Since the Winnipeg Free Press gave seven reporters the pink slip last week there has been a large amount of chatter on the future of the Free Press and traditional news sources in general.
Over the weekend, Free Press reporter Dan Lett saw red over a tweet with the hashtag #newfreepressslogans that read, “Finally – a paper for you. Not for your grandchildren.”
After the tweeting debate, Mr.Lett wrote a lengthy blog post on the subject of the future of the Free Press. Mr.Lett makes good points about the problems facing traditional media in our times; although I take issue with his assertion that online content will not pay for itself as people will not pay for it.
Mr.Lett says at one point in his post, “It wouldn’t matter if we only employed devastatingly attractive, wickedly intelligent, early 20-something male and female runway models. They would be writing great stuff, and people would still be refusing to pay for it.”
The appearance of reporters is of no concern to me. What I do care about is content and I DO pay for long form investigative journalism. Mr.Lett asserts that the Free Press can’t charge enough for content but this has nothing to do with poor content. I think it does.
I support a handful of news sources through being a “sustainer”. Being a sustainer means that I give five or ten dollars a month to support what they produce and I get what I pay for. Take a quick look at what Intercontinental Cry and The Media Co-op (monthly publication called The Dominion) have produced in news content. Intercontinental Cry has news and analysis that you would be hard pressed to find in English speaking media. The Media Co-op’s publication, The Dominion, over the last five months covered stories ranging from racism in the Canadian military, the proposal to use nuclear energy in the Tar Sands, and the recent partnership between NGO’s and Mining companies. I have no trouble giving money to these news source because I get what I pay for.
So, yes I will and do pay for provocative, in-depth content. Ex-Free Press reporter Melissa Martin understands this. As she puts it in a post on her blog, Nothing in Winnipeg, “Content is everything. It is the only thing of value, the only thing you have to sell, the only thing that defines who you are and what you stand for.”
All of these news sources deliver great investigative journalism even with the rapid and vapid twenty four hour news cycle. I’ll also point out that CKUW has been operating with a similar model for the last ten years. So, even a group of eccentric voluteers producing idiosyncratic content on a “dead” medium can produce 50,000 dollars in donations every year. If the Free Press is serious about surviving they should take a look beyond “traditional” media and see what others have figured out a while ago.
Thanks for reading and commenting Joseph.
I agree that the printed word is not going away. I also think that both electronic news and print news can and should work together. They already do. I subscribe to numerous publications and journals, as well as get my news electronically. For instance the Media Co-op which I mentioned in the article uses both print and electronic.
My point is about content and how traditional media can look out media outside of the so called “mainstream” on how to manage both electronic and print. Thus they can put forward a better product and thus become stronger. I don’t want the Free Press to close it’s doors.
To your point about how many people the Free Press reaches- It is a mistake to confuse outright success with media concentration.
Thanks again for reading and commenting.
Paper and printing will always be a part of human civilization. Computers are new and certainly reducing newspaper print, but both are of great value. Newspapers will change as well, just look at a really old paper, the tiny font, and no color photos. There is no way that all ink and printing on paper will end. Real paper books and printing are here to stay. The main question is how many less copies will be made? Ten percent less? How many more ereaders and iPhones? The Winnipeg Free Press is a real, physical product that is picked up and read by over 300 000 people in this province. Nothing else has that many readers here, in this city and province. We need paid, skilled journalists. We need printed obituaries. We need printed ads. We need front page stories that give thanks to a bus driver who gave his shoes away to a poor man. Print is here along with electronic devices. They are quite different. They can also work together! It is certainly not about one or the other. TV never destroyed radio or newspapers as well. Printed words will always have physical presence and a major role to play. Real paper. Real ink. Real paid workers. Real trucks to deliver. Real hands to pick up. Real books. Real places to meet and read. Not everyone wants to be with electronic gadgets all day long.