Well, I suppose self-pity and bellyaching and sour grapes coming from a dead-tree media outlet over the success of a slick and widely-loved new media outfit like Craigslist really doesn’t come as much of a surprise.
But, holy cow, to make a COVER STORY out of the fact that you and your fellow dead-tree Old Media outlets are getting whupped by better service and greater efficiency (and more timeliness and accuracy)? And then to expect media savvy readers to cry big splashy tears over the fact that you can’t seem to adapt your performance and business models to the new reality? That takes real chutzpah and brings navel-gazing to a whole new level.
Here’s the boldface text from the COVER of the latest SF Weekly. (I exercised restraint in the headline to this post and refrained from calling it by it’s more commonly-known street moniker — “SF, WeAkly.”)
Well, gosh, we’re just all broken up for you, New Times Media (parent company of SF Wea…er SF Weekly.)
But the hard fact is, oh mainstream media, the public doesn’t OWE you readers or subscribers or ad revenue. No business is OWED customers. So I’d humbly suggest that perhaps you ought to spend a little MORE energy on “lighting a candle” — delivering better service and adapting your practices to the new reality — and a little less energy on “cursing the darkness” — hating on Craigslist and expecting us in the media buying public to beweep your sad, sad fate.
Right now, you in the MSM are coming off just like this:
Pardon the public if we refrain from joining the sob-fest.
(Image credit: C. Johnson.)
UPDATE: From our local boards, Chic Deluxe draws the parallel with the Town Criers of old bemoaning the advent of the printing press “back in the day”:
At first, of course, the Town Criers – the official news sources at the time — weren’t worried. “Who’s going to pay for all that paper and ink?” they figured. “And besides — how many people can actually READ, anyway? Not to worry.”
But as the printing presses began to take off and the new business model for news distribution began to get legs, the Town Criers worried.
“Don’t believe anything you read!” they called out. “The printers don’t check their sources! Who regulates them? Why would you trust them! The have no standards, no guidelines! We have an Established System of Delivering Factual News!”
Town councils began to crack down on the printers. But the free press persevered despite having to deal with people breaking in and destroying their presses, setting fire to their shops, and trying to regulate them out of existence.
And what happened to all those Town Criers? They went into politics, of course.
Haw. Nice one.
Then, FogU2 pointed us to Slashdot’s excellent article on the subject (clearly, there is much more “lighting a candle” thinking going on at Slashdot.)
He adds:
Business models will change but the market for information, especially reliable and accurate information, is still vibrant. The real threat is when the govt gets involved in trying to save certain media by placing a stranglehold on the innovative media. Watch the FCC and others get involved in regulating the internet as big businesses begin to suffer as a result of cheap entry costs of the web. Lobbyists for the big media companies will cry foul when innovators like Craig Newmark, satellite radio, web phones, etc. start to threaten their cashflow.
Clearly, they already are.
UPDATE: Welcome, SFist readers. You might want to take a look at our past coverage of San Francisco culture & politics. Just keep on scrolling…
UPDATE: And welcome to all you Daily Pundit and Instapundit readers, too. Thanks for stopping ’round our way. As you’ve no doubt already noticed, we’re a San Francisco outlet of libertarian-minded, techno-phillic sass. You might want to check out some of our past posts on Liberty, the war against Islamic fascism, Economics and US Labor unions. But be sure to also check out that Slashdot article that we linked, above. As Glenn noted, not all old media folk are dumb. The thoughtful Slashdot piece lays out some possible ways that the old media can adapt and survive and even thrive in the years to come. It’s pretty much a given that bellyaching isn’t part of the solution, though.
UPDATE: The author of the SF Weekly piece, Ryan Blitstein, posted responses to our entry on both Daily Pundit and Instapundit.
In his Daily Pundit comment, Blitstein objects to Bill Quick’s description of the SF Weekly as “lefty.” It’s true that the SF Weekly isn’t as lefty as, say, the other San Francisco newsweekly, the SF Bay Guardian. OK, but let’s not get carried away. Though the SF Weekly does exhibit more balance than the Bay Guardian (which exhibits exactly none), “libertarian pillar” publications don’t usally run 6000+ word cover stories that amount to decrying the cruel fate of buggy-whip manufacturers in the modern era.
Instapundit publishes an email from Blitstein that says, in effect, we got him wrong — he wasn’t “whining.” I encourage you to read his entire SF Weekly piece and judge for yourself. See if you don’t detect a troubling sense of entitlement running throughout the piece — a sense that these classified advertising dollars RIGHTFULLY belong to newspapers. I also take issue with Blitstein’s other main premises: that it’s all a “zero sum game,” and that the (mostly dead-tree) “journalistic establisment” is the only trustworthy source of factual news; that the loss of classified revenue, by draining the lifeblood from old-media outlets, imperils the delivery of reliable information altogether.
For example, in his article, Blitstein says, “In the best case, [Craigslist's Craig] Newmark is joining a movement that will someday be of moderate help to the mainstream media. In the worst case, citizen journalism’s optimistic supporters, in neglecting the problems of the public institution that is the mainstream press, may leave America with both a failing news media and a mediocre technology that offers little assistance on essential stories.”
“Moderate help?” “Little assistance on essential stories?” See, I find these characterizations laughable, especially in light of the litany of vivid new-media-beats-the-old-media examples: Rathergate, the Plame story, reporting from Iraq — the list goes on and on. The dubious premises, coupled with the hand-wringing and notes of self-pity and impending doom, is what makes the SF Weekly piece a vintage whine.
But by all means, I encourage you read Blitstein’s SF Weekly piece for yourself and make your own call. It is also the case that there’s a lot of interesting stuff there, and I do appreciate that Blitstein’s decided to take part in the dialogue with us “citizen journalists.”
In the end, though, I think I’ve been rather fairer to the dead tree Old-Media outlets than Blitstein was to Craig Newmark, Craigslist or “citizen journalism” as a whole. From where I sit, for all its length and detail, the SF Weekly piece still basically reads like a great big whinge.
And finally, PLEASE make sure you also read the terrific Slashdot piece which has much more to say about old media, new media, and the idea of “news-as-dialogue.”
“News-as-dialogue.” Now THERE’S an idea…
November 30th, 2005 | MSM, SF Politics & Culture | 3 comments