1.1 Do newspapers suck?
When in 1994 Jon Katz claimed through the pages of the Wired magazine that “Online or Not, Newspapers Suck“, the online newspapers were just starting to make baby steps towards “not sucking”. Katz’s criticism was heavy though:
“Online papers pretend to be seeking and absorbing feedback [my italics], but actually offer the illusion of interactivity without the reality, the pretence of democratic discussion without yielding a drop of power.
The papers seem careful about reading and responding to their e-mail, but in the same
pro forma way they thank readers for writing letters. They dangle the notion that they are now really listening, but that’s mostly just a tease – the media equivalent of the politically correct pose.The real power, as always, lies not in online exchanges but in daily story conferences among a few editors who don’t read e-mail. In fact, the familiar newspaper model lurks behind every icon: You can write us as many letters as you want, in a faster way than before, and we’ll read them.
But we’re still going to decide what’s important, and then we’ll tell you. And we’ll do it in a format that’s even less pleasant, portable, and convenient than the paper itself” [my bold] (Katz, 1994).
(How) have newspapers evolved beyond this dark image sketched by Katz over a decade ago? What are they doing to connect with the readers, to cater to their tastes? Are newspapers (still) pretending that the XXI century didn’t happen?
