How to Save Newspapers

It’s a challenge and an exercise, posed by Good, a new magazine “for people who give a damn.”  You’ll find it in the March/April “Media Issue” on the back page. Couldn’t resist, of course. Since I give a damn, I gave it my best, putting together all sorts of my ideas on a single page. […]

You’re relaxing on the couch or in your easy chair, reading a story about … a politician ranting … a great new song … the world’s worst snorer. Wouldn’t it be nice if you didn’t have to move to see or hear a clip? Just hear or see it on your cell. Maybe the story […]

Steve Lovelady, an ex-Inquirer editor, once made the memorable remark that newspaper’s biggest threat wasn’t TV news, but TV dramas like L.A. Law. The ability of TV to captivate  is a big reason Americans have less time to read. So meet the challenge by embracing dramatic storytelling. Instead of inching multiple crime stories along day by day, adding […]

The needed newspaper revolution could learn from one on TV: Faltering ratings were boosted, temporarily at least, with the surge in reality TV. Basically, such shows were (a) cheap to produce, and (b) based on providing contrived vicarious thrills. How do real people behave? In a way, isn’t that one reason we read newspapers? To find […]

Gossip columns are popular, and so are TV series. Doesn’t it seem sometimes that people are almost as interested in TV characters as they are in real people? Aha! Do a newspaper column called “Character References” that’s “gossip” about what happened last night on TV. Write it up in chatty mock-shock-schlocky style. Boldface the unreal […]