Dead Trees Outfits Try Digital Dugouts
March 13, 2009
I found the article “10 Ways Newspapers are Using Social Media to Save the Industry” pretty darned amazing. If you like newspapers in the morning, you will want to read the original here. Woody Lewis presents a list of 10 uses of social media that will save the newspaper industry. I did not know if this was serious or more like the stuff the addled goose writes. In my opinion, the dead tree crowd, newspaper and tabloid variety, are in a world of hurt. When papers publish a few times a week and nuke talented journalists, you don’t have to be much of an MBA type to figure out there is trouble in journalism land. Social media is an extension of analog communication. Improved communication is generally a positive; however, I have yet to see solid evidence that social media can reverse the problems of the newspaper industry in general or a single paper like the Louisville Courier Journal. The author Woody Lewis is to be commended for making lemon whip from a bumper crop of lemons. My mother made lemon whip: sugar, egg whites, one tiny lemon, and quite a bit of elbow grease. Hated the stuff, didn’t you? In my opinion, a newspaper finding financial salvation in social media is like hunting for a sunken ship off the coast of Albania when the treasure seekers work out of a traditional library, have no boat, and lack the expertise to find Albania on a Google Map.
Do you know how I know? Check out the 27 publishers who are going to shove supersized banners in my face. Now that’s traditional publishing embracing the spirit of online in 2009. Link here.
Stephen Arnold, March 13, 2009
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