My name is Peter Mucha, I’ve been editing and writing for the Philadelphia Inquirer since the late 1980s, and I care a great deal about newspapers. They’re amazing. For less than a dollar, you can buy a totally portable world of information and ideas. They’ve been amazingly successful, too. What other nonessential product sells hundreds of thousands of units in every city each day?
But for more than two decades, newspapers have been hemorraghing readers. Almost every city once had multiple major dailies, and many homes got two papers delivered daily. Then afternoon papers began dying. In turn, the audience for morning papers began shrinking, too.
The prognosis for this patient has never seemed so grim. The evidence is everywhere, including at the Inquirer, whose setbacks are upsetting but not the focus of this blog. The exercise here isn’t about voyeurism, lamenting what and who has been lost, or pointing fingers at smart and caring people who also want papers to succeed.
The point is to stop the bleeding and turn this patient around.
I believe it’s possible by truly empowering original thinking.
By realizing the traditional formula, in which conscientious journalists hold sway over almost every nook and cranny of content, is far too limiting to chart the fullest range of engaging experiences for would-be paying customers.
It’s time to share the power with non-news-oriented creative types, and especially with readers, to better set everyone free.Â