One of the Chronicle‘s two editorial writers* weighed in today on the matter of “saving” newspapers.
Cory Crow was as unimpressed as we were, and much more motivated to explain why, so go read him here.
“Newsosaur” Alan Mutter did a nice job last month debunking the notion that somehow Google is to blame for the decline of newspapers, and suggested that editors and publishers need to get to work trying to figure out how to remake their enterprise.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has recently taken some steps in that direction, and seems to be trying hard to re-engage potential readers. The Chronicle, on the other hand, has exorcised a blog from its blogrolls, rolled out this website, cut its delivery area, and shrunk the size of the newspaper. It’s hard to see how those moves (or punishing Google, or changing antitrust provisions, or continuing to lay off quality journalists, or having an invisible, unresponsive “reader representative”) are going to fix the problems locally.
BLOGVERSATION: Unca Darrell.
* It seems silly to call it a “board” at this point.
