Topic: Is the newsprint/newspaper model dead?

[dmastous]

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/03/31/080331fa_fact_alterman?currentPage=all

Out of Print

The death and life of the American newspaper

The American newspaper has been around for approximately three hundred years. Benjamin Harris’s spirited Publick Occurrences, Both Forreign and Domestick managed just one issue, in 1690, before the Massachusetts authorities closed it down. Harris had suggested a politically incorrect hard line on Indian removal and shocked local sensibilities by reporting that the King of France had been taking liberties with the Prince’s wife.

It really was not until 1721, when the printer James Franklin launched the New England Courant, that any of Britain’s North American colonies saw what we might recognize today as a real newspaper. Franklin, Benjamin’s older brother, refused to adhere to customary licensing arrangements and constantly attacked the ruling powers of New England, thereby achieving both editorial independence and commercial success. He filled his paper with crusades (on everything from pirates to the power of Cotton and Increase Mather), literary essays by Addison and Steele, character sketches, and assorted philosophical ruminations..........

[Richard]

I still read 'em.  I bought one today.

Franklin, Benjamin’s older brother,

...is that where Benjamin got his job as a printer, I wonder?

[Tennis4you]

I haven't touched a news paper in half a decade.  Gotta love the web!

[Babblelot]

Newspapers are great, BUUUUUT...

Blogs are interactive.

[dmastous]

Newspapers are great, BUUUUUT...

Blogs are interactive.

Normally I would argue that newspapers have standards to live up to. They have to do their work to make sure what they print is correct, with coroberating evidence, and references. But that hasn't been the case aways with newspapers. But it is more the case with newspapers than it is with blogs.
Blogs and newsgroups can get away with just about anything. Throw things and against the wall, and see if they stick. Don't bother investigating just print it and move on.
There is a rush to be the first with little regard for whether it's right or not. That's what makes it scary.

[Babblelot]

Newspapers are great, BUUUUUT...

Blogs are interactive.

Normally I would argue that newspapers have standards to live up to. They have to do their work to make sure what they print is correct, with coroberating evidence, and references. But that hasn't been the case aways with newspapers. But it is more the case with newspapers than it is with blogs.
Blogs and newsgroups can get away with just about anything. Throw things and against the wall, and see if they stick. Don't bother investigating just print it and move on.
There is a rush to be the first with little regard for whether it's right or not. That's what makes it scary.

There are enough fact checkers on blogs as their popularity has grown and their street cred is all they have (kind of like newspapers!). I don't know if you've ever frequented one, but you'll pretty quickly get piled on if your "fact" based opinions are based on a heaping pile o' manure. That's why blogs are great: You get to dictate the discussion, not some editor in NYC   

Signed,

Control Freak   

[dmastous]

Newspapers are great, BUUUUUT...

Blogs are interactive.

Normally I would argue that newspapers have standards to live up to. They have to do their work to make sure what they print is correct, with coroberating evidence, and references. But that hasn't been the case aways with newspapers. But it is more the case with newspapers than it is with blogs.
Blogs and newsgroups can get away with just about anything. Throw things and against the wall, and see if they stick. Don't bother investigating just print it and move on.
There is a rush to be the first with little regard for whether it's right or not. That's what makes it scary.

There are enough fact checkers on blogs as their popularity has grown and their street cred is all they have (kind of like newspapers!). I don't know if you've ever frequented one, but you'll pretty quickly get piled on if your "fact" based opinions are based on a heaping pile o' manure. That's why blogs are great: You get to dictate the discussion, not some editor in NYC   

Signed,

Control Freak   

Back when I took journalism in college the standard was 2 witnesses, and at least one piece of physical evidence before a story was printed. At least that's what we were taught. But the standards have gone down considerably in recent years. Especially with competition from online sites, like TMZ and the Drudge Report.

[Babblelot]

Newspapers are great, BUUUUUT...

Blogs are interactive.

Normally I would argue that newspapers have standards to live up to. They have to do their work to make sure what they print is correct, with coroberating evidence, and references. But that hasn't been the case aways with newspapers. But it is more the case with newspapers than it is with blogs.
Blogs and newsgroups can get away with just about anything. Throw things and against the wall, and see if they stick. Don't bother investigating just print it and move on.
There is a rush to be the first with little regard for whether it's right or not. That's what makes it scary.

There are enough fact checkers on blogs as their popularity has grown and their street cred is all they have (kind of like newspapers!). I don't know if you've ever frequented one, but you'll pretty quickly get piled on if your "fact" based opinions are based on a heaping pile o' manure. That's why blogs are great: You get to dictate the discussion, not some editor in NYC   

Signed,

Control Freak   

Back when I took journalism in college the standard was 2 witnesses, and at least one piece of physical evidence before a story was printed. At least that's what we were taught. But the standards have gone down considerably in recent years. Especially with competition from online sites, like TMZ and the Drudge Report.

I can't speak to all of them, but the blogs I frequent are very humbling. I think I'm a pretty smart guy if not somewhat informed, but the people I encounter are just plain scary smart. They are very protective of their turf--they give a newbie the benefit of the doubt, and the next thing you know, class is in session. But they sniff out trolls and pound them into submission. And there are more than enough of them and on more than one blog I frequent. I've since learned that Keith Oberman often sites some of the bloggers.

That's what I can say about the blogs I frequent.