Pat Shuff

Newspaper Death Watch

After the fall of the wall a contigent including American journalism professors and professionals from the publishing industry traveled to the former Eastern Bloc countries to give seminars advising the former state writers on entry into their Brave New World of market based writing, touching on the basics of factuality, readership interest, conciseness etc. One of the attendees, feeling gloomy about his prospects, raised his hand to query, "Well, if we are not to paid by the word anymore then on what basis is compensation?"

Oooo that's harsh.

Clearly more waking manhours are spent seeking meaningful information in the migration to the blogosphere from newspapers for many wondrous, dextrous reasons including that which the newpapers previously provided, and that--- because it is free.

Newspaper Death Watch

Drudge, Limbaugh, Fox, WSJ.

Etc.

Not to agree or embrace but to recognize.

Nothing succeeds like success. Perhaps newspapers and similar failing broadcast outlets are missing something somewhere somehow, right there, by their nose, in their shoes?

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Quotes. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.

If any man wish to write in a clear style, let him be first clear in his thoughts; and if any would write in a noble style, let him first possess a noble soul.

Men show their characters in nothing more clearly than in what they think laughable.

Nothing is worse than active ignorance.

The intelligent man finds almost everything ridiculous, the sensible man hardly anything.

He who wishes to exert a useful influence must be careful to insult nothing. Let him not be troubled by what seems absurd, but concentrate his energies to the creation of what is good. He must not demolish, but build. He must raise temples where mankind may come and partake of the purest pleasure.

We only see what we know.

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Advice to newspaper editors and management,
pride Goethe before a fall. Fat chance.

The newspapers' destiny is just another bragging
rights bauble twirling around a fatcat's ring finger
adjacent to the money losing sports team and senator or two. Some things in life get too late to learn.