Sunday, October 08, 2006
The strong keep getting stronger.
The staff at the Washington Post allegedly want to be bloggers, and who can blame them?
Editor & Publisher, covering the annual convention of the Online News Association, reports that Post editor Len Downie said that everyone in his newsroom wants to be a blogger. Wonkette also had a tidbit about the story.
Downie went on to say that rather than feeling threatened by the blogosphere, the paper shares a "symbiotic relationship" with bloggers such as Matt Drudge. In addition, he noted that readership of the Post has dramatically increased since the introduction of an online edition, making the Post an internationally-known brand. It looks like Downie and the Post are moving in the new media direction, and its staff members are more than happy to follow the shift. That's all fantastic, but what about localized news?
It goes without saying that for superb international coverage, you go to the New York Times. You go to the Wall Street Journal for the best business news. You go to the Post for in-depth political coverage and analysis. And in a connected, online society, we can get all this information without ever leaving our homes. But what will happen to the Boston Globe, the Times-Picayune, the Observer? There's no doubt in my mind that the print media giants will blossom into multimedia empires, but I fear that in that, we will lose the necessity and availability of local news. In our ability to get the highest quality news whenever we want, we could be putting the local papers out of business and lose the sense of community that a local newspaper used to instill in its readership. ¶ 2:00 PM
Editor & Publisher, covering the annual convention of the Online News Association, reports that Post editor Len Downie said that everyone in his newsroom wants to be a blogger. Wonkette also had a tidbit about the story.
Downie went on to say that rather than feeling threatened by the blogosphere, the paper shares a "symbiotic relationship" with bloggers such as Matt Drudge. In addition, he noted that readership of the Post has dramatically increased since the introduction of an online edition, making the Post an internationally-known brand. It looks like Downie and the Post are moving in the new media direction, and its staff members are more than happy to follow the shift. That's all fantastic, but what about localized news?
It goes without saying that for superb international coverage, you go to the New York Times. You go to the Wall Street Journal for the best business news. You go to the Post for in-depth political coverage and analysis. And in a connected, online society, we can get all this information without ever leaving our homes. But what will happen to the Boston Globe, the Times-Picayune, the Observer? There's no doubt in my mind that the print media giants will blossom into multimedia empires, but I fear that in that, we will lose the necessity and availability of local news. In our ability to get the highest quality news whenever we want, we could be putting the local papers out of business and lose the sense of community that a local newspaper used to instill in its readership. ¶ 2:00 PM
