What’s so wrong with anachronisms? Newspapers only feel archaic to me when I explain to someone how the papers gets out even in the worst ice storms, such as we had earlier this month. It’s a litany I know well: Lines about deadlines and preventing bottlenecks and logjams (ugh) that can happen at any link in the production process. And that ends with the trucks who need plenty of time to get to your driveway though your street hasn’t been sanded.<\/p>\n
Yet, I think while I’m reciting, if you’re connected, you could just link up to us up online, and you won’t even get your houseshoes soggy from shuffling out to the front walk for the paper.<\/p>\n
(1. Don’t call it a dead tree edition unless you think the plastic in your computer comes from elves and believe that when you replace your tower or monitor the old ones have no toxins or radioactivity that require a special landfill.)<\/p>\n
Yes, a newsPaper makes less and less sense. It’s proved even by the New Orleans newspaper that did keep on publishing but strictly electronically in the weeks following Katrina. Still, reports are that when it resumed printing, readers could not wait for hard copies.<\/p>\n
Not everyone has a computer, and not everyone who has a computer can handle the Internet adeptly, and not everyone who is Web-savvy will want an electronic news summary then click to full reports. One thing even the best sites are short of is photos. NewsPapers have more pictures. We Web lovers should be happy for that; images slow downloads.<\/p>\n
(2. The skill I lacked for a few years was electronic page design. I was competent at layout with a pencil, pica ruler and photo proportion wheel but then left the copy desk for wire and other editing. On March 31, I will have completed two years of paid work in two page design programs: Quark and InDesign. When the day comes that most news is delivered online, news sites will still need editors but layout will be obsolete. No back shop, no front shop. It’s html Heading 1 through Heading 6, down the screen.)<\/p>\n
The few newspapers that have done away with stock pages are catching lots of complaints. The argument is that investors, even the most casual ones, get their closing numbers online so these fine-print pages are a waste of the publishers’ time and money.<\/p>\n
But newspapers don’t want those kind of old fogey readers except to boost circulation. The readers they want are like the viewers TV claims to want: well-paid blokes and lasses who live to shop at places that buy advertising.<\/p>\n
Bling!<\/p>\n
Yet, relics still thrive. Downtowns still have a few shops that malls didn’t destroy. Department stores continue when Internet shopping gets faster and easier. Outlying shopping centers still fill a need that Wal-Mart doesn’t. (If you have health insurance why bother with the Wal-Mart pharmacy? Pick up your cough syrup somewhere convenient; the co-pay’s the same.)<\/p>\n
Slurp!<\/p>\n
High school and college bands still play at football and basketball games. For whom? Marching bands are so anachronistic that most of them use uniform styles that predate the Civil War! (And are just as scratchy.)<\/p>\n
Spats!<\/p>\n
You know why. When you spill coffee at breakfast, the newsPaper can blot it up. -30-<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
What’s so wrong with anachronisms? Newspapers only feel archaic to me when I explain to someone how the papers gets out even in the worst ice storms, such as we had earlier this month. It’s a litany I know well: Lines about deadlines and preventing bottlenecks and logjams (ugh) that can happen at any link […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-176","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-technical-difficulties"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":437,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2008\/06\/big-money\/","url_meta":{"origin":176,"position":0},"title":"Big Money","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"June 23, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"NEW ORLEANS -- The second speaker for the columnists conference was Jarvis DeBerry of the Times-Picayune. He had a heck of a column Sunday showing how this month's flooding in Iowa and The Storm (Katrina-Rita of 2005) have at least this much in common: deliberate damage to wetlands to benefit\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "The Storm, New Orleans"","block_context":{"text":"The Storm, New Orleans","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/nsnc\/new-orleans-2008\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":249,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2006\/11\/goodwill-gesture-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":176,"position":1},"title":"Goodwill Gesture","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"November 28, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"The incoming president of the Christian Coalition has agreed to withdraw. The Rev. 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When I work for pay, or at least print publication, I not only think hard about clarity of thought in the writing but how to frame the published writing to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Technical Difficulties"","block_context":{"text":"Technical Difficulties","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/briefs\/technical-difficulties\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":61,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2004\/11\/he-truly-won\/","url_meta":{"origin":176,"position":3},"title":"He truly won","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"November 5, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Copyright 2004 Ben S. Pollock Friday, November 5, 2004: I don't know my precise opinion on the presidential election today, except that we who think we are smart better think again. I resent those commentators who blame Kerry: no personality, poor campaigner, bad presentation, because, well, none of this is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News, Spin"","block_context":{"text":"News, Spin","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/news-spin\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":278,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2007\/02\/your-other-right-foot\/","url_meta":{"origin":176,"position":4},"title":"Your Other Right Foot","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"February 12, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"\"Everybody! Step out on your right foot. \"I said your right foot! \"No, son, your other right foot.\" Coach Malone, I think it was Bill Malone, was the admired football coach of Ramsey Junior High in Fort Smith. I remember at a school reunion where a lot of us in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Education, Coarsely"","block_context":{"text":"Education, Coarsely","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/education-coarsely\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":402,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2008\/01\/the-green-candidate\/","url_meta":{"origin":176,"position":5},"title":"The Green Candidate","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"January 30, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Four years ago Charlie Rose interviewed Garrison Keillor, who said something so provocative that for a detectable millisecond Rose was speechless, a rarity. Keillor of course was on promoting A Prairie Home Companion, but early on they discussed the just-ended 2004 election, where the progressive Keillor nailed John Kerry's defeat\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News, Spin"","block_context":{"text":"News, Spin","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/news-spin\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=176"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}