For all its massive complexity and expense, the US health insurance model rests entirely upon a single, simply understood Jenga piece: the willingness of private employers to pay for private health insurance and eat its inefficiencies. Pull that piece away, and the whole system falls down in a mass of wreckage - affecting everything from public health to doctors salaries. In this way, private health insurance resembles nothing so much as the institutional newspaper industry, which also long depended on an irrational business subsidy. For years, newspapers managed to convince businesses - and classified advertisers - that they needed to use the newspaper to reach customers in their particular market. At the same time, newspapers convinced themselves that advertisers were paying for their vital community journalism. Reality, in its merciless way, with a little nudge from web technology, has greeted these twin delusions with, "Uh, no" and "Uh, hell no."
It was hard to miss The Ledger's outing of Julian Mullis. It ran across the top of the local page, arguably the most read spot of real estate in the printed paper. Quick synopsis: Mulberry police arrested a man they described as in a domestic, live-in relationship with Mullis after accusing the man of throwing a plastic beer bottle at Mullis during an altercation at Mullis' house. That's right. Mullis is the victim of an alleged assault with a plastic container. And for that, his personal life gets splashed across the top of B1 as the featured local story of the day. This story, which exists solely as the means for somebody to broadcast that Julian Mullis is in a gay relationship, is an object lesson of everything that's wrong with institutional journalism in this country. It's a great example of what I think Chris was saying in his Defeatism column a few weeks ago....
Every single paper along the I4 corridor is losing reporters, editorial staff, and positions from every other department. Are Central Florida readers turning away from the news, or did newspapers lose a quality relationship with their news organizations? That stems from a question asked 14 years ago during a panel on "The New Economics of Journalism." Seated at the head table were Esther Dyson (Forbes columnist), Arthur Sulzberger, Jr. (New York Times, Publisher), Walter Isaacson (Time, New Media Editor), and Frank Daniels III (Nando.net publisher). The question was from NYU journalism professor Jay Rosen...
“Information is now a public service as much as it’s a commodity,” he said. “It should be thought of the same way as education, health care. It’s one of the things you need to operate a civil society, and the market isn’t doing it very well.” -- Scott Lewis, VoiceofSanDiego.com quoted in the New York Times The Ledger of Lakeland, the Tampa Tribune, the Orlando Sentinel, The St. Pete Times, the News Chief of Winter Haven are quickly leaving area residents to the shallow depths of TV news. I don't blame the TV reporters. They're forced to 60 seconds of "in depth" coverage. I blame the owners of the newspapers. Newspapers were the news of record. The news organizations that spent the time to give readers the full story. Businesses that assigned reporters to dig deep into problem governments. Companies that allowed editorial writers to publish columns that named names, columns that called for change, columns that not only told it like it was, but told readers what lay ahead. Those businesses traded that public service for 20% profit margins. And now those margins are gone. Long gone. Never to return. And the newspapers are hemorrhaging. To stop the bleeding who do they remove? Front line staff who did the work we read - long time columnists and hungry reporters. They dump expert photographers and talented copy editors. And readers with fond memories of newspapers rush to give up the ghost they find on their lawn. Those readers will soon become TV news viewers and they will get used to news in 30 second teasers. They won't find a Pentagon Papers story following "The Dirtiest Inch in Your Kitchen!" scare stories. Where can readers turn? Blogs and self-published news sites like MI4 can not replace the newspapers. We're too small, too focused. We're news specialists, and the newspapers are your general practitioners. And it is time we say "physician heal thyself." What publisher will take the steps to reduce all coverage to what local residents can see, touch, hear, taste, and vote for? What publisher will make the decision that everyone can cover a beat. From the publisher down to the cub reporter? Put every Editor in a city government committee meeting and remind them what it was like to write a story. You say your Editor never wrote a column? She's a business major? Send her to the city finance meetings. Everyone needs to feed the 24-hour news monster. Publishers can make these changes immediately. If you want your children to read the newspaper as their children sleep in...publishers must these changes immediately. photo credit: Tom Hagerty
If this bleeding doesn't stop your local newspaper will be a weekly. And that might be a bad idea. Sentinel eliminates 52 newsroom jobs Meanwhile, the Ledger is going hourly. Ledger News Now An author the Sentinel fails to name believes a Shorter workweek can pay huge dividends. (By the way, his name is Timothy Ferriss.) Bonus: The Sentinel: We think: State Farm's rate hike request for homeowners seems unreasonable. You think? 47%. Who wouldn't think? Tribune: Gas Prices Drive Demand For Downtown Dwellings
The next time anyone in my family goes to the hospital, we're brining our own bleach: Beware, patients: Killer bug plagues hospitals "During a 10-hour shift, a worker can lift two tons; the pay has been about 1.4 cents per pound." and yet farmers haven't passed on the extra penny a pound the workers got Burger King (and others) to agree to pay: Orlando-area immigrant workers fight to hold the pennies they won Confused about carbon offsets? This Sentinel article won't help: Everyone has a carbon footprint - but do 'offsets' make sense? So why link to it? Well, the Sentinel writer tried, but the concept deserves a lot more space than a few inches in the daily paper. That's he kind of article that could have been a series. The question now is: will readers take the time to follow a series that isn't about sex, beauty or gossip? I think they will. I'm not so sure many newspaper marketing people would agree. A defense contractor says their plant isn't hazardous. This is news? Nelson Plans Meeting To Address Raytheon Issues I am surprised the Tribune hasn't announced a series on teen sex trafficking in this week's paper. It must be the recent cut in staff. However, they do have an editorial: Region Needs To Wake Up To Teen Sex Trafficking. I hate that headline though. It reminds me of a morning show promo. Region Needs to Wake up to Kristie Lee and the Morning Report! Note today's date: July 13, 2008. That's important as you read State Chided For Dip In Voter Registrations Now note this line from the article: "In January, lawyers for three national advocacy groups - Project Vote, ACORN and Demos - complained...." They complained in January and it took six months for the Trib to write about it? Or did they just hear about it? Either way, it's good it finally made the paper. Bonus: Expect more articles like this in your local paper: This Isn't Goodbye, But Merely The Turning Of A New Page If you didn't read it in a newspaper, you might not know the American press had an especially bad few weeks. Reporters, editors, photographers losing their jobs in droves. The American press is in upheaval because you've stopped reading the paper. Worse, you've stopped buying the paper. Even worse, you've stopped putting ads in the paper. What comes next: citizen journalists. The problem is the majority of citizen journalists aren't going to have the resources to dig deep and uncover the big problems. Crooked presidents, wars started on false pretenses, corporations polluting the environment. Americans need a healthy press to do that. I'm going to start writing more about the changes in the regional papers. Not in this column, but another that will debut later this week.
