The problem of pro-computer bias
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The problem of pro-computer bias
If you're at work and reading this blog post on the computer, it may not be for you.
As you know, I've been avidly following the swelling discussion about the future of news and information in America. While generally my lot is cast with the radical reformers -- who say the newspaper model is broken and the world is waiting for what comes next -- over the curmudgeons, there is one area where I think the reformers tend to fall short.
They...we, whatever...forget that not everyone in American society is like them (or us). That is to say, walking around 14 hours a day with a computer screen practicially bolted to front of their forehead. Millions of people live and work that way -- sure, pointy-headed elitists (cue "smiley face") like journalists or college professors but also business people, engineers, executive assistants, customer service reps, etc., etc.
On the other hand, millions of workers either aren't on a computer at all -- construction workers, landscapers -- or only part-time (like cops, who now have computers in their patrol cars but may not have Internet access) and not in the same time-wasting fashion as the stereotypical cubicle inmate. Yet their interest in -- and need for -- news and information is every bit intense, which is why they still gravitate toward the print medium.
This comes up a lot when we talk about the future of the Philadelphia Daily News -- and it should. I stumbled recently across something I wrote a couple of years ago (no link) that said:
The Daily News, in particular, had survived rough times by appealing largely to a niche that was otherwise largely ignored—the bulk of our readers were urban, older, and working class, and we had a higher percentage of African American readers than any other big-city paper in the nation. For example, a 2007 survey found that 28.5 percent of our readers are “blue collar” – higher than the overall city (21.5 percent) and much higher than the rival Inquirer (18.5 percent). What’s more, Daily News readers lived in a city that—despite some award-winning investigative reporting—was still run by a Democratic political machine that was just as “corrupt and contented” as in 1904, when muckraker Lincoln Steffens famously described Philadelphia with those words. How much more amok would Philly’s sleazy politicians run if one of the two papers was shut down, or if more investigative reporting slots were slashed?
My point isn't that blue-collar or urban Philadelphians aren't computer users or even computer-savvy -- many of them are, although there is still much work ahead to close the digitial divide in this city and across America. But the nature of their work and their commuting routine may be such that they're still better served by a print product than a screaming 24/7 Web site.
That's why I was interested to see the editor of the Spanish-language publication El Diario made this exact same point over the weekend (h/t Romenesko):
ALBERTO VOURVOULIAS: ....El Diario knows its readership, and we have a readership that on the one hand involves Latinos in the New York/New Jersey area, recent immigrants as well as people who have been here for several generations, and also our audience is very much a working-class/lower-middle-class audience. We feel that the information we provide to them is essential information that really is most effectively given through a newspaper form rather than through other media.
BROOKE GLADSTONE: And why is that?
ALBERTO VOURVOULIAS: Many of our readers don't have desk jobs, which means they don't spend all day in front of a monitor checking up on websites to see what the latest news is. And, therefore, they take the paper into the office, share it with the people they work with, take it home at night and share it with their families.
I'm trying to point out the unique challenge of preserving journalism and the vital exchange of public information in a Rust Belt city like Philadelphia. A Web-only newspaper might work in the home city of Microsoft, Amazon.com, and Starbucks. In the home city of....lots of civil servants? Not as much. I agree that printed news is a little like dirty bathwater these days, but you can't throw the baby -- a unique, non-transferable readership -- out with bathwater.
I find it interesting that Will and his cut-n-paste buddy used the terms “essential information” and “needed information” to describe their work product. The Daily News does not provide “needed information”, it provides amusement. It is entertainment for those who derive pleasure from observing the newspaper’s opinions, and from hearing about the suffering and malfeasance of others. It does NOT provide “essential information” that anyone ever uses to make important real-life decisions. Stop deluding yourself, and dance for us!— Mr. Smith
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Yes, and that's something we need to do A LOT better. We're still struggling with 1990s technology.— will
"digital divide": I thinks Will has found another right buried in that ol' Constitution. I do wonder, since your breaking down readership, how many read the DN just for the sports section? It's the best part of the paper and gets good promotion on Comcast with Daily News Live and other sports shows.— jmc- I am all for newspapers and would agree that people that get their information from a newspaper are more informed than people who get it from TV or the internet. But I also understand and admit that technology has changed the way we get our news. While I subscribe to the Inky, I rarely read the actual paper since I can read the sections I want online. All that being said, I cannot understand why one ownership group continues to put out two newspapers that share about 75% of the content. I never have, nor ever will, read the DN for News. I have said it before and never got a response, but combine the best of the Inky and the DN and you can make a profit.— chasing history
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- Ah, the marginalized minority, always living two centuries (or more) behind... Did any of Americans' "rights" exist in civil society BEFORE the Constitution enshrined them as "truths we hold to be self-evident?" Not for most of humanity. America is a vibrant, living, breathing country - not the calcified shell the marginalized minority wants to make it. In fact, the document itself acknowledges additional rights - leaving them to the states... or to the people. If the marginalized minority wasn't so determined to Hate Americans First, they might accept that "government of the people, by the people and for the people" can determine more rights than those set down over two hundred years ago by men who openly acknowledged that they enshrined just a limited set. But they can't let the hate go...— E.Plebnista
- Will, I get much of my financial & political news online at work during the day. However, when I get home in the evening, I enjoy sitting with a glass of wine and reading the Inqy from cover to cover. We devour the weekend editions. I was raised reading a hardcopy daily newspaper. We pay approx $200/yr for 7 day delivery or approx .55 cents per day. I'd be extremely disappointed if the hardcopy Inqy went away. If blue-collar, urban readership is your hardcopy niche, then you guys need to figure out how to maximize that readership.— A Friend
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- "In fact, the document itself acknowledges additional rights - leaving them to the states... or to the people" - and that is why rights not explicitely expressed in the Constitution - like say privacy or health care - should be - short a Constitutional Ammendment - with the States to decide. I am not against people's rights I just want to hold the Federal Government in check and not have them run my life and tax me to pay for all these rights they sudenly decide people have.— Talking Point Stooge
- "In fact, the document itself acknowledges additional rights - leaving them to the states.....they might accept that 'government of the people, by the people and for the people' can determine more rights than those set down over two hundred years ago by men who openly acknowledged that they enshrined just a limited set." The Constitution does not grant or determine rights. Rather, it starts with the assumption that these rights exist, and serves to limit the government's ability to infringe upon them.— legatus
- Will, your argument fails because you refuse to acknowledge this simple fact: the blue collar newspaper reader, the one who you contend "needs" a newspaper and who would otherwise, it seems, go unenlightened by your wisdom, would simply switch over to the Inquirer if the DN were to fold. While the tone might be different, the two papers are fungible for this purpose, like it or not.— Echo
Yeah - it really stinks not having ink on my hands, piles of paper to recycle, not destroying hundreds of square miles of forest each year, and not having to pay $200 per year. And also it stinks that I can do all that the second I wake up in the morning. It's a terrible thing keeping up with everything in Philly even though I live in Colorado. When I read a story and want more info, having the world at my fingertips is just such an inconvenience. Not saying there shouldn't be print for people who want it - but why would you want it if you have a computer?— COskier
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