Who’s going to be the next New York Times?
The title for my page comes from an essay by Clay Shirky called “Newspapers and Thinking the Unthinkable,” that I and a few others found worth a read. If you don’t have time to read the piece, the relevant quote is this:
We’re collectively living through 1500, when it’s easier to see what’s broken than what will replace it.
To paraphrase Shirky’s thesis, in the 1400s, monks were responsible for the illuminated, hand copied manuscripts of important texts, and therefore had control over the flow of knowledge. Less through malice than the simple scarcity, the population then was living through the Dark Ages. By the 1600s, Gutenberg’s printing press had been popularized, and the Age of Enlightenment was beginning.
Today, the printing press, and print media, once the heralds of a new age, are looking pretty, well, monastic. And the once formidable companies that make up the newspaper industry are getting a heck of a tonsure in the markets. While we might already be having this conversation on the next printing press, the Internet, it’s not at all clear who the next Gutenberg is going to be. (Yes, I know the Internet’s already been invented, but I mean Gutenberg as a shorthand for cultural impact, not mere invention.) Also, the shape of media on the Internet today is perhaps where the Colonial American penny weeklies were at a similar point in history, if we’re lucky. Who’s going to will this mighty tool of progress into something that replaces the media industry we’ve had for much of this last century? Who’s going to be the next New York Times, for all of its might, influence and imperfection?
These are the types of questions that drive me when I’m working on a story or a post. And while print media is the big, in your face example, there’s whole worlds of business, finance, technology, new media, along with technological innovations across all industries, that need the same questions asked of them. So, enough with the theory; let’s do it.
Read Shirky’s essay here: Newspapers and Thinking the Unthinkable « Clay Shirky.
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Who will be the next New York Times? For everyone’s sake, I hope it is a version of the current model. As newspapers across the country slash their staffs and budgets and hasten their decline in an absurd death spiral, the Times continues to invest in the kind of journalism that exemplifies the importance of the Fourth Estate. Full disclosure here: As a freelance writer, I have contributed to the Times for seven years and worked with some of the best journalists in the business. There has to be a business model that will allow the Times to remain viable and vibrant.
@Viv Bernstein : I believe one possibility is that the next New York Times may in fact be the Times itself. As a longtime devotee and past contributor for them, that’s not an outcome I’m opposed to. But the reality of the business climate means they have a long road of probably painful change, reinvention and innovation ahead of them, both in journalism and business model. Only by navigating those strange waters will they become a ‘New’ New York Times that can thrive in a new world.
On the subway this morning I sat next to a guy who was clearly a master of magic commuter-newspaper-folding tricks. I looked around, not a Kindle DX in sight. Yet. But with the new larger screen (and the copycat devices that are sure to come) that will change.
What kind of journalism will we consume on these devices? That will change, too. If the New York Times can set aside nostalgia, legacy and emotional attachment to what has been and boldly and aggressively pursue what can be, they might stand a chance.