The vestigial newspaper
It isn't often that I take someone's comment on a story and use it as the heart of a post, but someone named Greg Lee nailed it and summarized what I've been watching, too. The context is this latest story about layoffs and buy-outs at the Boston Globe. Like Mr. Lee, I read the comments of the editor and said, "Nice try." Here's what Mr. Lee said:
I understand the financial realities that drive the recent moves by the Boston Globe. It is now, however, a lesser paper than it was, before this current process.
What was touted to subscribers as redesign and layout changes, has actually been evidence of a slow retreat in journalism, at the Globe. The layout changes feature bigger type sections, more graphics and white space, and much less news coverage and op-ed pieces.
It's depressing, as a life-long subscriber of over 45 years, to see this current decline in the Boston Globe. The new bottom line is less news coverage and less in-depth journalism, in the daily edition. Economic reality dictates these changes. I understand that point. But please don't call process an improvement or a new birth of possibility. Call it what it is, which is slow, strategic retreat.
How much more so when we watch the paper's owner invest in a new on-line "vertical" called STAT. Here's the promo:
People at the Globe have told me that 40 people have been recruited for this venture. That's a hefty annual budget. Time will tell whether STAT rises to the level of the other big producers in the health care news arena--Pro Publica, Kaiser Health News, and the New York Times. Time will tell, too, whether--even with great reporting and presentation--STAT will succeed as a business venture.
But I return to Mr. Lee's comment. For several years, the management has shed as much as possible in costs and journalistic assets, hoping that enough remained to look and feel like the Globe. Now, it must be difficult to sit in the shrinking Globe newsroom while millions of dollars are allocated to a new enterprise. The investment in STAT is the strongest indication that the newspaper is now a vestigial organ in the minds of the owners.
I understand the financial realities that drive the recent moves by the Boston Globe. It is now, however, a lesser paper than it was, before this current process.
What was touted to subscribers as redesign and layout changes, has actually been evidence of a slow retreat in journalism, at the Globe. The layout changes feature bigger type sections, more graphics and white space, and much less news coverage and op-ed pieces.
It's depressing, as a life-long subscriber of over 45 years, to see this current decline in the Boston Globe. The new bottom line is less news coverage and less in-depth journalism, in the daily edition. Economic reality dictates these changes. I understand that point. But please don't call process an improvement or a new birth of possibility. Call it what it is, which is slow, strategic retreat.
How much more so when we watch the paper's owner invest in a new on-line "vertical" called STAT. Here's the promo:
People at the Globe have told me that 40 people have been recruited for this venture. That's a hefty annual budget. Time will tell whether STAT rises to the level of the other big producers in the health care news arena--Pro Publica, Kaiser Health News, and the New York Times. Time will tell, too, whether--even with great reporting and presentation--STAT will succeed as a business venture.
But I return to Mr. Lee's comment. For several years, the management has shed as much as possible in costs and journalistic assets, hoping that enough remained to look and feel like the Globe. Now, it must be difficult to sit in the shrinking Globe newsroom while millions of dollars are allocated to a new enterprise. The investment in STAT is the strongest indication that the newspaper is now a vestigial organ in the minds of the owners.
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