Wednesday, July 11, 2012

A city pleads (unsuccessfully) for its daily newspaper

A group of prominent New Orleans citizens sent a diplomatic, but pointed letter to the Newhouse family pleading for the survival of its daily newspaper. It's an interesting read.

The entire letter is at the end of the post and includes some pretty recognizable names.

And just as a refresher go back and read the give and take over the original announcement for the move.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

This is an amazing letter. What an incredible piece of writing, pleading for a newspaper. For most of the communities in Michigan, the reality of what Advance/Newhouse did here didn't sink in until after it happened.

When they first went to three times a week I bought the company line, hook and sinker. It will be better. It will be relevant. It is neither. And I'm no oldster...I'm greater than 35 and lesser than 55 .... I'll give you that much.

What I miss is the sense of professionalism that came with the stories I read. Sure some of them were ridiculously leftist liberals, but I still got news. Today I get recycled press releases and crap that gets passed off as news but there's no sense of depth.

I miss sports sections. I miss the feature section. I even miss the stupid cooking stuff and I don't cook. I miss Sunday stories that I took my time to read. I miss heart-wrenching human interest stories and I miss hating some of the stuff I read so much that I wanted to write a letter to the editor. I miss the letters to the editor. The anonymous cowardly and mean-spirited commentaries aren't worth the breath I have to use to read them.

I despise the way the reporters now comment on their own writing asking for feedback and even worse, I hate the spoonfed, sugary pablum language the reporters use when they respond to commentary. "Aw c'mon now Mr. Reader, you really need to give us a better chance."

If our Michigan communities would have fought for their daily newspapers, maybe Advance wouldn't be in the position it is now to make this the new way to run newspapers.

I realize there are good people (particularly young folks) working at what's left of Michigan's newspapers, but they don't know what they're missing. Truly, the longstanding habit of Advance/Newshouse to keep as department heads, management and editors a bunch of spineless, yes ma'am/no sir, administrators just made this drain-swirling all the more easier.