Media

I grew up loving newspapers. I remember as a very young child, walking barefoot down our long gravel driveway to get the paper in the morning so I could read it with my breakfast. I remember how wonderful I always thought the Memphis Commercial Appeal was (and still is, especially as long as they are smart enough to employ my friend Zack McMillin) — strong, varied reporting, great sports section, not corporate.

And when I was in college, I was on the school newspaper staff. Hell, I ate, lived and breathed ink for 3 years while I was there, from second semester freshman year through Christmas my senior year. It was one of the best things I ever did, working 40 hours a week, most of it in the middle of the night, while going to school full-time. I learned so much I couldn’t begin to tell you unless you had 3 years yourself.

So I’m set up to love newspapers. I’m a slam dunk.

Wrong.

I think there is no industry, as a whole, that has more wasted its resources and talent that the newspaper industry. When I was coming out of school and interviewing for jobs, I shied away from the local paper. It frankly was past its heyday then — and it has a past worth remembering. Today it’s a Gannett machine. I haven’t subscribed in a long time. I get frustrated with its lack of vision just checking the website in the morning.

And it pains me to say all that, because I have several friends — talented, bright folks — who work there. But the world is passing the newspaper industry by.

OK OK, what inspired my rant? It had nothing to do with food. :) I saw a post on TransomBlog that just really hit home. Rob rightly takes the St. Louis Post Dispatch to task. In an ad of theirs, the Post Dispatch mocked up a help-wanted sign on the St. Louis arch to promote their classified section. Now, it’s not that I think the paper, a private company, has any duty to promote the city like the Chamber of Commerce. But good grief. Let’s not make it look like the city is falling apart. Seems like the first motto of journalism — and yes, the ad department of the paper — should also be "First do no harm."

They just don’t get it.

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