Gawker covers the Newspaper Association of America publishers’ confab in New York. S.O.S. in both meanings (save our ship; same old shit):
This morning’s opening session of the Newspaper Association of America’s annual convention at the Marriott Marquis did not, for the most part, stray from the now-tired narrative about newspapers and their modern troubles. . . .
We are looking forward to the day when we don’t have these discussions about “the future of newspapers.” Every time, it goes like this: Journalism lives, but print is dead! Investors are, mostly, evil! Let us not forget that profit margins are still healthy! And most important: Newspapers are not losing readers! Remember the Internet!
Gawker also aptly sums up the industry’s real reaction to Craig Newmark, who was interviewed by Charlie Rose:
Perhaps what they find most frustrating about Mr. Newmark is his (so-far) almost total disregard for making a huge profit off of Craigslist–he’s a competitor, but he’s rejecting the cash that so many othes would gladly, desperately take.
You see, they think this is their money. No, it was our money once and now it is ours again. Simple rule of life, folks: You shouldn’t have to pay for anything you shouldn’t have to pay for. Just because someone manages to get that money out of us for awhile, that doesn’t make it theirs. Newspapers do not have some God-given right to classified revenue. Oh, yes, it was wonderful that house, job, and car ads subsidized journalism for many years. But those days are over. Get used to it. Rather still pining for business realities that are long gone, these people need to concentrate on finding and inventing new business models for news.
