The business of journalism and news reporting isn’t much of a business anymore. The damage – like a super hurricane battering a low-lying coastal village – has been epic. The collapse, which started in earnest in 2009, has continued unabated since. By the end of this decade we’ll be lucky if any of the huts […]
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Tag Archives: The Great Media Collapse
Shot Down in Flames: Good-bye, Boston Phoenix
March 18, 2013 
3 Comments
It’s tempting to talk about the possibility of rebirth from the flames of disaster when discussing the sudden demise of the Boston Phoenix, the once legendary alternative newspaper in Boston. But I’ll spare you. Because the Boston Phoenix is done. Toast. A victim of the ongoing Great Media Collapse that started in earnest in 2009. […]
Read moreBTW – Journalism Continues to Collapse
February 1, 2013 13 Comments
Remember 2009? The year that I like to call “The Great Media Collapse.” Layoffs galore. Newspapers folding. Magazines selling for peanuts (remember the $5 million fire sale for BusinessWeek?). 2009 ended with more than 14,000 journalists in the unemployment line and newspaper circulations plunging to the lowest levels since the 1940s. Not a good year […]
Read moreIs Social Media More Important than Traditional Media?
March 28, 2012 9 Comments
What is better for a brand? A.) 25 million Facebook fans B.) An article in the New York Times Ideally, you’d like both. But if forced to pick, I’d probably go with A. Facebook fans are a constant – a set of people who have opted into your content. While they don’t all receive your […]
Read moreA Vanishing Species: Fact-based Journalism
March 15, 2012 4 Comments
“Well, opinions are like assholes. Everybody has one.” – Clint Eastwood as Dirty Harry in “Dead Pool” Here is the sad story about FACT. The unfortunate fellow has been thumped on the noggin, hog-tied, and dragged unconscious into a locked closet by OPINION, SPECULATION, and RHETORIC. The big enablers of this Gang of Three? […]
Read morePaywalls, Journalism & the Boston Globe
October 21, 2011 0 Comments
When I was a newspaper reporter, my peers and I referred to ourselves as “Inked-Stained Wretches.” It was our way of celebrating the broadsheet. The printed product that we all wrote for. From an early age, I wanted to be a newspaperman. I was the editor-in-chief of my high school newspaper; news editor and […]
Read moreJournalism Ethics in the 86,400-second News Cycle
July 7, 2011 0 Comments
It is difficult to imagine the ethical journey for journalists who would authorize hacking into a missing teenage girl’s mobile phone in order to scour the content for a salacious headline. Worse is when these same journalists then delete messages from a full voicemail box so that additional messages could be left behind – giving […]
Read moreNewspaper Revenues Continue to Plummet
June 2, 2010 0 Comments
What do newspapers have in common with dinosaurs? They once both ruled the world, but eventually went extinct. Yes, newspapers are still with us. But for how long? The Associated Press recently reported on the first quarter 2010 revenues for the industry. It was ugly: Ad revenue dropped 10 percent to $6 billion This was […]
Read moreThe Age of Post-Modern Journalism
April 5, 2010 2 Comments
In a political back-and-forth on Facebook recently, I cited and linked to a New York Times article. My colleague retorted: “Sorry, I don’t subscribe to the notion that the New York Times prints impartial news.” This is from a college-educated public relations executive. I must admit that it threw me. There is no doubt that […]
Read moreIs Free Content Just a Stage in the Internet’s Growth?
January 22, 2010 2 Comments
The New York Times announced this week that it will begin to charge for content – again – in 2011. The Times hasn’t mapped out a plan on how it will accomplish this, but it brings up a larger question: Is free content just a stage we’re going through in the evolution of the Internet? […]
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