Last call: The end of the printed newspaper

Pretty interesting (online!) read:

https://medium.com/@cshirky/last-call-c682f6471c70

 

That was a very good read, TV. It certainly has me fired up for my shift of copy editing, laying out pages and reading page proofs later this evening!

One point I take issue with (the bolding is mine):

The one way I believe journalists — through whatever medium — have value is by wading through the data, by informing people why it's important (or not important). Throwing as much raw data as possible at readers isn't journalism. It's a "Random Thoughts" thread on SportsJournalists.com.

Knowing the context, background and usefulness of the endless streams of data available today is an important skill, and only slightly less important is presenting it in a way that's easy to understand.

In short, news judgement and the ability to write remain important. I'll believe that long after my newspaper (and others) bite the dust and I'm bagging groceries.

 

When is the last time you saw someone reading a newspaper in public?

 

Yesterday morning, at Larry's PX coffee shop and diner in Chatham, Mass.

 

Barber shop or public transportation, but that's really about it.

I was at Wal-Mart a few Sundays ago and an elderly lady had to get a worker to unwrap the plastic around the stack of papers there and I heard the employee say, "You must be the first one to buy one today."

This was at about 11:30.

 

Was walking through a local mall last week and saw a copy of the sports page of the metro daily open on one of those couch/table set ups in between stores. I'd seen a link to a column passed around on social media, but hadn't bothered clicking on it. When I saw it there, I decided to stop and read it. I'm guessing this almost never happens in that order.

 

Airports are the only place where I regularly see people read a print edition. I browse the local weekly rag, but only because it's free and has a good event calendar.

 

My friends who are still in the business all say they prioritize their blogs and online articles, and that the print edition is a pale imitation or excerpt of that. I assume that's how it is at just about every paper in the country.

So why would I read the knock-off instead of the real stuff?

 

If you get up early enough, you'll see people reading the paper at Denny's, the barber shop, the public laundromat.

Of course, none of those people are younger than 70.

True story from our shop's news meeting: Last week, Robin Williams and Lauren Bacall died on back-to-back days. We were tight on space for Tuesday's paper (for the Williams story), so I jammed something on the wire roundup page.

Wednesday's paper (the one with the grocery store inserts!) always has more room, so we blew out the Bacall obit on a half page with a couple of photos.

On Thursday, the ME praised our decision making: "Our readers have seen many more Bacall movies than Robin Williams movies."

And there wasn't a hint of sarcasm or humor in his comment.

 

That is exactly the thought I had the other day. The first editions of our sports stories go out online first, and then the final print edition article goes online as well. It kind of cuts out the print edition when you think about it.

 

Yesterday at lunch I saw someone reading my column ... or at least our sports cover with my column on it.

 

Don't normally take public transportation but I did one day this week. Realized, as I read morning paper, I was the only one doing so. Immediately thought, "This surely makes me look old to the other folks on here." Put it away and started poking at my phone like they were.