RIP PI

[gfish]

I'm a bad citizen. I simply don't care that the Seattle Post-Intelligencer is dead. I'm sorry.

I know it had been around for a long time, and I hate to see old things go away. But the newspaper business model is broken. Deeply, utterly broken. Haven't we learned by now the futility of fighting against a technology-driven change in business model viability? And I know that newspaper-funded journalism is a cornerstone of our society. I'm not sure what will replace it -- I'm not even sure anything will replace it. We could well be heading into a fairly bad period for journalism and democracy. Whatever the solution is, I'm quite sure it doesn't involve printing things on pieces of paper and delivering them as a subscription service.

This has been coming for all of my adult life. The only emotional response I have is surprise that more haven't died already.

Comments

[neuro42.livejournal.com]

And exactly which of those bad things did the P-I prevent, pray tell?

Yes, I agree, journalism has an important role to play as a check on corruption and idiocy. Unfortunately it's a role that's gone unfilled for a long time and I see no hope for improvement. Not least because there's almost nobody left who can actually read and/or care, even if we had people to write.

[waysofseeing.livejournal.com]

When you get past your cynicism and decide that you'd like to do something about it besides yell on LiveJournal, let me know and I'll put you in touch with some of the people who are working on the problem.

[neuro42.livejournal.com]

I appreciate the offer, but (a) I've seen nothing that would suggest to me that cynicism is unwarranted and (b) I have little or no desire to try and 'work on the problem' and no hope whatsoever that doing so could achieve anything.

[waysofseeing.livejournal.com]

Congratulations, then: you have achieved what Bujold accurately called a supine moral position. Don't expect me to take you or your complaints seriously in future.

[neuro42.livejournal.com]

Fair enough. Are you also going to criticize me for being cynical about the heat death of the universe and not "working on the problem" of the laws of thermodynamics?

[ilmarinen.livejournal.com]

FWIW, I agree that they have done very little. The Times will do even less, especially w/o competition.

-B.