Business as Usual

I know that you're all digital creatures, and, as such, you probably don't prefer to read the hard copy of the newspaper, but since they distribute the NY Times for free on campus, you should all make an effort to get today's (Monday's) paper so that you can catch a glimpse of the bundle of journalism-related stories as they appear on the front page of the business section. There's one about new hyper-local web sites (some of which use reporters, some of which don't). There's one offering another iteration of the micro-payment theory (with interesting new developments with regard to the AP and Google News). There's another about the possibility of The Boston Globe going under. And there's another about how magazines are having to raise their cover charges just to survive. It's worth seeing it all in one place, on paper, while you can.

Print's Past

Anyone interested in the newspaper-history and media-criticism elements of some of the readings -- the Hirschorn piece about front pages, the David Carr story's about online payments and alt weeklies, and the Louis Menand story about the Village Voice -- should read this story in the New Yorker about the history of the Wall Street Journal. The creation of both the Hearst empire and the New York Times is also covered.

On John Leonard

NY Times critic A.O. Scott wrote this nice remembrance of the critic John Leonard when Leonard died at the end of last year. It's worth reading to get a sense of just how much a book/culture critic needs to know and read, and just how far and wide their work and writing can reach. (Leonard is the critic who wrote the book reviews from Harper's that we're reading for Tuesday's class.)

Other Models

You'll be seeing a lot of these -- stories about daily papers going digital and other stories about other types of papers that somehow are succeeding. I mentioned David Carr's media column the other week, and you should all make a point of reading him every Monday in the NYT (in the business section.) Carr has a very interesting history. He was the editor of an alternative weekly in DC, I think, before coming to the Times. Before that he was actually a crack addict (he wrote a book last year on the subject.) He's a very smart and funny and sharp writer, and he knows newspapers and magazines inside out. Here's his column from yesterday, written from Austin, Texas, where he was covering SXSW.

And here's a more newsy piece about the impending demise of daily print in Michigan.

I don't mean for these to be too depressing. As we discussed in class, there will still be plenty of writing, blogging, and web reporting. The more aware you are of the landscape, the more prepared you'll be for whatever turns you need to take.

Mysterious Blog Behavior

Ok, well Caroline has been having some strange tech trouble with the blog. And now I'm sharing some of the same confusion. When I try to paste the URL to her blog into the blog roll with the rest of the class blogs the link keeps taking a user back to this blog. So here's a link to Caroline's blog. Go read it. (If the link works). She has some links to interesting stories about arts and artists and technology and the economy.

Steinem Vs. Solomon

You should all go hear Gloria Steinem speak March 19 at Torp at 2 pm.
Here's a Q and A with her if you want some background.

DFW, DC and VF

In case any of you are inclined to read more on David Foster Wallace, the writer who wrote the piece that we read about the Maine Lobster Festival from Gourmet, here's a longish story from the New Yorker about Wallace's career and his struggle with depression.

And here's David Carr's Media Equation column from Monday's New York Times in which he again articulates the logic behind his micro-payment proposal and how it's seemingly the only idea that will save newspapers.

And, while we're at it, here's a fantastic Virginia Heffernan column that came to mind after our discussion Tuesday regarding different newspaper policies with respect to reader comments and how to edit, clean-up or attribute them. Very funny, smart and insightful as always.

... OK, and one more. This just went up on the NY Times site about 20 minutes ago, and it offers more dire news for newspapers.