ALL THE GREEN DAY!
Folks who decry the idea of subscriber fees argue that paywalls won’t work, and that those who advocate for them, don’t understand the Internet. The opposite is true. These folks don’t understand the first thing about actual journalism. It costs money to cover a metro region, or a nation, or the world comprehensively, to place reporters at key points and maintain them while they cover a beat and glean information year after year. Anyone who still thinks that this can be achieved by amateurs or hobbyists are embarrassing themselves.
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I love this and it’s spot on in one regard. However it too fails to point out the deeper problem. Old school newspaper journalism as it is is broken. The situation of pay walls or ad support is a red herring to the real problem. Business as usual doesn’t work anymore because it’s simply too bloated. If old media wants to survive it needs to reform itself from the top down. The cuts that have happened over the years have been from the wrong places. It’s not the writers and photographers that need to go, it’s the editors, executives and content deals. Things like farming out the mobile version of the website and treating it as something separate is fundamentally wrong. We don’t need a different content and different brands for each city either. Media companies can and should distribute the same content across different markets and add in local content based on market. Some of this is already done but not nearly enough. Things like http://chicago.times.com http://philadelphia.times.com http://us.times.com should be how it is structured and have the content served to them by geography but allow them to switch with their login. (Yes, possibly a paid login) Give people an actual reason to create an account other than withholding information. Blogs and amateurs succeed because they aren’t mired with red tape, archaic licensing and content deals. They can work with distributed workforces a ton more nimbly and most are focused on the issues at hand rather than trying to figure out how to turn the clock back 20 years and be fat cats again. That said they will never have the resources that a company like the Times or the Tribune does and international reporting and livable wages suffer because of it. Big media are the only ones who can save big media and they are too focused on how to bring the old revenues back to realize they completely need to restructure for a new world instead. |
tom gabel of against me! comes out as transgender
Against Me! singer Tom Gabel reveals plans to begin living as a woman in the new issue of Rolling Stone. Gabel, who has dealt privately with gender dysphoria for years, will soon begin the process of transition, by taking hormones and undergoing electrolysis treatments. Gabel will eventually take the name Laura Jane Grace, and will remain married to her wife Heather.
Wow, I have been an Against Me! fan for years and while this was unexpected I can’t say this comes as a total shock. I admire the heck out of Tom and I will continue to admire the heck out of Laura. Now more than ever.
