4 ms·

Ever received a letter to the editor? Legal threat from a story you published? Had someone get fired over a piece you wrote and had to deal with the guy's fam

Ever received a letter to the editor? Legal threat from a story you published? Had someone get fired over a piece you wrote and had to deal with the guy's family having to sell their house. These are extreme examples, but newspapers have support costs, too.

horsehead 14y ago
As a reporter! These are all VERY real considerations, and very very VERY common. i wrote stories that contributed to a few local elected officials getting the boot. I've had people threaten legal action on my stories too. There are lots of things most people never see/think about concerning journalism. (edit: while there are some reporters who are assholes and who relish getting people fired, most decent ones agonize over whether they are reporting accurately and fairly. Such was the case with Woodward and Bernstein). Also, the local news thing Buffett talks about is so true. Why would you run national news in a local paper people are buying when folks can get it free from CNN ? or a blog? I think there's a healthy mix that hasn't really been found yet. The NYT has a decent model of 10 articles a month that seems to have been working well so far. I also really like the thing that that foreign company "Piano" is doing (I had a very similar idea. It's like cable subscriptions but for newspapers). I'm not ready to say newspapers are dead yet, but they're mighty close, especially if they don't come up with a new business model. =\