Jack Shafer has an excellent piece in Slate (h/t Romenesko) that tears down another myth: That newspapers never saw the Internet coming. To the contrary, his article notes that newspaper owners reacted aggressively to radio, TV, the possibility of an electronic newspaper and even the actual Internet when it came of age in the 1990s. The problem wasn't that they didn't react, but how they chose to do so.
His devastating conclusion:
From the beginning, newspapers sought to invent the Web in their own image by repurposing the copy, values, and temperament found in their ink-and-paper editions. Despite being early arrivals, despite having spent millions on manpower and hardware, despite all the animations, links, videos, databases, and other software tricks found on their sites, every newspaper Web site is instantly identifiable as a newspaper Web site. By succeeding, they failed to invent the Web.
Posted by Will Bunch @ 10:58 AM
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Off topic - but I would like to whine some more about how unfair the big bad left-wing media bias is. Republicans are just treated so unfairly. Democrats get extra recess. The cookies they get are bigger. The teacher gives them better grades on their papers. They get to go to the office to pick up parcels. It's just so unfair, Will.
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Sounds like another slow blog day.
All of this new technology is mind boggling. Everyone in my family got a GPS system for Christmas........except me.
Genius - how about another problem with Reid's statement. According to the The Seventeenth Amendment "When vacancies happen in the representation of any State in the Senate, the executive authority of such State shall issue writs of election to fill such vacancies: Provided, That the legislature of any State may empower the executive thereof to make temporary appointments until the people fill the vacancies by election as the legislature may direct." I guess the first point of business for the new Democrat leadership is ignoring the constitution.
REALLY OFF POINT - but since I know Will's obsession with Sarah Palin I just received an email for a HOT!! Sarah Palin Calendar - here is the link so you can order http://shop.newsmax.com/shop/index.cfm?page=products&productid=635&s=al&promo_code=76F9-1
what can never be explained to me is that newspapers have websites that continually get beat by yahoo, MSN, and drudge in viewership. So if the argument is that it is NOT the content of newspapers that has lost the public, but the new technology...shouldn't they maintain their status with their web versions? but they don't ...they get beat. Seems to me they stopped offering a differentiated product...THE NY times is the Boston Globe is the Inqy is the La times is the .....on and on. a liberal echo chamber
TAXMEMORE - maybe the reason that the other sites get more hits is because they are national while most newspapers have more of a local readership. That explanation may be weak however when comparing the NY Times which growing up I always viewed as a national publication.
Something I just can't wrap my brain around is why newspapers are getting blamed for getting beat out by the internet. Certainly there is no doubt that they are being overtaken by the big web services. I think the myth is that there is anything that newspapers could have done about it. Newspapers are a local product, used by consumers who favor a particular delivery system. I think the local news that people access is either by tv news or by the neighborhood papers. I don't see any model in which newspapers can compete with Yahoo or MSNBC or Google or CNN. There are just too many newspapers, when consumers can just go to one of a few choices and get what they want. For the mass market, why go to Philly.com when you can go to Yahoo, unless there is specifically some local angle you want to see? If a newspaper would have gone on to become Google or something like that, it would have lost its identity and most likely have sold off the newspaper division anyway.
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The Sloth is the biggest FRAUD since Bernie Madoff...look back at the Reagan post...exposed again in fuscia leotards.
Hey TPS: Since you are like Madoff, mind sending me a few million my way? Thanks!
No Probs, James. Check's in the mail. I'm more than happy to hand out the bucks to folks that aren't Attytood Republican toadies. Say. Maybe that's why all these Attyood Republican toadies are obsessed with me? You know - their whole authority complex compels them to furiously try to compensate, because their devastated by my lack of magnanimity towards them?
I think it has a lot more to do with being good at what they do. Like I said if it was the ease of use of new technology alone NY times readers would just go to NY times online and NYT retains those eyeballs. They started gettign hit when bloggers and upstarts like drudge started pointing out different stories and angles that Newsprint was not covering due to their inherant biases. So therefore we all go to CNN or or yahoo for all the AP drivel that newspapers pass off and then you go to bloggers for your editorials sine they tend to have more teeth than papers. Papers got lazy and their content got stale and too locked into the same liberal slant
So what? The internet is obviously just a fad. Just because millions upon millions of people use it doesn't mean it will catch on. Now newspapers! There's something that will never die!
Wait a minute TPS! I am a toady. I think George W Bush was the best president since Herbert Hoover. His incredible defecits will make all of lives so much easier! Now we won't ever have to worry about having a savings account or owning a house. And that war in Iraq! Wooooo! Wasn't that entertaining and soooooo necissary too. I'm sure you feel soooo much safer since that success played out. I know I do! Better cancel that check.....
I love how Will really digs deep into the issues. It's great to see that some journalists still take their jobs seriously...even though it won't be there in a few more weeks. BBBBBWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACCCCCCCCCKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
z
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About Will Bunch
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Will Bunch, a senior writer at the Philadelphia Daily News, blogs about his obsessions, including national and local politics and world affairs, the media, pop music, the Philadelphia Phillies, soccer and other sports, not necessarily in that order.
Will Bunch, a senior writer at the Philadelphia Daily News, blogs about his obsessions, including national and local politics and world affairs, the media, pop music, the Philadelphia Phillies, soccer and other sports, not necessarily in that order.
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