Thursday, August 30, 2007
Sunday, August 26, 2007
Saturday, August 25, 2007
The New York Times will pay for that!
Although I tremendously disagree with its newsitorial stance on abortion, gun and tobacco control, individual rights, private property rights, and its all-too cozy liaison with the corporate-state status quo, The New York Times remains my favourite newspaper. One obvious reason is that the [minimal] competition is in accelerated retreat on all fronts even more than The Times.
I can almost always find something interesting, and often fascinating, in its pages. Just this week, features on Jack Kerouac, Al Davis, and the seminal 1967 film Bonnie and Clyde were hearty appetizers. The Arts section, with the notable exception of Kelefa Sanneh's rise to prominence with his/her heavily featured articles on 'rap music' and other low brow forms of 'entertainment', remains a fine addition to any day. The sports section, which needs its own stand alone section every day of the week, has a high number of superb features and columnists. And the Sunday Travel, Book Review, and Magazine sections remain pleasurable entrees for a Sunday feast.
That said, The Times appears to be in a heavily accelerated state of retreat, much like the French and German armies' fatal marches from The Eastern Front. According to those in the 'PR' department, the high cost of newsprint, declining ad revenue and circulation, and the heightened advent of web news, are the major reasons for actions that may ultimately destroy The Gray Lady.
The recent fiascos at The Tribune Company and The Wall Street Journal attest to the extreme turbulence in the daily news industry. Where often arrogant supremacy [mainly in the viciously condescending editorial pages] once reigned supreme across the nation's [and indeed much of the world's] print media, an even uglier sense of terminal cancer has enveloped newspapers like a mushroom cloud in a Nevada desert. The egregiously short-term memory cycle of The Thievery Corporation, otherwise known as Wall Street, is considerably responsible for the currently suffocating aura engulfing publically traded media.
While the fact is that newspapers continue to make solid profits, the Wall Street gold diggers can't shank enough cash from any cow they ever get their hands on. And the stewardship, or lack of, on the part of the Sulzbergers, Bancrofts, The Tribune Co., and the Chandlers [among others] has led to horridly head spinning forecasts of impending doom.
As a young lad I created my own newspaper at my mother's kitchen table. The Carpenters Corner Times did nothing but give me an invigorating outlet for reimagining my own infinite fascination with newspapers. In the late 1970s I would often ask my dad to pull the car over in downtown Flemingsburg, Kentucky so I could hop out and put a quarter in the newspaper box and retrieve The 'beloved' Courier-Journal.
Back then, The Courier-Journal, owned [along with the long defunct Louisville Times] and curated by the legendary Bingham family, was distributed in every single one of Kentucky's 120 counties. Its broad pages, simple, yet elegant design, full page movie adverts, and wonderfully illustrated opinion page cartoons, courtesy of the late great Hugh Haynie, all combined to give me entrance into a world that was much more fascinating and alive than the one I actually lived in. And the Sunday edition of The Courier-Journal [along with the then locally distributed Sunday Cincinnati Enquirer], with its deliriously wonderful mass and heft, colour comics section, and extra value arts and opinion pages, all provided a sense of wonder and pleasure that has rarely been equaled.
It’s been years since The Courier-Journal has been available anywhere close to Flemingsburg, and both of the state's major afternoon newspapers [the previously mentioned Louisville Times and The Lexington Leader] have long since been buried. Both The Courier-Journal and Lexington Herald [ideologically corrosive counterparts] have long since been decimated by corporate chickanery, and the physical downsizing of both papers has tremendously accelerated in recent years. The number of separate editions has dwindled, the availability of each paper in opposing parts of the state is practically defunct, the Sunday comics sections have been reduced by one third of its pages [aren't young readers the ultimate lifeblood of any enterprise], and the newspapers themselves are almost small enough to be called tabloids-of course, that's the next step. The Courier-Journal used to have beautifully prominent masthead typography, but now it’s so small that one has to look closely to realize it’s actually The Courier-Journal.
