James O'Shea: "The Deal From Hell"
http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2011-06-27/james-oshea-deal-hell
American newspapers have been in steep decline for years. The rise of the Internet usually gets the bulk of the blame. But a veteran newsman tells a different story. In a new book about the disastrous merger of two great media companies, he argues that greed, corruption and incompetence all played a part. Using investigative reporting skills, he gives an in-depth account of a bad merger that led to a bankruptcy and, he says, placed a dangerously troubled industry in greater peril. An insider's view on what has been dubbed "the deal from hell."
Guests
James O'Shea
former editor-in-chief of the Los Angeles Times; former managing editor of the Chicago Tribune.
Comments
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As a 34-yr. retired newspaper executive I agree with James that newspapers were slow to react. The news and advertising infrastructure the newspaper industry had firnly in place for decades was second to none; the industry could of launched Yahoo, Jobs and Autos dot com sites etc. Too much in fighting and a lack of vision. Regarding the person that said the content is for free -- free does not include the expense of a DSL connection, computer or smart ph. etc. -- as opposed to some change for a daily newspaper.
I argue the problem with hard print news has many faces. Revenue sources, sure. Competition from the Internet, sure. I'd suggest that the problem is also us - the consumer. The disconnect, I argue, is that the average consumer isn't willing to pay for the time and cost of objective, verifiable, investigative news coverage. We want our news NOW. Yes, hard print news is slower to reach its customers, but there is a reason for that - and it isn't print and distribution time. It's the time required to verify the veracity of the facts, data, and sources.
Teach the consumer how important these are, and the rest cures itself.
I subscribe to the Washington Post as well as use washingtonpost.com, and I like the idea of the New York Times charging for web content.
What I cannot understand is why doesn't the Post and other newspapers' websites provide enhanced content and accessibility to paid subscribers?
I'm paying the Post $75.00 a year. I honestly think I should get more respect than some tea-bagger in East Jesus Nowhere who just wants to make noise in their bulletin boards, and I also think that an enhanced login might encourage print subscribers to visit the website and also encourage freeloaders into paying something.
When the 'news' was bought by a few corporate interests that hold back stories that are not in line with what the corporate barons agree with then the people finally saw that what was given us as 'the news' was only part of the story - the most important parts missing the people decided not to invest in this corporate boondogggle anymore.
News that is twisted into line with what the corporations want said to the public - leaving out what we need to know, including actual facts rather than what it is decided that the people need to know does little to give people a reason to invest.
Truth in reporting went out the window about the same time as the newspapers started going into the trash.
Does anyone ever look at this reality? No! Why? Because it isn't 'newsworthy'.
There's nothing sacred about the newspapers' business model that is dying on its feet. For about the first century of this republic, the government subsidized publishers of all shades of opinion by devices such as very low postage rates and providing government advertising. It enabled competing opinions to be published where they otherwise would not have been. Nobody complained about govt. interference with content because it didn't happen.
We should look at creating a taxpayer-funded foundation specifically to promote independent publications in print, on the web or over the air. Democracy demands it.
Recommended reading: The Death & Life of American Journalism, by Robert W. McChesney & John Nichols.
Hello, Sean in Wabash... not there. Eugene in Brownsville... are you still there? Uh-h-h-h OK, Let's go on with this u-h-h-h, alright them Tommy in Tulsa? Am I on? You're on, really thank you for holding, glad you're there. Well, my first of six questions and then one observation. I used to be a paperboy, got bit by a dog. Mom made me quit... That's about all we have time for from Tommy. Can you comment on that, Jim O'Shea?" Yes, back then papers cost a quarter and Eisenhower was playing golf on page one. No need for Tiger Woods or ads on page one. Just the big black and white headlines. But then they took my pension and that's when the economic model went sour. Got too much lead from the linotype, thinking slower, forebrain seizing up. That's when I started Creative Loafing. The Paper? No, just loafing at my desk and then my walking papers.
Look: the papers were always censored by big business and they still are. The Mountain Woman is right that people won't buy a loaf already chewed on by rats. And the Internet is full of vermin too. The Constitution never guaranteed us information and hardly truth. A printing press or a server farm is a means of production operated by the wealthy class, and don't you forget it! Uh-h-h- er-a-a-a-a OK, Let's just get on with er-ah this ah-h-h-h-h.... whatever we were discussing. (A newspaper might have been good to soak up that spilled coffee.)
“Free”, also at the cost of a loss of privacy, if you browse with Google your every move is tracked and sold to the highest bidder which may be organized crime. Hidden costs are indeed much higher than we care to face. It would be nice to see some real journalism on the real status of the American economy as affected by the Information Age. I used to think outsourcing was the major cause of unemployment. It isn’t. It was IT. Business practices did hurt our newspapers, but IT dealt the incapacitating blow to written media, as well as to employment in general. We would not have a global economy on this scale if not for our current communications; outsourcing would be impossible and is also the reason there is only one cashier at the groceries, few factory workers. It is IT and automation. I read a military discussion on introducing IT and it said it must be done with vision, involvement and leadership. I have to say all three have been lacking as we moved into the Information Age and that is the root cause of our bad economy. We grew without intelligent leadership, without vision. We gave it away to HAL without a thought.
I think print journalism decline started in the business schools of America where we learned how to extract all forms of wealth from the enterprise for the share holders. I think advanced accounting techniques allowed us to extract forms of wealth that used to be taken for granted as plain, and obvious, for maintaining the enterprise, and largely out of reach to the shareholders. Modern business theory has turned the American business sector into a horde of rapists. We see this in every business sector that is shareholder based.
The other problem seems to be what is taught at Journalism schools. I think this problem is summed up by the words of Judith Miller when asked what went wrong with her set of stories leading up to Iraq. Her reply was "What do you expect me to do, become a expert on armaments?". YES, that's just what I expect you to do. I expect a journalist reporting on a war predicated on preemption of a weapons of mass destruction program to be covered by someone who is an expert on the reason the war is predicated on. I think her reaction shows just how far Journalism has fallen that she felt indignation at being held to task for being ignorant of the details of the science of arms. I'm sorry, someone like William Broad should have had that story. And so it goes.
And yes, the expectations of the American public are out of kilter. It's going to be a long time fixing this all.
Two journalistic enterprises from Alabama:
http://blog.locustfork.net/2011/06/why-do-working-class-people-vote-agai...
http://blog.locustfork.net/2010/09/alabama-football-coach-paul-bear-brya...
http://weldbham.com/secondfront/