John Oliver's take on print journalism

Finally watched it. And yes, even though most of what he said is old news to us, he nailed it. I was thinking of how many more modern realities of the business he could have skewered if he'd had more time.

The part about local governments getting away with anything and everything now that coverage is so thin hit close to home, because I see it happening in my community.

Also, I suspect many of my friends and acquaintances who still work for the Fort Lauderdale paper or used to work there cheered when he ridiculed Anne Vasquez, tronc's chief digital officer who used to be co-ME there and never did much aside from attending meetings and schmoozing with people who could help her climb the corporate ladder (of course, she's laughing all the way to the bank now).

 

I left Fort Lauderdale 5 years ago for ONE reason: We were told that, on the heels of the Chicago mothership assuming the desk work of the papers in Newport News and Hartford, that "Florida is next (meaning FTL and Orlando), and within a year." I figured it was safer to be employed in a hub rather than a spoke, so I took a job at a hub.

But it never happened. Heard something about absorbing Hartford being such a clusterfuck that perhaps they simply no longer felt it was worth it to take on more papers. There aren't many deskers left in FTL, but I don't know of anyone who was laid off. I'll always wonder if I would have survived.

 

As someone who didn't survive, I can tell you it will always be better to get out a little too soon than a little too late, BTE.

 

Newspaper Association of America didn't like the segment: Newspaper Association of America President & CEO David Chavern to John Oliver: Newspapers Need Solutions, Not Petty Insults and Stating the Obvious

 

About 10 years late, but he hits the bullseye dead center.

 

"Oh my god, you people have, like, worms in your brain."