What does all of this bring us to? Oddly enough, I just called in my first ever home delivery newspaper subscription this evening [yes, The New York Times:)] I love it so much, and I've purchased it practically every time I could get my hands on it [which wasn't often, considering I lived for almost thirty years in an excruciatingly rural setting]. However, recent developments at The Gray Lady make me thinketh that she should just be called the 'dead-just not yet buried-lady'. Amazingly, just in the past month the paper has raised its daily copy price by twenty five percent, while at the same time downsizing its physical size [to 'the new national standard size'-what a copout] by eleven percent.
In fact, the difference in mass, heft, and general 'meaningfulness' between the Sunday, August 5th edition [the last day of the 13 1/2 inch wide format] and the 12 inch wide size of the Sunday, August 12th edition was way too easy to ascertain. It was the lightest Sunday Times I ever remember laying my hands on, and contained less pages than the previous Sunday edition-contrary to prior announcements. As someone said, the paper's motto should be changed to 'all the news that fits'. And on top of all this decrepitness, home delivery rates jumped considerably earlier this year.
It was a blurb at the bottom of the front section of the Sunday, August 12th edition that the paper's 'internal directive' on 'tightening up the editing process' was most pathetically noted. Inside the 'INSIDE' box was a 'Double Feature' blurb. Read this;
"Martin Scorsese muses on how Michelangelo Antonioni changed his perception, and..."
I'm automatically thinking, he changed his perception about what? This is moronic at best [even if one already knows the answer], and is concrete evidence that making the columns thinner [therefore unnaturally short, and rather uncomfortable to the human eye] and editing strangulatingly tight, has tangibly compromised the 'essential qualities' that make a good newspaper great right out of the box. Again, one word-pathetic.
Meanwhile, the acclaimed New York Times Book Review had 1 1/2 inches cut off the top of its head-ouch. While bigger isn't always better, it sure is in newspaper parlance-at least to those who truly care about such things. After all, people who say that they like smaller sized newspapers probably say so because they're so used to reading US Weekly or any number of Neanderthal targeted publications. Quite simply, The New York Times isn't on their reading level. And if the Sulzbergers don't gain some real sanity real fast, it won't be on my reading level either. The old adage of 'cutting off one's nose to spite one's face' should be reimagined for newspapermen everywhere-, quite simply, 'don't cut off your nose to save your face'.
That's not to say that The Times doesn't still have a lot to offer. Its overall design elements are superb, and its 'high impact' oversized photographs and illustrations [such as the Bonnie and Clyde 'shot' that dominates the front page of the August 12th Arts & Leisure section] provide a powerfully resonating take on the words that accompany such often fascinating elements. However, one feels that even with that larger-than-life illustrations, the newspaper no longer has enough space, or 'room to breathe'. Like the aforementioned 'blurb' edit, it’s just too 'tight', too constrictive. And when newspapers [and the previously glorious full page movie ads] get smaller, the ideas contained within get smaller as well. There was a reason why ancient cathedrals were built on such a magnificently grand scale. It was as if to say, 'this ain't no ordinary place you're coming to'. And as much as anything, newspapers are the modern day cathedrals of the mind. You diminish your own importance and your readers will follow. And that, while a pitiful shame, is exactly what's happening right now.
Speaking once again of the town of my youth, earlier this summer I saw Garry Barker, the publisher of the Flemingsburg Gazette, sitting outside his newspaper building. My dad and I have often read the amusing anecdotes of this comic 'raconteur' in local publications. However, I just knew when we passed him that day that I had to drop two quarters in a local box a buy his paper for the first time in years. It’s decent for a 127 year old small town paper, but I know the design elements, among other things, could be changed for the better. In fact, I go back to a 1924 copy of the Fleming Gazette [stamped with my grandfather's name and subscription date] for ideas on how to enhance Barker's enterprise.
First off, give its old name back, and give the masthead the-once again-simple, yet elegant look and feel of 83 years ago. Include amusements and amazements such as the upcoming Chautauqua meeting and tidbits from locales such as Pleasant Valley, Beechburg, and Tilton. And the one thing I most profoundly remember, the mesmerizing snippet about a local couple, bankrobber bandits nonetheless, caught in that faraway land called Los Angeles. The wonderfully informative, relentlessly enjoyable, and profoundly visceral nature of a small town paper from the 1920s providing guidance for all papers-both great and small-in the 21st century? One never knows where inspiration and a roadmap toward a very uncertain future might be found...just maybe in the pages of my grandfather's paper from all those years ago.
