while a pretty small decision, i think this is a relatively important one: i’ve subscribed to get my first newspaper delivered. it’ll be the new york times weekender (friday through sunday of each week. first drop comes tomorrow). i had planned to do this for a year now but nothing really pushed me, until this week.
growing up, my mom would always have three papers coming to the house. the times, the wall street journal and our local paper, the herald news (part of north jersey media group and a version of the well-known bergen record). i’ve written a lot about how much i prefer not living with “tv” (quotes denote the fact that it’s more about always-on programming vs. having a television as a machine) and i’m sure to have mentioned mom’s affinity for newspapers as well. the papers, radio and extra time spent online (my aol profile was baller) was how i learned about the world around me for the majority of my adolescence.
now? i try to minimize using paper in general, to reduce clutter. i read the times via its app on my iphone and RSS is critical for most everything else. i have tv in my apartment but, lots of times, i wish i didn’t.
lots of folks are scrambling the jets to make sense of the times plans to initiate a pay wall at the end of this month. from khoi vinh:
Whether the pay wall succeeds or not is an open question and I won’t pretend to know the answer. To be completely frank I was never a proponent of this concept and it was among the reasons I decided to leave my job there last year. Now that it’s upon us I hope it does succeed, actually, because The Times generates tremendous value for the public good and it would be terrific if we could find a way to continue to reward its talented journalists and staff for their hard work. Still, I can’t help but look at the effort that went into constructing this new revenue model and think that it has exacted an unfortunate opportunity cost on the company.
khoi goes on to make a valid point that instead of striking out to build something new, they “shuttered” what was left. in addition to this, there is lots of other mania around the web. the grubers and those crunchy tech-ers all swinging from their chandeliers, screaming, wishing and projecting certain death. ”why are they charging x instead of y for z?” ”how can i get around it?” ”why it sucks.” ”why it’s awesome.” ”why it’s the end of the world.” all opinion that could very well be short-sighted. no one knows the answer. not even sulz himself.
i’m going to stand in the stream, facing the other way. i was raised on this news institution and i’m supposed to be part of the demographic that is abandoning it. running, jumping and stampeding towards the 140 characters that are supposed to sustain my intellect. sorry, but my appetite is slightly larger than that. do i think innovation and technology won’t be defining human communication moving forward? hell no. but, look in a mirror. why are we all sitting here waxing poetic and taking our saturday mornings to write in-depth about a fucking newspaper? because there hasn’t been something that brings the depth and context we deserve to the table yet. khoi talks about building something new. how there is flipboard and the daily. well, let’s do it then. let’s push the chips to the middle of the table and provide for an organization who has the strength to move us all forward.
here’s why the need to generate revenue on a digital platform has caused me to invest in a non-digital platform:
- first, and foremost, i want to support an institution who’s committed to delivering high-value reporting. i’m old enough to understand that my time and attention is no longer disposable and the freedom technology has granted us isn’t about breaking down walls and more about fine-tuning the specific ways we consume information. guard this, closely. it will surely be one of your largest regrets.
- reading something on a screen and reading something physical, in your hands, is a completely different experience. what “apps” and “web sites” don’t afford us anymore is physical context. every article is weighted the same. design influence is lost a bit on a digital spectrum. wading through a magazine and newspaper helps us understand relationships and context, that words support, between the articles. this is a building block of education and understanding. often overlooked, how you arrange and design communication equally forms opinion. the medium is the message, right?
- nostalgia and aesthetic: reading a newspaper represents and cues many great memories for me. it was ritual in the home that i was raised. i don’t want to lose this. while becoming connected, society has become disconnected from what has built us. i’m also part of a generation who is rushing back to the very basics. and, hey, who doesn’t like cracking open all the windows on a warm spring morning, making a fresh cup of coffee and catching up on the week behind and the week ahead? it’s an aesthetic that is also a ritual.
- print doesn’t need to buffer.
- human need to break up our physical environments - physical interaction with different types of physical and mental signals keep our minds sharp. this is why we go to the gym. why we like being outside. why people get “cabin fever.” the same can be said for info consumption. i don’t want to become a monkey who just taps everything. faced with personal choices about media. not only is choice available, we are burdened with it. there will always be a fire hose that can pin you down and never help you understand the world, just feed you the world.
if my soap box rallying cry doesn’t do it for you, here is some continued reading:
- The Newsonomics of The New York Times’ pay fence
a final note and a subtle suggestion for mr. sulzberger: the online registration process for home delivery of your newspaper doesn’t permit hyphens in the name field. instead of confusing your wonderful staff into thinking that part of my last name might be my middle name, i decided to use my grandfather’s name - john ratcliffe.
i hope, one day, for both me and your publication - i’ll be able to update this to use my own name.
