Black and White and Read All Over 0
Print journalism can pack a large amount of information into a small amount of time and space. Persons can read much more information in five minutes than can be narrated in five minutes. That’s why half an hour with a good newspaper or news magazine gives us a much greater return on investment and much more depth of information than half a day of news broadcasts.
But the economics of print journalism are failing. Reportage, printing, and delivery cost lots of money–money that these days goes to Craig’s List and, God help me, E! Online.
No solutions here. Wish I had ’em, but I don’t.
Clay Shirky in the Guardian (emphasis added):
(snip)
Society doesn’t need newspapers. What we need is journalism. For a century, the imperatives to strengthen journalism and to strengthen newspapers have been so tightly wound as to be indistinguishable. That’s been a fine accident to have, but when that accident stops, as it is stopping before our eyes, we’re going to need lots of other ways to strengthen journalism instead.
