* These are, to say the least, challenging times for print journalism and its business model. Internet scenarios, generational taste, the recruiting of investors, etc. Another sign of the times, most prominently the New York Times, is having high-profile wordsmiths pitch their employers’ product with more than their writing acumen. Exhibit A: Nicholas Kristof, the well-regarded, NYT Op-Ed columnist.
Subscribers recently received an unsolicited letter from Kristof, acknowledging the business challenges and the continued need for serious societal watchdogs. It had a good, if spoiler-alert, lede. “Look, I’m not a marketer” … .
* Last Wednesday the Lightning hosted the Chicago Blackhawks in a big, raucous game at Tampa’s Amalie Arena. The Bolts won 3-2 in overtime. But for various reasons the results of a home game were not available for publication in the following morning’s Tampa Bay Times. It was a special edition, the game went to overtime, etc.
Holidays and the new normal notwithstanding, it seemed weird to see work-around features because final results were not available at press time. Only online. Hardly helps the print media’s credibility at its darkest hour.
Speaking of the TBT, those half pages are annoying and distracting, and what’s up with regularly going from the front page to 4A. No 2A or 3A. Is that to delude readers into thinking that it’s a bigger paper than it is?
* Doesn’t it speak volumes when one of the private sessions at this month’s Republican Governor’s Association meeting was “Disrupting the Mainstream Media”?
* We know the ultimate motivation for Big Tobacco to run anti-smoking, prime-time TV ads was something other than pure public health concern. A court order–after too many years of misleading the public–had everything to do with it. But it can still take you aback to hear these Big Tobacco ads about the dangers of smoking.
While the ads are not as hard-hitting as public health advocates preferred, they don’t exactly pull punches. Among the messages: “There is no safe cigarette.” That should say it all. There’s also: “More people die every year from smoking than from murder, AIDS, suicide, drugs, car crashes and alcohol, combined.” The only thing missing is the ultimate peer-pressure put down. Perhaps: “If you’re still smoking, man are you a dumb ass.”