These are some of the things that have caught my attention lately. It’s a more eclectic mix than just the news business, but then so’s life:
- Media run out of ‘black’ days | Freemania — “The journalistic industry is perilously close to collapse after running out of days in the week to dub ‘black’ in the event of dire economic news.
Financial journalism has virtually frozen up after last week’s so-called ‘Black Friday’, which exhausted the stock of slightly varied clichés. Reporters were close to panic last night at the prospect of having unimaginatively to sensationalise any further stock-market falls this week.”
- Newspapers Axe Monday Editions as Paper Costs Rise, Ads Dwindle | Bloomberg — When the McPherson Sentinel stopped publishing on Mondays, the newspaper told readers it wasn’t any different from Hellman’s shrinking its mayonnaise jars or Extra gum offering two fewer pieces per pack at the same price…
Monday issues have also vanished for readers of The Dispatch in Davidson County, North Carolina; GateHouse’s Daily Review Atlas in Monmouth, Illinois; the Star Courier in Kewanee, Illinois; and the East Valley Tribune near Phoenix, Arizona.
- Liquidation unlikely as papers miss obligations | The Associated Press — “With revenue at newspapers shrinking and few investors willing or able to buy them, lenders are loathe to force companies to liquidate assets that are plunging in value. They have few alternatives but to help newspapers stay on track with their payments and hang on until ad prospects improve — if they ever do.”
- CNN announces live daily broadcasts from UAE — Starts Monday: “CNN International is to start broadcasting live daily news programming from a brand new broadcast facility in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates. This landmark move signals the global network’s significantly expanded on-the-ground commitment to the Middle East and marks CNN’s first regularly scheduled daily live show from the region.”
- Read all about the good news from the coming depression! | Jack Shafer — “In the current news cycle, the cons of the coming depression have taken over Page 1, are dominating the business sections, and have surfaced in sports, food, home, travel, and elsewhere. An immutable law of journalism is forcing the pros of the coming depression to rise because reporters and editors tend to bore easily. Yeah, yeah, the Dow dropped 5,000 points today. Give me something the competition hasn’t got!
So in coming weeks as the economic news grows more grave, look for newspapers, Web sites, and networks to prospect for the “hidden” good news contained in our collective calamity…” - Lionel Barber: Why journalism wins my vote | FT.com — Well, sort of: “In the new world of citizen journalism, the role of the trained journalist as trusted intermediary no longer holds. Some may argue that this privileged status was always precarious, even a fiction. Perhaps there is no such thing as a neutral filter or objective truth, and (print) journalists were imposters to suggest as much.
Yet to abandon the quest to write the first draft of history carries risks. There will always be powerful forces seeking to suppress injustice or inconvenient truths. For all their failings, newspapers, especially the well-financed family-owned newspapers, have served as a counterweight. On both sides of the Atlantic, the line between news reporting and comment is becoming increasingly blurred. That is something that should give everyone in the profession pause for thought.”
