P10.V53.I01
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SUMMER 2012
Page 10A
Adviser Update
Have newspapers become irrelevant?
By RICHARD HOLDEN
he announcement that the
T
Times-Picayune in New
Orleans would cut back its printed
product to three days a week from
seven drew quick and vociferous
criticism from many corners. Pundits mourned the loss — at least
partial — of another newspaper
icon while local residents lost the
source of easily obtainable coverage for four days each week.
Interestingly, Advance Publications, which owns the TimesPicayune, announced similar
plans for its Alabama papers in
Birmingham, Mobile and Huntsville. Hardly a word of complaint
or criticism was heard.
True, the Times-Picayune
drew national and international
praise for its coverage of Hurricane Katrina and its long-term
effects on the area. But why no
complaints about the Alabama
papers?
John Archibald, a columnist
for The Birmingham News, had
an interesting take on the issue.
He said, “New Orleans has identity and pride. Birmingham has
division and hostility. We can’t
Director’s chair
get together to ‘save’ anything,
because we can’t agree that anything is worth saving.”
David Sullivan, an editor at
the Philadelphia Inquirer and
author of the blog “That’s the
Press, Baby,” has made a number
of observations on this and the
broader issue of the future of print
journalism.
In a post this spring, he wrote,
“The Internet utopians and digiterari for years have been saying,
‘Stop trying to defend your dying
or dead print business.’ Had they
simply used the word ‘declining’
they might have gotten more traction.”
These critics, Sullivan suggested, were saying that “newspapers
have to be smaller.
People have more things to
read and no longer are willing
to block out 20 minutes to ‘just
read the paper.’ Newspapers that
simply state the next morning
what people already know are
irrelevant.”
So, have newspapers really
become irrelevant? Based on
anecdotal evidence from the Dow
Jones News Fund intern programs for this summer, I think
the answer is no. And Warren Buffett agrees with me — though he
didn’t ask for my advice or opinion. More on Buffett in a bit.
For us at DJNF, the number of
internships we p