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At 3:52 PM -0600 7/29/98, Steve Outing wrote:

>* Will the proliferation of media and convergence trends lead to a
>  "dumbing down" of newspapers? Or will they remain above the fray,
>  holding onto a niche of being the one true "serious" medium?


This is my worry -- that newspaper publishers believe the only way to make
money is to reach the broadest audience possible -- household penetration
is the name of the game. So the knee-jerk reaction of publishers is to
dumb-down, make the writing more generic, strip depth from coverage, take
the "why" out of stories, concentrate on the easy to get stories (such as
meeting coverage and crime).

These are long-standing trends in the newspaper game, but as circulation
numbers decline, publishers seem more and more inclined to head in this
direction.

The Ventura County Star recently moved more toward the USA Today model and
when they did, I cancelled my subscription. Of course, I have a great
alternative to the Star, the LA Times, so my daily newspaper reading hasn't
suffered. But if not for the Times, what would I do? I suspect that I would
still cancel the paper and look more to TV for my news coverage. I mean,
why read something that provides very little information or enjoyment when
I can get the same depth of coverage from TV?

My concern about newspapers is that by dumbing down they risk alienating
their base audience -- educated, well read, curious, thoughtful people;
yet, the broader audience they are trying to reach is likely to have only a
passing (at best) interest in their product.

It seems to me that newspapers should concentrate on doing what they do
best -- providing thoughtful, insightful context to the daily news. In that
way, they will retain a loyal audience.  I believe that they can do that
and find ways to reach a broader audience, an audience that will be just as
transient as the audience they lust after now, but the transience will be
less damaging because the base will remain firm.

It's an old political axiom -- don't alienate your base. Publishers would
do well to pay attention to that concept. Your base is what gets you
through tough times.

A word about the USA Today model -- a mistake publishers make, I think, is
supposing that because USA Today is successful in its market, the model
will be successful in the local market. This, I believe, is a false
assumption. USA Today is great when you're traveling. It's a quick,
entertaining read and an painless way to stay abreast of the news. But at
home, I want something with more meat. I suspect most dedicated newspaper
readers feel the same way.

Newspapers need to become more literate, not less; write longer stories,
not shorter; allow reporters to develop individual voices, not corporate
voices; dig more, ambulance chase less -- turn off the police scanner and
open some files at city hall -- all of the things that makes great
journalism great and none of the things that make most newspapers today
boring.

Happy trails,
H.


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Howard Owens // mailto:howard@rvclub.com
The RV Club // http://www.rvclub.com/
President // #L-CHAR-00001
ICQ# // 5400300
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