I can almost always find something interesting, and often fascinating, in its pages. Just this week, features on Jack Kerouac, Al Davis, and the seminal 1967 film Bonnie and Clyde were hearty appetizers. The Arts section, with the notable exception of Kelefa Sanneh's rise to prominence with his/her heavily featured articles on 'rap music' and other low brow forms of 'entertainment', remains a fine addition to any day. The sports section, which needs its own stand alone section every day of the week, has a high number of superb features and columnists. And the Sunday Travel, Book Review, and Magazine sections remain pleasurable entrees for a Sunday feast.
That said, The Times appears to be in a heavily accelerated state of retreat, much like the French and German armies' fatal marches from The Eastern Front. According to those in the 'PR' department, the high cost of newsprint, declining ad revenue and circulation, and the heightened advent of web news, are the major reasons for actions that may ultimately destroy The Gray Lady.
The recent fiascos at The Tribune Company and The Wall Street Journal attest to the extreme turbulence in the daily news industry. Where often arrogant supremacy [mainly in the viciously condescending editorial pages] once reigned supreme across the nation's [and indeed much of the world's] print media, an even uglier sense of terminal cancer has enveloped newspapers like a mushroom cloud in a Nevada desert. The egregiously short-term memory cycle of The Thievery Corporation, otherwise known as Wall Street, is considerably responsible for the currently suffocating aura engulfing publically traded media.
While the fact is that newspapers continue to make solid profits, the Wall Street gold diggers can't shank enough cash from any cow they ever get their hands on. And the stewardship, or lack of, on the part of the Sulzbergers, Bancrofts, The Tribune Co., and the Chandlers [among others] has led to horridly head spinning forecasts of impending doom.
As a young lad I created my own newspaper at my mother's kitchen table. The Carpenters Corner Times did nothing but give me an invigorating outlet for reimagining my own infinite fascination with newspapers. In the late 1970s I would often ask my dad to pull the car over in downtown Flemingsburg, Kentucky so I could hop out and put a quarter in the newspaper box and retrieve The 'beloved' Courier-Journal.
Back then, The Courier-Journal, owned [along with the long defunct Louisville Times] and curated by the legendary Bingham family, was distributed in every single one of Kentucky's 120 counties. Its broad pages, simple, yet elegant design, full page movie adverts, and wonderfully illustrated opinion page cartoons, courtesy of the late great Hugh Haynie, all combined to give me entrance into a world that was much more fascinating and alive than the one I actually lived in. And the Sunday edition of The Courier-Journal [along with the then locally distributed Sunday Cincinnati Enquirer], with its deliriously wonderful mass and heft, colour comics section, and extra value arts and opinion pages, all provided a sense of wonder and pleasure that has rarely been equaled.
It’s been years since The Courier-Journal has been available anywhere close to Flemingsburg, and both of the state's major afternoon newspapers [the previously mentioned Louisville Times and The Lexington Leader] have long since been buried. Both The Courier-Journal and Lexington Herald [ideologically corrosive counterparts] have long since been decimated by corporate chickanery, and the physical downsizing of both papers has tremendously accelerated in recent years. The number of separate editions has dwindled, the availability of each paper in opposing parts of the state is practically defunct, the Sunday comics sections have been reduced by one third of its pages [aren't young readers the ultimate lifeblood of any enterprise], and the newspapers themselves are almost small enough to be called tabloids-of course, that's the next step. The Courier-Journal used to have beautifully prominent masthead typography, but now it’s so small that one has to look closely to realize it’s actually The Courier-Journal.
What does all of this bring us to? Oddly enough, I just called in my first ever home delivery newspaper subscription this evening [yes, The New York Times:)] I love it so much, and I've purchased it practically every time I could get my hands on it [which wasn't often, considering I lived for almost thirty years in an excruciatingly rural setting]. However, recent developments at The Gray Lady make me thinketh that she should just be called the 'dead-just not yet buried-lady'. Amazingly, just in the past month the paper has raised its daily copy price by twenty five percent, while at the same time downsizing its physical size [to 'the new national standard size'-what a copout] by eleven percent.
