There are some great writers and journalists out there and I feel sorry for them as the squeeze is on. But like many things that are shifting, maybe newspapers have to be re-imagined. I don't read nor have I subscribed to a daily paper of any kind in over 20 years. I read non-mainstream sources the most and weekly's -- a lot of the stuff like Classifieds, sports, movies -- I use the web for all that stuff now.

Blogs are cool, some... and Twitter and a variety of social networking and getting people sharing info, reading, writing -- but we need good investigative journalism and good edititorial and good overall columnsists... how it shuold re-emerge? I don't know... there will be casualties of war -- maybe some will write books, do other stuff -- and some who were hanging on thinking that had a lifetime tenure may be out to pasture not all too soon. And there is a lot of competent but not exceptional writing. I have a close friend who is a major columnist, award winning in a major city -- and I know that whatever happens -- he will land on his feet because he's so talented and has such a great body of work already.

I'm surprised no one has come up with a fresh approach to newspapers? Maybe a slim edition with really hot-off-the-press local info? And then a big Sunday with a lot of features worthy of people's time? I don't know... someone has to come up with something...

My wife got a new job today. Whew.

GrizzledVeteran wrote:My wife got a new job today. Whew.

Joy and happiness! Offer her congratulations. Things are tough all over and it is good to hear something (anything!) that is positive. Glad to hear you can breath a little easier.

Personally I love the newspaper. I mean online news is great because of the ease of access and multiple sources and the blog thing, but there's nothing like a paper in your hand that you can read anywhere (especially on the John).

SPINcity

You may remember Zolecki from his time at The Inquirer. He was our Phillies beat writer for six years before he abandoned us and ran off to find comfort in the arms of some trashy third-rate Internet outfit - I think it's called MLB.com or something.

From Philly.com

That article spent more time killing Zolecki than it did on the J-Roll.

Yeah, but it's Gonzo, so it doesn't really count.

This probably doesn't mean much to many people, but John Harvey, the news adviser of The Daily Collegian, was fired today. John was a great teacher and the reason The Collegian was one of the best college papers in the country for such a long time. Without him, Penn State's supposedly lauded journalism program would be nothing. A couple posters on this board have been direct disciples of his teaching, and even more have contributed to articles or broken news all of you have read.

It's a sad day in Penn State history. I can only hope there's time left to save it.

no lauber this week as he was required to take a one week furlough.

Barry Jive wrote:This probably doesn't mean much to many people, but John Harvey, the news adviser of The Daily Collegian, was fired today. John was a great teacher and the reason The Collegian was one of the best college papers in the country for such a long time. Without him, Penn State's supposedly lauded journalism program would be nothing. A couple posters on this board have been direct disciples of his teaching, and even more have contributed to articles or broken news all of you have read.

It's a sad day in Penn State history. I can only hope there's time left to save it.

Why was he fired? Just wondering.

the official reason was "subordination," i guess because he's making the business division look awful by comparison

Gonzo (of the Inquirer) was on 950AM this afternoon and mentioned that there is talk of charging $5 a month for Philly.com.

Warszawa wrote:Gonzo (of the Inquirer) was on 950AM this afternoon and mentioned that there is talk of charging $5 a month for Philly.com.

Giving it away for free hasn't really worked, right?

I just read an article on Salon, I think, the other day about how the idea of newspapers charging for their websites is a terrible idea. So yea....

I get the Sunday paper only and it's purely for the coupons and the crossword puzzles.

I think there will eventually be a tiered system put in place, where maybe 10% of the content online would be free, and then you'd have monthly fees as well as micro fees based on which articles you want to read.

The thing is, it seems that this industry in particular isn't really good at thinking outside of the box.

I'm not sure if the WSJ has commented on how their online subscription service has gone, but as someone who doesn't pay for it, I really don't feel like I'm missing much, and that's a compliment. For general reading, it works out well.

Paying for online news: Sorry, but the math just doesn’t work.

Not the article I mentioned, although I think it's actually better.

FTN wrote:I think there will eventually be a tiered system put in place, where maybe 10% of the content online would be free, and then you'd have monthly fees as well as micro fees based on which articles you want to read.

The thing is, it seems that this industry in particular isn't really good at thinking outside of the box.

It seems like that would be a logical idea, but it's something that cable companies haven't really gotten a grasp of, so how are newspapers gonna get it? They very well might, but I doubt it.

This is kind of the way I envision it working.

A site like Philly.com will buy the local Philadelphia newspapers, or the newspapers will all consolidate and form one website. The newspapers would retain their best writers, who would continue to write original content. The site would also continue to purchase general stories from the AP. But the site would add social networking stuff, a facebook like application, as well as organization tools, stuff like zagat, an ebay type place. Basically, a lot of what these sites already offer, but juiced up more functional versions, stuff that people want to use, stuff people need to use every day.

Right now, no one HAS to go to the Inquirer's site to get news, or to the Boston Globe's site to get news, they can go to hundreds of free sites that offer the same content for free. These sites need to find unique applications, tools, and features that people need and can't get anywhere else.