Nostalgia Is So 20th Century
I sympathize with Joe Mathews’ elegy for the local journalism that he says used to be practiced by the L.A. Times:
When I don’t take the Times, I feel guilty. I worked there for eight years. I still contribute pieces regularly. It’s my hometown paper. But then I get the paper, read it, and start the day angry. There’s nothing in the paper that enrages me. The articles are professionally done. No, my rage is from what I don’t see, all the stories that aren’t there any longer.
This is the daily tragedy of all the layoffs and buyouts and departures at U. S. newspapers and magazines. You can count up the journalists who have left the profession and are out of work, but much of the carnage of the ongoing media industry can’t be measured or seen: corruption undiscovered, events not witnessed, tips about problems that never reach anyone’s ears because those ears have left the newsroom. With fewer watchdogs, you get less barking. How can we know what we’ll never know?
Now, Joe, never write anything like this ever again. I hope it’s out of your system. Nostalgia is dead. It’s time to discover or create the next venue for journalism.
Among the most important causes of the decline of journalism in the United States has been the greed of corporate ownership. There are certainly other causes, and I have discussed them many times on Rhetorica. Right now let’s focus on Mathews’ entirely-correct assessment of the ravages of layoffs and cost-cutting.
Here’s the thing: Corporate, publically-traded journalism probably is never coming back, and that is a good thing. The whole system appears to be crashing and the sooner the better. I go to work with a spring in my step everyday hoping that today will be the day — the day that a major chain — Gannett for example — announces bankruptcy and utter collapse.
There will be pain. There will be problems. But something will follow this failed model. And we had better be figuring out now what that something will be if we want to see newspaper journalism fulfill its primary purpose.
No one really knows what the next business model will be or even if there will be a next business model. I think it’s time we start re-imagining how journalism is paid for, manufactured, and delivered. By “start” I really mean start in ernest. By “re-imagine” I mean almost everything goes on the table. Re-imagining requires that we bury the old model. Do say a few words over the grave, as Mathews has done. Toss a rose. Shed a tear. Then get on with the hard work of living in the new reality.
“…pubically-traded journalism…” ???!!!???
Oooops… bad typo there. Thanks for the good catch!