Print Media is the New Dinosaur

Print Media. It's what I take into the bathroom when I dont' want to take my laptop in there. Yeah, a bit graphic, I know, but lets face facts, reading in the bathroom isn't anything new.

Last year my dear mother was sweet enough to resubscribe me to ESPN the Magazine. It's actually got relatively good sports coverage and I do my best to read each and every issue. I like it. But in the end, it doesn't nearly measure up with internet media. For better or for worse, print media is going by the wayside. And it's time for journalists to realize that and evolve with the times.

With the evolution of the internet and the spread of technology instant gratification reigns supreme. When a story breaks, I'm not waiting for the early edition of the newspaper to get my details. Instead, I'm jumping online, pulling up every page I can think of and running yahoo! and google searches to exhaust every resource. The simple fact is that the internet has connected billions of people. Somewhere, someone has the coverage of the story. Be it sports coverage, be it opinion, be it technology, be it politics, there is a website that has the scoop. And I'm sorry, but the Stockton Record, or the Houston Chronicle, or the Wall Street Journal, or the New York Times, or the Washington Post, or whatever newspaper is out there isn't going to have the same coverage for a national news story. Now granted, the Houston Chronicle is likely going to cover the local news that I just can't get from a blog. But in the national realm? I go online before I'd ever pickup a magazine or newspaper. Simply put, there are better and faster sources out there to get information. And in the fast-paced, impulsive society we live in it almost feels like a must. Hey, how else am I going to get material for my water cooler conversations that don't really exist?

Season Five of the Wire had a pretty interesting take on the death of the newspaper. I won't go into much detail, but in my opinion, it showed the almost archaic, and yet strangely noble lives of journalists, albeit in a very very macro-esque scale.

But there has been a backlash against bloggers in the last few years.

Bob Costas is the first that comes to mind. Early last year, Costas had this to say.

But it's one thing if somebody just sets up a blog from their mother's basement in Albuquerque and they are who they are, and they're a pathetic get-a-life loser, but now that pathetic get-a-life loser can piggyback onto someone who actually has some level of professional accountability and they can be comment No. 17 on Dan Le Batard's column or Bernie Miklasz' column in St. Louis. That, in most cases, grants a forum to somebody who has no particular insight or responsibility. Most of it is a combination of ignorance or invective.

Deadspin dropped this gem last year about the Dallas Mavericks no-blogger policy.

The Dallas Mavericks will not allow ANY writer into the locker room areas pre-game and post-game whose primary purpose is to blog no matter what affiliation. They may still represent their respective publication at games but will not be granted locker room access.

We have gone this route because we did not want to give preferential treatment to any blogger, whether they are an individual or from a large media outlet. We just do not have enough room in the locker room, nor enough media passes to fairly accommodate everyone.

Then there was the guy who wrote for the Washington Post that moonlighted with Kissing Suzy Kolber (KSK). Basically the story goes, Michael Tunison worked by day for the Washington Post and was a blogger by night. He posted on KSK under the name "Christmas Ape," but eventually revealed his true identity through what is thought to be a drunken-post. Tunison was then fired by the Post; obviously there was a conflict of interest. The best part? In the post Tunison wrote

Anyway, I’m this guy [ED: His facebook profile] and I work for this dying medium [a link to the Washington Post].

Maybe Tunison was just a cynic. Maybe Tunison was just disgruntled. Or maybe Tunison was right. The consumer dictates where investors and advertisers funnel their capital. It's why I have the opporutnity to put ads on my blog and generate revenue (I don't, simply because I have nothing to really contribute aside from once in a while rants, or posting content from those who do blogs right; this blog was created as an outlet and it's a past time, but there are those who pour their blood sweat and tears into this and rightfully should be rewarded). If I can go on the internet and pull up KSK, Dime, Basketbawful, Withleather, Truehoop, Deadspin, Yardbarker, or the millions of other sports blogs out there, why wouldn't I? If I can hit the Drudge Report for the most up-to-date political news, why not?

This morning, I felt some validation in these feelings. ESPN had breaking news when I awoke. Mark McGwire's (my childhood hero) estranged brother alleges he used steroids. Oh and who broke the story? DEADSPIN. You mean Buster Olney or Tim Kurkjian didn't get this first? No, a blogger got it first. And it put a smile on my face to see the words "source: Deadspin.com." Plus it shows that now even conventional outlets have turned to the internet to montior the news. And the news is no longer monopolized by the ESPNs, the ABCs, or the Wall Street Journals. The power is with the people and all of these archaic journalists are finding them in a buyers market. Gone are the days where we read the columnists that the newspapers tell us are the expert. Now we have options.

Then there's that douchebag Rick Reilly, who now gets the final page of my beloved ESPN the Magazine. And it's a page that I never read. It's a useless rambling, attempting to be whitty and fun, that I think simply crashes and burns in an attempt at being "random" which at this point in my life, I think means scatter-brained more than anything. Worst of all, it replaced Kenny Mayne's article which is actually funny.

Reilly is very anti-blog.

There's some good journalism, and some really horrible crap on [the Web] from guys holding down the couch springs in their mother's basement that have never been in a lockerroom but are pining on this and that. And this gives them cache, and then they're being quoted? What? This guy is in his underwear. They could us a Greyhound bus full of editors and it still wouldn't help them. So this is the 'new style of journalism' we gotta learn?

Yes you idiot. Blogging is the new style of journalism you have to learn. This quote reminds me of some guy that heard about going from a typewriter to a computer. "You mean that machine is gonna replace my typewriter? Well sir, I say you are a fool. Next thing you know you'll want me to trade my perfectly good horse in for a 'car.' Absurd I say, absurd."

Funny thing is, Reilly is coming out with a blog. Just don't call it a blog.

Behold, "Go Fish", Reilly's new blog on ESPN The Magazine. But it's not really called a blog. It looks like "Too Short For A Column", "Freak Celebrity Sighting", "Ricktionary" are all separate sections but, no, they're just the headlines. His first entries were all done on January 16 but there have been no other updates since then.

The world we live in requires us to evolve with our surroundings. Why go work for a newspaper when the entire world can hear you through the internet? Why be limited by circulation, editors, and mandated word counts? In the end, quality will draw the reader back, and nothing else. Move with the times people. We are certainly well past the dawn of a new era. Hell, it's nearly happy hour. And like Omar Little says "It's either play, or get played."