Quote:
Originally Posted by J. Strnad
Cheap and crappy always beats out more expensive and better in America. (I know, my cynicism is showing.  ) And anything of quality that is going to survive needs to be monetized. It can survive if enough people pay enough of a premium to support it. Like toll roads, HBO, and personal shoppers.
If we want lengthy, well-researched, investigative journalism, we have to be willing to pay for it. Maybe we subscribe to an expanded online version while the free version provides the headline and a quick synopsis and a link for subscribers to "learn more."
Anything good that we want to survive, we must be willing to pay for. If we expect it for free, we must expect it to be crass, shallow, and monetized in some other way. |
Quote:
Originally Posted by SteveEisenberg
Or sometimes expensive and better beats out cheap and better. A couple years ago I read a 1960's broadway book (I think it was The Season) which mentions that a broadway balcony ticket and a Manhattan movie ticket were similarly priced. Wow. Talk about the good old days.
I think that the US is likely to become more of a national newspaper country as local papers continue to decline. |
There is a new division of funds and time that is the change factor. The will to pay is there but different choices are being made.
True, newspapers and news magazines are declining, but it isn't because of a lack of money. Much more money and time is going into cable/sat/broadcast TV, the internet and cellular data plans than ever was put into newspapers or news magazines.
People are voting for their preferred media with their money and their eyes and ears and in general the majority of people are better informed about events today than they were 20 years ago and certainly 50 years ago.
One thing is very clear though. There will be many less print journalists in the future and that means that there will be less of a pool to draw the great journalists from. The great columnists, the great essay writers, the great reporters will also be in shorter supply.
In the old days, a man or woman might make a good life as a journalist/writer/editor for a newspaper or magazine while they honed their writing and thinking skills on the way to great thoughts, great writing, great books. Less and less of that will happen.
So "send not to know, for whom the bell tolls..."