Hillsborough County is considering changing the county charter. Here's What To Expect If County Voters Opt To Have A Mayor Oddly, the Tampa mayor is bucking the obvious turn away from bottled water Don't Toss Bottled Water, Iorio Says Just be very careful where you park in downtown Orlando: Car-booting guy offers no apologies This is a scary thought "The massive Deseret Ranch -- four times larger than the city of Orlando -- is taking a key step toward its first major development." Homes, homes on the range in Orange County near Orlando International Airport? The public has been discussing rail road issues quite a bit this past year, but how many officials were listening? Here's a Florida DOT meeting so the Public Will Get Chance to Discuss Railroad Issues A pair of bonus stories: Newspaper Industry Woes Inspire Prayer Web Site is presented without comment, other than if Americans can't find a way to fall in love with newspapers again, we're going to be a much poorer country. This is an old one, but I thought it deserves a look. It's all about fair representation and some people don't believe we get it when politicians design political districts: Taking Aim at Gerrymandering
In an ALL CAPS top of A1 SCARY HEADLINE, the Orlando Sentinel tells us that the RAIL DEAL CLINGS TO LIFE. The other big story is an important one in the wake of the Miley Cyrus Vanity Fair photos: growing up may be life’s toughest role for kid stars. Well, it’s important for all those [...]
• Evidently Polk County is in the Orlando area to at least one Sentinel headline writer, Orlando-area deputies arrest 11 men in Internet sex sting • These are today’s stories from three local newspapers that affect Metro I-4 citizens.. • The Sentinel includes a guide to go green, Orlando wants to sell arenas, Columnist Mike [...]
The St. Pete Times is upgrading the tampabay.com website. Dear Readers: Earlier this week we made some technical upgrades on tampabay.com meant to improve your experience and our work processes. Unfortunately, just the opposite is happening in some cases. Many links appear out of date, and certain features, such as the ability to view past editions, are not [...]
The big subject lately is transportation. In addition to your votes that transportation is the first issue to tackle, recent and upcoming TBARTA public meetings and debating red light cameras, Rich Shopes tells us that the Florida Department of Transportation says morning commute times will increase significantly by 2025. The story includes a map of [...]
I’ll bet certain special interests were meanly happy to see this headline & subhead in the St. Pete Times, casting aspersions on the Environmental Protection Commission: Auditor slams watchdog’s recordkeeping The Environmental Protection Commission is doing a poor job of keeping track of its work. Like a gossip tabloid making something innocuous sound sensational, the Times makes a [...]
Local recipe and food blogger Jaden Hair started her Steamy Kitchen blog in February of 2007. By August, she was getting big-time pub from the Tampa Tribune and the Wall St. Journal. Before that month ended, Jaden was looking for a logo for her brand new column in Creative Loafing. Alas, it is over. [...]
Received From Eric Deggans: The Tampa Bay Association of Black Journalists is presenting its second annual session focused on multimedia reporting on March 8, featuring members who have done extensive work translating their newspaper or TV work into online platforms. On deck so far: Ken Knight, multimedia reporter for Media General Demorris Lee, reporter for the St. Petersburg Times, [...]
Back in December, Wayne Garcia said "Tampa Bay has jumped the shark." At the time, he offered his views on Tampa Bay’s top 10 civic problems. Garcia writes for Creative Loafing, and this week’s cover story is a follow-up to that column, saying we have to fix these things now. This time, the entire CL [...]
Bio: Billy Townsend was a longtime government, political and general assignment reporter in Polk County and the wider I-4 corridor. He wrote extensively about Polk's unique regional identity and the issues shaping it, including USF Polytechnic, the Heartland Parkway and the CSX rail deal. Billy recently left professional reporting to take a corporate writing job, but he keeps close tabs on news of all stripes (especially political news) and the changes in modern journalism. Billy's wife is Julie Townsend, executive director of the Downtown Lakeland Partnership.They live with their three children in the Lake Morton area. His work at Lakeland Local is his first as an amateur hyperlocal writer.