support for newspapers in general, rather than a statement about the philosopy of any single publication.
August 21st, 2007 at 11:54 am
When I was only 16 I dated a young man whose father was a type setter for the Toledo blade,I received some lessons on how to read upside so you can set the letters in the sentances to come up right,Iuse to have the big wooden alphabet and its wooden holder,they make wonderful holders for minature nicknakes.Then automation came along and the skilled word setters lost their jobs.The Canton Repository,which we called the suppository,is where I wrote the luncheons and teas,not like today where you find a few lines about a function and you really have to dig to find it. My son delivered the Canton Repository for six years so he could earn his red paper carrier bag and a free luncheon for honeree paper carriers. I should have gone to the dinner because there were many times I had to deliver them I knew his whole route and instructions for each house,deliver at side door,back door,garage,etc. I was flabbergasted when we moved to Fort Lauderdale and they threw the Sun-Sentinal in our drive way puddles or dry. I love magazines,books,and most of all newspapers any newspaper,Ihave written in my will to be buried with my prized possesions so my deceased husband can still go over our bridge hands and our cross word puzzles and cryptaquotes in the here after for ever.
August 21st, 2007 at 1:47 pm
junior you tell good stories. And, I’m proud to be acquainted with a good citizen of Tampa who CARES. Your husband is a lucky man despite the fact that I hope he has to wait a long time for you to join him.
August 21st, 2007 at 8:46 pm
Voxy,thank you for those very kind words you wrote,you care also about Tampa and probably allthe things I care about,education,media,wetlands,equatity for all etc. Every thing that I write about is true,I love to reminisce,every day. My parents were immigrants from Poland,neither one graduated from high school,but instilled education to us every waking hour. My grandfather was a pushcart junk dealer,my father owned a scrapyard with abuiling that was inclosed for paper products. It was my place of comfort. I would climb this mountain of comic books,magazines,and books,and read everything I could get my hands on. My husband was a scrap broker.So I go back to my mountain for comfort when I have had a bad day.THANK YOU.
August 23rd, 2007 at 2:19 pm
How COOL !! We’re all immigrants. I haven’t been here that long myself and sometimes I wonder why we came. (sorry but I do)
That’s my background. Reading reading, more reading. Listening.
That’s all my Grandpa cared about, too. Education. He’s the best man I’ve ever known. I meant what I said. You’re something special. Keep at it !! We need you !