Take a look at the front page of this New York Times supplement published with the Sunday, August 4 edition:
The headline reads: A Future Without the Front Page.
When I read that I immediately sensed that this would be a nostalgic piece about print. Indeed, it is. But it is more than that, it is a detailed profile of a weekly newspaper (The Pioneer), in a small Minnesota town (Warroad). The article is a reminder about an old journalism axiom: Don’t cover the army, cover a soldier.
We are all aware of what is happening to printed editions of newspapers, especially those small community/regional newspapers. The Times reports that over the last 15 years, about 2100 local newspapers have either merged with a competitor or ceased printing, including The Rocky Mountain News of Denver and The Cincinnati Post . In fact, The Times’ supplement shows other regional newspapers that have stopped publication:
It is a different, more touching story to have the focus on one specific newspaper, The Pioneer, which had been a fixture of the Warroad, MN, community for 121 years. The Times’ supplement showed photo after photo of local residents, raging in ages from 12 to 94, reading The Pioneer and lamenting its demise. This brought it home effectively: it is not just the loss of a newspaper, it is as losing a member of the family for many. As a reader put it:
“I’m gonna miss it. I’m missing it already.”
This supplement is part of The New York Times’ continued coverage examining the collapse of community news in the United States.
Of related interest
One of St. Louis region’s biggest daily newspapers to end Saturday print edition
The Belleville News-Democrat last week told its readers that it would publish expanded Friday and Sunday editions, but eliminate printing a Saturday paper
Mario’s speaking engagements
Nov. 12
Keynote presentation: Business Information & Media Summit (BIMS).
Pre-order The Story
The newspaper remains the most powerful source of storytelling on the planet. But technology threatens its very existence. To survive, the Editor must transform, adapt, and manage the newsroom in a new way. Find out how, pre-orderThe Story by Mario Garcia, chief strategist for the redesign of over 700 newspapers around the world.
Order here:
https://thaneandprose.com/shop-the-bookstore?olsPage=products%2Fthe-story
The Story will also appear in print
I am happy to announce that we will, indeed, have a print edition of my mobile storytelling book, The Story. I thank you for expressing your interest to our publisher, Thane Boulton, of Thane & Prose. Now the print edition will be a reality, and you can already see the cover and back cover here:
An interview of interest
http://www.itertranslations.com/blog/2019/3/11/fd60ybflpvlqrgrpdp5ida5rq0c3sp
TheMarioBlog post # 3087