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Editorial: We’re not dead yet
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Ever since I was old enough to know what a newspaper was, I’ve heard that it’s a dying industry. So it’s with some amazement that I find myself in the year 2008, working in the business and invited to the groundbreaking of a multi-million dollar facility that will house our new presses.
Both of my parents grew up in households without a television. They depended on the newspaper and the radio for news and entertainment. As television viewing proliferated in this country and many programs migrated from radio, many prematurely heralded the death of that medium. Likewise, when cable television and the VCR came ’round, many believed it was the end for broadcast television and movie theaters.
But they all adapted to fill a new need. Radio stations entertained modern commuters. Yes, some movie theaters shuttered, but others added stadium seating, larger screens and mega sound systems. TV broadcasters took their gobs of money and purchased the bulk of the cable channels, ensuring their stranglehold over that industry.
Newspaper’s endurance, in my opinion, is a bit more complex. It’s based on investment and return. Think about the number of newspapers between Marco Island and Fort Myers — with their editors, reporters and photographers. That’s a lot of publications and a lot of people. And that’s my point. Newspapers outnumber radio and television news staffs in communities large and small by a ratio of more than 10 to one.
For decades, television and radio have the unique ability to deliver news coverage as it happens. Meaning that for decades they’ve had the opportunity to send the death blow to newspapers by using their profits to saturate communities with local news and information, eliminating the need for you to wait around for us to print, press and deliver.
Today we find ourselves in the mist of the Web age and the playing field has been leveled. We can also deliver news as it happens. Yet, the printing press remains viable. There’s just something about having the news delivered directly to your home in such a tangible way.
I do see a time when ink and paper will fade into the background, but the people who own the presses are best positioned to adapt and continue delivering relevant news — with all the vivid and sometimes gory details. Unless of course, we opt to gut our newsrooms in an effort to improve the bottom line. Once we float to the shallow end of the pool, I’m afraid we’ll be playing Marco Polo all by ourselves.
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If you're not dead yet, you soon will be if you can't find columnists better than Don Farmer and cub reporters better than Leslie Williams. The Eagle was worth reading for one year: the year of Tom Rife and Ed Bania. Bania may not have been the most polished writer in the world, but he researched his facts and told both sides of the story. Leslie is a parrot-ess who will ruin her career if she stays on the Eagle much longer.
#1 Posted by blackwidow on March 3, 2008 at 12:08 p.m. (Suggest removal)
blackwidow: I agree with everything you wrote. This newspaper has become a public relations division of Marco Island's Chamber of Commerce. But that is the nature of the beast, revenue is what keeps this paper afloat. Don't believe everything you read is certianly applicable when flipping through the pages of our hometown paper. I feel that Ms. Williams either has no mentor or she is wasting her time. If she wants to learn how to report a story she should seek work at Gannett and become a good reporter. Working for an editor that is more interested in advertising (bottem line), then reporting news is good only for someone who wants to be in advertising.
#2 Posted by Fossil on March 4, 2008 at 7:47 a.m. (Suggest removal)
There's an old adage about not picking a fight with those who buy ink by the tanker-load. I learned it the hard way when I tried to get a letter to the editor published that was critical of Billy Bruce's coverage of the city's STRP "workshop" in the Naples Daily News. You remember Billy Bruce? The mole-like character who covered Marco for the NDN before moving on to Tallahassee? Bruce's coverage of the "workshop" was entirely one-sided in favor of the city while the workshop iself was equally one-sided in that the city carefully excluded from the panel anyone who knew anything about onsite wastewater treatment. Residents were denied any information about the pros and cons of sewers and the dangers they impose on waterfront communities.
Anyway, I couldn't get my letter published even though I whittled it down to the newspaper imposed limit and my audacity in trying simply caused Bruce to redouble his efforts to discredit me and CARES. When e-mails on the city computer were obtained under a Sunshine Law request, there were many between Bruce, the city manager and various councilors in which he took great pride getting out the city story and lambasting CARES. The e-mails are there for anyone to see. Billy Bruce was a shill for the city, gainfully employed by the Naples Daily News, a Scripps newspaper. That's the quality of the press we had and have in Southwest Florida and much of the reason I hold the media in such low regard.
The truth will set you free ... but only if the truth is told!
Ed Foster
#3 Posted by EdFoster on March 4, 2008 at 8:39 a.m. (Suggest removal)
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