Rachel Maddow Interviews Greg Mitchell On Future Of Newspaper Industry (VIDEO)

Editor and Publisher:

Greg Mitchell interviewed by Rachel Maddow about current newspaper cutbacks and woes, new media and pay-for-play, and, in part, his new book on media and 2008 campaign, Why Obama Won....Here is full segment.

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Comments

[coonce]

I’ve yet to see a television show or news outlet come up with a way to report on what the online websites and blogs are saying or doing. Have you seen something? If so, let me know where it is please.

Oh sure, the 24 hours news programs will show a screen (most of the time you can’t even read it) of what bloggers are saying about a specific issue of the day; but there’s no show out there discussing things that online folks (Internet) are doing.

We’ve all seen reports where newspapers are losing money every day now because people get their news or ideas from television or the Internet. Newspapers are more like magazines now. They report on ‘yesterday’ or ‘what’s coming up’ events. So, why don’t they ‘change’? Perhaps they should get into the 21st century and report on blogs and the internet instead. Research a website. Find out how it started, by whom and why. Report where those sites get their news from. Report the facts. If the site is posting false information, tell your readers. If the site is reporting accurate information - tell the readers that too.

Television is moving in that direction with their little sketches of what ‘bloggers’ are saying today. Perhaps they too should provide a show just to talk about the Internet? They could interview webmasters of the websites. They could be the “Meet the Press” of the Internet.

If I were a millionaire, I’d be investing in this ‘big

[Charity]

it seems, like the record industry, the newspaper industry didn't see it "coming." and when they did, they frantically tried to revise their pages to attract "younger readers," when younger readers a.)didn't read newspapers b.)had no interest in acquiring the habit c.)got their news, if any, from the internet.

but newspapers forged on, firing older staff in favor of hiring younger, inexperienced staff (continuing in larger numbers today) in hopes of finding that magic bullet that would attract a young readership. they've redone their design to make their pages appear "young" and "internet-like." they focus on "youth" topics.

in the meantime, the ones who DO or DID read newspapers were forgotten, not cultivated, and guess what? they, TOO, went to the internet for their news.

it's one thing to hopefully pull in future readers; it's quite another to ignore the readers they already have.

and incidentally, i've yet to see a local web site, either TV or newsprint, that's worth a d.a..m.n.

[johnnynyc]

" Perhaps they should get into the 21st century and report on blogs and the internet instead."

Exactly how big do you think this site would be if it didn't link to multiple stories from the major newspapers and magazines daily?

[SurrealPumpkin]

EDIT: Huffpo, English is a positional language. Maddow interviews Mitchell does not mean the same thing as Mitchell interviews Maddow.