Every morning since I was a young kid, I’ve woken up and browsed the newspaper. It’s a habit that I learned from my parents who mused over the news before going on to their day. It’s routine, it’s familiar…
And to me, at least, it’s still relevant.
While there are those both reporting and openly calling for the demise of the print media, I feel like I must be one of the few who scoffs at such remarks. While newspaper’s aren’t up-to-the-second sources of information like blogs (or tweets, seeing that is the new ADHD means of keeping people “informed”), and are seldom hindered now by way of corporate owners (not naming any names…), they are a reliable source for recapping yesterday’s events. And while you can easily access such things online — sometimes it’s nice to be offline when finding things out. Like while you’re waking up, eating and taking a moment before heading off to your day of button pushing in front of the PC.
Oh, it’s true that everything can’t make it into the Newspaper and that’s part of why blogs and online media have begun to flourish, but there is still the serendipity of going through the newspaper and finding a story of interest to you that you would not normally find while browsing headlines alone on Google News, MSNBC, TBO, TampaBay.com, TampaBLAB or some other online means to keep yourself in-the-know.
Oh, and then there’s the comics. You can’t beat print comics (well, unless you are hip, nerdy and profane like Penny Arcade – but that’s a totally different subject all together).
Yes, there are parts of the paper that have lost relevance with thanks to online listings and services (stock listings and classifieds are both prime examples) and editorial content is more in-depth when browsing online and being able to reference several sources. It’s also much easier to find those of your political bend while using the Internet as well… But then again? The point-counterpoint of editorial letters tend to be more civil and more grounded in print than you will find online in hives of crude and rude opinion-making (example: comments on the St. Pete Times Political Buzz Blog).
I don’t disagree that print journalism is in trouble due to up-to-the-moment coverage on the web… But the rumors of print’s demise seem exaggerated. While some don’t see the relevance of things in print editions of newspapers, others can’t see the irrelevance in it either.
[poll id="32"]
junebee
1 year ago
I’d still be reading the Trib had they not fired Joseph Brown.
I think the future of newspapers is local news in depth and analyzed. World news and features can easily be had on the Internet. As it is, world and national news is kept up to the minute on the Internet. Features are often re-printed directly from Internet sources, several weeks after appearing on the Internet. No need to waste that paper printing features. However, even the online components of both local papers do not provide much in the realm of local news.
Imitating
1 year ago
I agree the future is in Hyper-local journalism. Yet We all see our Tribune starying farther and farther from that.
In the end the news media needs to come to grip with th einternet, and that means consumers willhave to learn to pay for news. Else it can be paid for by the ISPs but someone has to pay the journalists.
Once journalism is gone, or nearly so, it will be reinvented as a paid for service.
John
1 year ago
“hyper-local” may be the future of local journalism, but the key aspect in all this isn’t the “hyper” — it’s the local.
The Tampa Tribune is a poorly done community newspaper right now. One dictated by it’s corporate owners. While the local isn’t thought so much as the content as the operations in town — which have been pared back and outsourced for several years now. I can’t think of the paper as a local paper when I know subscription services are done in the Phillipines and advertising is handled in India.
Matt Tillotson
1 year ago
I am down to Sundays only. And even then, as others have pointed out, it’s for local news only. I don’t need print for national/world pieces. There are plenty of great online resources for that.
Running lots of wire stories save money in the short run. But what about the impact beyond the current quarter’s results?
ester venouziou
1 year ago
Blogs and online media are all great, of course, but, I think, ideal world would always still have a print edition.
For me, sitting out on the porch, with coffee and the paper, is still one of the greatest — and most inexpensive — ways to spend the morning.
I agree papers need to focus on hyper-local, on community news. And I think papers really need to go out of their way to be more involved in the community. It should be more about just dispensing information.
dcdave
1 year ago
this just misses the point. it’s not about how ‘nice it is’ to hold a newspaper in your hand, it’s whether the aggregate of eyeballs adds up to enough for advertising to actually turn a profit. Guess what? It doesn’t.