“If I were an editor right now, I would report the hell out of environmental news,” Jones said. “If you want to demonstrate to a community that you care about their welfare, report on air and water. Because people care about what affects them. The idea that they need a newspaper to tell them this is important for them to realize and important for newspapers to demonstrate.
And to readers concerned about preserving the future and quality of newspapers, Jones had a call to action:
“If you don’t pay for a subscription to a newspaper, your local newspaper, go out and pay for one. Buy a subscription to a newspaper. And then write a letter to the editor and say to the editor, ‘Look, I’m one of your customers. I’m willing to support you. I’m willing to giving you a shot at proving to me that it’s worth it to be your supporter and demonstrate that support by buying this subscription. But your part of this deal is you give me news. I. Want. News. I don’t want T-ball coverage, I want news. I don’t want Britney Spears, I want news. I don’t want just wire copy, I want news. I want you tell me what’s going on in my town, what’s really happening. That’s my deal with you. I’ll support you, that’s your part of the bargain.’”
What Alex Jones misses here is that the way we read paper is changing right before our very eyes, as we start reading more on screens, and thuis we lose what reading is really all about. Newspapers on papers will die as screening or screen-reading becomes pervasive. We need to study this differnces between reading and screening on screens more. THIS is what will kill newspapers.
#1 Posted by Danny Bloom, CJR on Thu 8 Oct 2009 at 11:08 AM
It's pretty funny he uses a cannonball as a metaphor for Journalism today. Could he be any more out of touch?
#2 Posted by Ryan Harrington, CJR on Fri 4 Dec 2009 at 10:18 AM