Death Throes

this is the death knell for both Drew Sharp and Rosenberg.

Eh. Probably not.

print journalism in general. Pretty soon the NY Times will go to Sunday delivery only, mark my words. Layoffs are massive throughout the industry, and local broadcast news is starting to go the same way, soon to be followed by network broadcast news except for 24/7 channels like CNN, Fox, MSNBC, etc. A few months back people were suggesting Brian try to take a job opening up at AANews, and I commented that he probably was doing better with THIS gig- and he slyly confirmed it....

Am I the only one amused by finally getting an answer about of whether or not Brian read the old-school Haloscan comments?

Dumb q from former Mich resident from way back in tha day:
Didn't these papers work jointly in the 80s? Why on earth didn't they go back to that model? Does Drew Sharp have dirt on the editors?

Why do they need two papers? I know one leans left and one leans right, but I can't think of any other comparably sized city with two major daily papers. And even in cities where there is only one, that one is doing the impossible and losing money as a monopoly.

...for pretty much the newspaper industry and journalism as a career. Four years ago today, my Columbia grad classmates and myself celebrated the end of the Fall term with the equivalent of a Winter Ball/Homecoming/Prom type event after busting our asses reporting, writing and, in a broadcast major's case like myself, recording, editing and scripting. I don't think any of us four years ago could foretell what would happen today cause otherwise we would have all gone to law school or something.

In any event, it is the beginning of the end--the good is maybe certain writers people hate will go by the wayside. Even the cream-of-the-crop papers (like the prominent one I work at) are bleeding and I'm pretty sure it's just the beginning. The web is the new way and until the old dogs who refuse to learn new tricks figure it out, the vestiges of times past are going to fall hard one by one.

The disaggregation of media is going to happen everywhere. Thanks to MGo/Brian and the other Michigan football sites, I have little use for ESPN.com. I imagine that this will be a similar story for fans of other teams as they gather around sources of greater in depth analysis.

A few headline worthy, broad spectrum reporters will have a loyal following and either make a mark on their own or capture the vast portion of the revenue of a given site, taking the revenue currently paid to the Pat Forde's out of the world.

The days of a lazy POS like Sharp having a reporter job are clearly numbered.

Yes, this does make me sad on many levels. I worked as a print journalist for over a decade. Loved it. It was such a rush. Of course, I made no cheddar and worked the job 24/7. Crazy, crazy times in my life. Awesome memories.

So, its sad.....but only in a way when your 85-year-old grandfather is wasting away in the hospital with painful cancer and disease. Sad to see him pass, but a blessing.

Blessing may be hyperbole in the newspapers case.......but i am encouraged by the evolution of the new media......in the last five years, I am a more informed sports fans thanks to sports blogs like this and other and more informed in current events thanks to on line sources like politico, roll, kos, than I ever was from reading and watching the more traditional sources of news.

Especially second-rate schools like Toledo (oooh, dissing Carty in a whole new way!). Firms are shedding lawyers by the minute.

and even take some pride in delivering the News (and later the Free Press).

Til I got old enough to be embarrassed -- and embittered -- by having to collect from people every week.

But it dont take a weatherman...

Yeah? Yeah? Well....my medium can be read at the breakfast table with a coffee and a biscotti.

That, and marketers still get a lot more business from display ads instead of online ones. Until the market pays for banners what it pays for 1p4c's, rather than less than a tenth of that, the print media will be fine.

Not everyone moved to Switzerland when their economy was better than the United States.

The crap economy has slashed ad budgets and media are taking it in the teeth, but I see it as a temporary thing, not a seismic shift.

We will not go quietly into the night. We will not go down without a fight. We're going to live one. We're going to survive.

And if you thought Drew Sharp was bad, go read comments on Youtube. Paper can be dumb at times, but consider it took me over two decades of Michigan fandom to find this blog; when I moved to another city, it took me less than a minute to find the town's paper of record.

If we are mark'd to die, we are enow
To do our country loss; and if to live,
The fewer men, the greater share of honour.
God's will! I pray thee, wish not one man more.
By Jove, I am not covetous for gold,
Nor care I who doth feed upon my cost;
It yearns me not if men my garments wear;
Such outward things dwell not in my desires.
But if it be a sin to covet honour,
I am the most offending soul alive.
No, faith, my coz, wish not a man from England.
God's peace! I would not lose so great an honour
As one man more methinks would share from me
For the best hope I have. O, do not wish one more!
Rather proclaim it, Westmoreland, through my host,
That he which hath no stomach to this fight,
Let him depart; his passport shall be made,
And crowns for convoy put into his purse;
We would not die in that man's company
That fears his fellowship to die with us.

Nothing compares to this site for current news/analysis about Wolverine sports. (major sports)
I used to scour the internet looking for articles about the Wolverines. Now I have deleted bookmarks linking to DetNews, Freep, Mlive, Esspin, Fox, and others. I get all the news I can use right here.

There is a reason that, say, ESPN sensationalizes everything and never checks its sources and reports incorrect stuff with no remorse ...

The checks and balances system is gone. There is no culpability anymore, because it's all about bringing in more eyes to the website. Reporting and journalism is dead.

It's all anonymous sources and rumors now. That leads to lots of horrible reports and so forth. The death of newspapers is not good for accountability.

"Successful things on the internet usually appeal a great deal to a fervent niche."

That, I think, is one of the reasons there should be something other than the internet. Something like newspapers. The internet is great for many things, but to this point its personality has leaned towards creating a million tiny communities formed around a million tiny things (most of which harbor hostility toward some other tiny community -- the internet is a remarkable source of unfiltered faceless vitriol). That's fine, but it can't be all there is.

Believe me, I love the internet, but I don't think it's nowhere near as wonderful and rosy as this post makes it sound. My hope is that the newspaper industry adapts and sticks around, if for no other reason than to balance the internet.