Not Comics: CJR On A Digital-Aggressive Newspaper Model

The Columbia Journalism Review has a lengthy piece up on wholesale, transformative changes at the newspaper The Coloradoan. I think it's an interesting background piece that can inform a lot of thinking on one of the traditional, great homes for comics: the newspaper. It's one of those pieces where I think the sprawl of information is more intriguing than the attempts to fashion some sort of greater meaning out of the sum of those parts: things like engagement editors, and the revenue numbers, and the idea of reporters as personalities designed to bring people to the information the paper provides. It's a different model not just for the digital component but for how that has forced a reappraisal of what role simply providing information plays -- that sounds dumb, but one thing newspapers struggled with in the '00s is that a chunk of the very basic role they played in folks' lives, like providing movie times, had for the first time successfully moved elsewhere. I would also imagine there is one or two things in here on comics more generally. I think the corporate backdrop is fascinating, too, that this is being facilitated by Gannett, a company that does not have the best reputation amongst the newspeople I know in terms of supporting their papers during the financial disruptions of five to ten years ago.

Anyway, this isn't a super-rigorous piece, but I think it's one that allows room for personal interpretation and that features an engaging narrative.
 
posted 12:30 am PST | Permalink
 

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