In fact, the difference in mass, heft, and general 'meaningfulness' between the Sunday, August 5th edition [the last day of the 13 1/2 inch wide format] and the 12 inch wide size of the Sunday, August 12th edition was way too easy to ascertain. It was the lightest Sunday Times I ever remember laying my hands on, and contained less pages than the previous Sunday edition-contrary to prior announcements. As someone said, the paper's motto should be changed to 'all the news that fits'. And on top of all this decrepitness, home delivery rates jumped considerably earlier this year.
It was a blurb at the bottom of the front section of the Sunday, August 12th edition that the paper's 'internal directive' on 'tightening up the editing process' was most pathetically noted. Inside the 'INSIDE' box was a 'Double Feature' blurb. Read this;
"Martin Scorsese muses on how Michelangelo Antonioni changed his perception, and..."
I'm automatically thinking, he changed his perception about what? This is moronic at best [even if one already knows the answer], and is concrete evidence that making the columns thinner [therefore unnaturally short, and rather uncomfortable to the human eye] and editing strangulatingly tight, has tangibly compromised the 'essential qualities' that make a good newspaper great right out of the box. Again, one word-pathetic.
Meanwhile, the acclaimed New York Times Book Review had 1 1/2 inches cut off the top of its head-ouch. While bigger isn't always better, it sure is in newspaper parlance-at least to those who truly care about such things. After all, people who say that they like smaller sized newspapers probably say so because they're so used to reading US Weekly or any number of Neanderthal targeted publications. Quite simply, The New York Times isn't on their reading level. And if the Sulzbergers don't gain some real sanity real fast, it won't be on my reading level either. The old adage of 'cutting off one's nose to spite one's face' should be reimagined for newspapermen everywhere-, quite simply, 'don't cut off your nose to save your face'.
That's not to say that The Times doesn't still have a lot to offer. Its overall design elements are superb, and its 'high impact' oversized photographs and illustrations [such as the Bonnie and Clyde 'shot' that dominates the front page of the August 12th Arts & Leisure section] provide a powerfully resonating take on the words that accompany such often fascinating elements. However, one feels that even with that larger-than-life illustrations, the newspaper no longer has enough space, or 'room to breathe'. Like the aforementioned 'blurb' edit, it’s just too 'tight', too constrictive. And when newspapers [and the previously glorious full page movie ads] get smaller, the ideas contained within get smaller as well. There was a reason why ancient cathedrals were built on such a magnificently grand scale. It was as if to say, 'this ain't no ordinary place you're coming to'. And as much as anything, newspapers are the modern day cathedrals of the mind. You diminish your own importance and your readers will follow. And that, while a pitiful shame, is exactly what's happening right now.
Speaking once again of the town of my youth, earlier this summer I saw Garry Barker, the publisher of the Flemingsburg Gazette, sitting outside his newspaper building. My dad and I have often read the amusing anecdotes of this comic 'raconteur' in local publications. However, I just knew when we passed him that day that I had to drop two quarters in a local box a buy his paper for the first time in years. It’s decent for a 127 year old small town paper, but I know the design elements, among other things, could be changed for the better. In fact, I go back to a 1924 copy of the Fleming Gazette [stamped with my grandfather's name and subscription date] for ideas on how to enhance Barker's enterprise.
First off, give its old name back, and give the masthead the-once again-simple, yet elegant look and feel of 83 years ago. Include amusements and amazements such as the upcoming Chautauqua meeting and tidbits from locales such as Pleasant Valley, Beechburg, and Tilton. And the one thing I most profoundly remember, the mesmerizing snippet about a local couple, bankrobber bandits nonetheless, caught in that faraway land called Los Angeles. The wonderfully informative, relentlessly enjoyable, and profoundly visceral nature of a small town paper from the 1920s providing guidance for all papers-both great and small-in the 21st century? One never knows where inspiration and a roadmap toward a very uncertain future might be found...just maybe in the pages of my grandfather's paper from all those years ago.
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