I keep hoping this era will be looked back on as the moment in history when news changed. I imagine history books of the future describing to kids how news used to be presented in folded paper thrown at the end of your driveway but that format could not make the shift to the wide choices and ready availability…
I keep hoping this era will be looked back on as the moment in history when news changed. I imagine history books of the future describing to kids how news used to be presented in folded paper thrown at the end of your driveway but that format could not make the shift to the wide choices and ready availability of news on the internet so they began to gravitate toward the pandering techniques of yellow journalism and most of the "main stream media" tottered and fell. I'm hoping for a form that is more like a compendium of substacks where you pick and choose who writes the articles you read, but the articles are collected in a few sources which stretch the subscription numbers enough to allow the average news consumer to include dozens of writers. Perhaps a reviewed ad section would help - a Frankenstein of what works with old school media and what's best about substack, such as voting with your dollar on which writers to support which cannot be done with, for example, NYT.
Are you suggesting more ads??? I liked my daily newspaper. Then the powers that be thought that digital was the way to go and abandoned the print people (not the other way around, as they would tell it.). The choices on the internet are currently controlled by billionaire arses wanting more money in the troughs. Where are those wider choices that reflect our moment in history. I don’t have the money or the time to sort through the ubiquitous podcasts and substacks. I take six and that will have to do for me. But to each his own. And that is the core of the problem, is it not.
JD, tell me about your daily paper - was it a small local paper or do you mean you preferred getting the paper at the foot of the drive type thing and it was one of the large national papers like NYT or WaPo? Most of the people I know abandoned their paper paper to save trees, avoid excessive recycling, because reading on the internet was more convenient for them for various reasons... no more black fingers and okay, no more comic strips! Who was the opossum? Miss him...
But no, I know no one likes ads - I'm just brain storming ways for a compendium of articles by independent writers to help pay for itself. I love my substack newsletters, but for a fact six substacks at the bargain price of $50 (just an average maybe) is well more than the cost of a subscription to two national newspapers. If we could get a system where we picked which articles showed up on our paper and our collection was customized by us for us (even the ads) then it might be more truly a substitute for the old fashioned newspaper, more affordable than six substacks, and endlessly customizable which would provide feedback as well. I feel like my imagination though is constrained by prior experience... I'd love to be able to imagine the news sources of the future.
In some ways we are harkening back to the days of old in the West when various riders came through town bearing news, and each one gave us a different version of what was seen and heard, with some being just more interesting to listen to. Some you'd give a hot coffee to and sit down with, and others you'd be happy to see the back ends of their horses leaving town.
Did not see it, but remember visiting my farmer grandparents in small town Kansas when I was a kid and sitting quietly at the kitchen table as various delivery people and customers would come in for coffee or tea and tell my grandparents what they knew about the events of the day. After some of them left my grandmother would fret and my grandfather would sneer and shake his head as he returned to his chores. But those newsbearing visitors always got their attention and delayed their chores.
Thanks for naming the film. If it's a couple of years old, I can probably find it in one of the streaming catalogs.
With fewer and fewer buying.
I keep hoping this era will be looked back on as the moment in history when news changed. I imagine history books of the future describing to kids how news used to be presented in folded paper thrown at the end of your driveway but that format could not make the shift to the wide choices and ready availability of news on the internet so they began to gravitate toward the pandering techniques of yellow journalism and most of the "main stream media" tottered and fell. I'm hoping for a form that is more like a compendium of substacks where you pick and choose who writes the articles you read, but the articles are collected in a few sources which stretch the subscription numbers enough to allow the average news consumer to include dozens of writers. Perhaps a reviewed ad section would help - a Frankenstein of what works with old school media and what's best about substack, such as voting with your dollar on which writers to support which cannot be done with, for example, NYT.
Are you suggesting more ads??? I liked my daily newspaper. Then the powers that be thought that digital was the way to go and abandoned the print people (not the other way around, as they would tell it.). The choices on the internet are currently controlled by billionaire arses wanting more money in the troughs. Where are those wider choices that reflect our moment in history. I don’t have the money or the time to sort through the ubiquitous podcasts and substacks. I take six and that will have to do for me. But to each his own. And that is the core of the problem, is it not.
JD, tell me about your daily paper - was it a small local paper or do you mean you preferred getting the paper at the foot of the drive type thing and it was one of the large national papers like NYT or WaPo? Most of the people I know abandoned their paper paper to save trees, avoid excessive recycling, because reading on the internet was more convenient for them for various reasons... no more black fingers and okay, no more comic strips! Who was the opossum? Miss him...
But no, I know no one likes ads - I'm just brain storming ways for a compendium of articles by independent writers to help pay for itself. I love my substack newsletters, but for a fact six substacks at the bargain price of $50 (just an average maybe) is well more than the cost of a subscription to two national newspapers. If we could get a system where we picked which articles showed up on our paper and our collection was customized by us for us (even the ads) then it might be more truly a substitute for the old fashioned newspaper, more affordable than six substacks, and endlessly customizable which would provide feedback as well. I feel like my imagination though is constrained by prior experience... I'd love to be able to imagine the news sources of the future.
In some ways we are harkening back to the days of old in the West when various riders came through town bearing news, and each one gave us a different version of what was seen and heard, with some being just more interesting to listen to. Some you'd give a hot coffee to and sit down with, and others you'd be happy to see the back ends of their horses leaving town.
Did you see that Tom Hanks movie a couple years ago? "News of the World." His character was one of those guys.
Did not see it, but remember visiting my farmer grandparents in small town Kansas when I was a kid and sitting quietly at the kitchen table as various delivery people and customers would come in for coffee or tea and tell my grandparents what they knew about the events of the day. After some of them left my grandmother would fret and my grandfather would sneer and shake his head as he returned to his chores. But those newsbearing visitors always got their attention and delayed their chores.
Thanks for naming the film. If it's a couple of years old, I can probably find it in one of the streaming catalogs.
I missed that one. I’ll check it out