Harper’s Magazine story about newspaper decline disappoints
The November edition of Harper’s magazine carries an article entitled “Final Edition – Twilight of the American newspaper,” written by Richard Rodriguez.
The article was a disappointment on many levels. I expected a thoughtful analysis of the decline of newspapers in North America, with new revelations and data thrown in for good measure. I expected an overview of readership and advertising trends and perhaps a discussion about the impact of digital media on newspapers.
Instead, what I got was a rambling and disjointed history of two San Francisco-based newspapers, the San Francisco Chronicle (owned by the Heart Corporation), and the San Francisco Examiner, complete with arcane anecdotes and character profiles about people who owned and worked at the paper eons ago. Who cares?
Rodriguez expends several hundred words on a former columnist for the Chronicle named Herb Caen. In the 1950s, Caen’s column was widely read and he “set the conversation for San Francisco.” This type of detail would be useful in a portrait about San Francisco or a profile about former columnists, but to spend so much ink on one incidental figure in a story about newspaper decline is irresponsible – and irritating.
There is hardly any mention of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, which earlier this year became the first daily newspaper in the U.S. to shutter its print edition and move to an entirely digital format. Other daily papers have followed suit and it would have been interesting to explore that industry trend.
Nor was there any reporting of Craigslist, the online classified site that has taken a $10 billion bite out of newspaper classified revenues over the past decade. Some industry watchers have suggested that Craigslist is the main reason why newspapers today are suffering. Why was that glossed over?
How are newspaper publishers coping with the rise of digital media? What are they doing to remain relevant and to retain readers? What is the role of a newspaper today, compared to a generation ago? These questions go unanswered in a story that promises far more than it delivers.
If you’re looking for the definitive article documenting the rise and fall of newspapers in North America, this Harper’s article isn’t it.
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With a headline like that on the cover’s of Harper’s, I would buy it. But not after reading this Blog with an analysis of really poor journalism. Really, newspaper, as well as magazines are suffering. Sensational headlines to make the potential reader buy the magazine are all the rage these days, but often, as is the case of November Harper’s, they fail to deliver. This further alienates readers, who won’t look to Harper’s in future editions for ‘good’ journalism. The grabbing headline on the front is a subject that really cries for a thorough analysis! Harper’s doesn’t deliver!