Thursday, November 10, 2005

No relief for newspapers' slide "Unrelievedly bad" is the phrase one observer uses to describe newspaper circulation figures released this week. I read that too quickly and thought it said "unbelievably," which would have been really scary. I'm not happy about it, but I'm certainly ready to believe that newspaper circulation is continuing its downward spiral. Unscientific evidence: The only way the local paper gets me to buy a copy is by filling its Web home page with ever-annoying Flash graphics, non-standard Web links, cryptic headlines, and a big (annoying) animated ad. And I'm a friend... I'm teaching news writing and trying to get students to read the paper, any paper! (OK, the website critique is just my opinion. Here's another view.) But back to the bad news about circulation... Editor & Publisher has the numbers. Morph has the "unrelievedly bad" comment above. Tim Porter has more discussion. And, of course, Phil Meyer has written the book: The Vanishing Newspaper. (Here's a shorter paper from his archives, MS-Word required.) 1:42:04 PM     Digital Thinkers Offer Option: Ink on Paper Unlike a lot of online explorations of the flexible future of communications, the intro page at Digital Think does offer a real choice of  media: "Launch Digital Think" or "Buy the Book." In my case, there's a third option, which I call: "Because you don't have time to read either one right now, post a link in this blog in hopes that someone will check out the site and tell you what you're missing." The book is $30. The book order form says the authors' ideas reveal "the potential of new story forms to create impactful, engaging, and meaningful content." I don't think I'll spend money on something that uses the word "impactful." But, since the Web edition is free, I'll take a look at it eventually. Actually, I already took a quick look at that online edition. It started sprouting an attractive graphical tree of network nodes (or small green fireworks bursts?), looking a bit like the old Missile Command arcade game, slowly drew a video window of a not-yet-talking head, then stalled with OS-X's spinning, iridescent beachball-of-death. I'll click the link again this weekend -- using a heftier Mac and my Windows machine  -- to see whether the problem is in my underpowered old 600 MHz iBook, in the site's Flash animations, in some browser-cookie-javascript setting, or in our stars. Otherwise, the intent of "Digital Think" sounds good: Exploring "the art of the possible," I'll accept the possibility that my laptop just isn't up to the technology. The site is from the American Press Insitute's Media Center, a reputable outfit, and contributors include "digital media designers, editors, artists and producers from the fields of journalism, art, activism, and design, who share their ideas on conceptualizing digital content." That's according to Media Center's Gloria Pan, who also blogs about it at morph, and who doesn't use words like "impactful." Andrew Nachison, director of the Media Center, says in the "Digital Think" intro that the project is "about the art of the possible, and a nod to thinkers around the globe who see in those possibilities a variety of pathways to more enriching forms of communication." First, I'd better find out whether I have to "enrich" my computer, and my computer dealer. Hmm.  My old habit of newspaper reading never needed a $1,000-a-year hardware upgrade. ============= All opinions expressed here, tentative and wishy-washy though they may be, are those of Bob Stepno, mild-mannered online editor, not those of the AEJMC or its Newspaper Division, the University of Tennessee, or any other persons, living or dead, unless they just happen to agree with me. 1:03:56 PM

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