Not Comics: The Newspaper Implosion From The Inside

I thought this editorial by a person listed as the public editor of the Philadelphia Daily News interesting in all sorts of ways on the general subject of the ongoing newspaper crisis that seems to forcing out so many cartoonists. The writer penned this piece in the wake of a bunch of Philadelphia-area related cuts, including one of veteran cartoonist Tony Auth from his staff position.

I'm a little confused like I imagine some readers might be that someone that lives in South Dakota is suggesting lessons for a newspaper in terms of not reflecting local culture and outlooks more, and that anyone writing a chatty essay like this one really embodies getting back to a core mission, but that's me being cranky. Mostly, though, I think it's a decent snapshot of attitudes by a newspaper culture participant and observer about the difficult situation facing all newspapers right now. This includes the fact that maybe people enmeshed in that culture aren't necessarily going to offer up helpful fixes. For instance, asserting newspapers need to keep institutional memory and young people will be popular in a newsroom made up of those things, but what if a paper can't keep both? How much institutional memory does a paper need? What does that entail in practical terms? Do terms like "flexibility" and "the ability to move quickly" really mean anything, or are they just broadly generic descriptives that carry with them a kind of "well, of course those things are good" weight? Is that viral Olive Garden review really a victory for local journalism, and if so, does it teach us anything that can be replicated in another market? This story seems far, far from over, although as a reader of those kinds of publications and someone that roots for the traditional staffed editorial cartooning positions, I worry that it's a story still being hashed out in vague terms.
 
posted 7:00 am PST | Permalink
 

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