I'm a newspaper columnist who -- like pretty much every other person I know in the business -- spends a lot of time worrying and wondering about where newspapers are going. This is a small attempt to find some light in the fog.
Lots of journalists are writing about their emotions these days. Here is my friend, Charlotte Observer columnist, current Nieman Fellow (at Harvard) and Pulitzer Prize finalist Tommy Tomlinson on the subject.
Mark Cuban, whose blog is terrific, writes the following somewhat relevant post today:
"It was a sad moment. Yesterday, prior to the Mavs - Warriors game I went through my pre game routine on the Gauntlet. Over the years the number of people asking me questions has varied from game to game. From as many as 10 to as of yesterday, one. Eddie Sefko of the Dallas Morning News was there to ask some questions.
There weren’t bloggers. There weren’t wire service writers. Just Eddie.
I recognize that this is partially a function of the fact that we are in the 8th slot rather than in 1st place. I also recognize that if I resigned Dennis Rodman or brought in Terrel Owens for a 10 day, or did or said something controversial that would change over night.
The Morning News and all the local papers and online and offline media are still covering the Mavs. We still get the ink, but the real question is what would happen if our local papers shut down and went online only ? How would we reach the casual fan that wont invest time to go to the online sports section or the Mavs website ?
Its a possibility I have to figure out how to deal with today."
Mark Cuban, whose blog is terrific, writes the following somewhat relevant post today:
ReplyDelete"It was a sad moment. Yesterday, prior to the Mavs - Warriors game I went through my pre game routine on the Gauntlet. Over the years the number of people asking me questions has varied from game to game. From as many as 10 to as of yesterday, one. Eddie Sefko of the Dallas Morning News was there to ask some questions.
There weren’t bloggers. There weren’t wire service writers. Just Eddie.
I recognize that this is partially a function of the fact that we are in the 8th slot rather than in 1st place. I also recognize that if I resigned Dennis Rodman or brought in Terrel Owens for a 10 day, or did or said something controversial that would change over night.
The Morning News and all the local papers and online and offline media are still covering the Mavs. We still get the ink, but the real question is what would happen if our local papers shut down and went online only ? How would we reach the casual fan that wont invest time to go to the online sports section or the Mavs website ?
Its a possibility I have to figure out how to deal with today."