At every stage we created a better version of ourselves ,at every stage that version had became stuck and needed a powerful and painful reboot .That painful time has come again . And it is budget day .
A personal opinion.
A Startling Early New Year Holiday Message Revisited -
A Newspaper Story For 2013
The newspaper business is said to be dying since the advent of radio ,
91 years ago ,
And yet we still stand .
Staggered like an old boxer ,still willing .
Newspaper people can be temporarily demoralizes ,and downsized ,
But they cannot be stopped .
Newspapers have always attracted the young and the idealistic ,
and the right ones will always step forward .
WE who are left start everyday renewed with a blank page that never looks back.
.
We felt profound human loss with our readers during WW1 ,
We roared in the Twenties ,
Ate dust and sounded warning bells in the 1930's ,
We walked proudly and courageously ,
carrying typewriters and cameras through the second world war.
We withstood the next new media of television in the 1950's.
Written off then ,and still , we stand .
We saw peace and prosperity , and grew wealthily with our readers .
Our business is connected, from the forest to the front step. We are in the business of business . Trees , chemicals , paper, trucking , commerce , information and delivery, all move in a continuous thread. There is no apology for that.
We are committed to ideas and growth .
We were at one time connected directly to nearly every working person and child.
We were tall and loud during the century of egos and heroes .
The paper with once segregated sections , the women's page, men's sports, and colour comics for kids and general news. The paper has evolved continuously from it's first edition printed on single sheet presses.
Thousands of children delivered it across the continent , re-booting back with tens of thousands of new starts a year. Street by street, neighbourhood by neighbourhood , primitive, personal and self sustaining systems connected and renewed young to old and back again .
Our readers knew us personally , we created good will and made a difference.
The evening paper brought news of the day on the same day. Early morning and country sales editions , box sales to the city and outside manufacturing plants , cafes and street corners updated every few hours .Re-plates printed in the morning till early afternoon . Home delivery printed at noon delivered the days news by evening . The online product reinvented the evening paper. Who would remember?
Chain ownership took hold ,then slowly and unexpectedly
things went completely off the tracks.
We found places like Ypres , Anzio , Inchon ,Khe Sanh , Srebrenicia , Mogadishu , Darfur , the Medak Pocket , Kandahar ,and Silicon Valley on world maps for our subscribers . Our microfilm was Google before there was a Google.
We told stories , cracked jokes , spun yarns , repeated lies , and found deep meanings to the fluid events of the day.
Like many, we totally missed the 1960's.
By the late 1970's our national chains were being investigated for poor journalism ,operation of newsrooms ,and anti trust issues. WE sold our radio stations and that was the first fatal mistake . Morning delivery ,delivering news a day late, the next .Our biggest mistake has just begun .
By morning's light ,We were fooled by Halley's Comet , Y2k , H1N1 and “weapons of mass destruction”. The internet , a trojan horse with benefits.
The new is anonymous background noise we have always filtered out , it is so loud now it deafens our medium. Yet there is an opportunity to harness input from primary sources , access and witnesses to issue stories never conceived of before.
We are the ones that put news on the internet whether it is on our website or others .
We no longer compete with mainstream , we compete with everything in the vastness of the cyberspace ,at the highest print and visual level.
Our vision has to match the scale.
We cannot be seen as “old media” in this new world.
But,
We always tried to fix what was broken ,
We have lived and learned , won and lost. We ask questions and got answers.
We pushed boundaries both low and high .
We have been great , we have been bad , we will always strived to be better and there are no excuses .
There will we be no one we recognize to fill that void if we withdraw.
We merged and cloned media streams , and for the first time since the evening paper we can react and deliver news as fast as TV and Radio.
We have taken “mainstream thought” as far as it can go . Change is needed and soon.
We have always been the parliamentary senate of media and that should never change . We can also create a fast food “basic cable” or “a thousand channels” version of ourselves too.
Threatened, we can shrink , fragment , decline or amalgamate or return to a sad average of the 1970's.
We will not disappear without a fight.
Weakened ,We swing at shadows ,hard ,wild,tired ,stuck .
Laying off the future ,cutting of resupply lines and threatening retention is a threat .
The age of fault ,passes.We can not afford to be Forever disposable .
We are ready to start over again , because newspaper people cannot be stopped.
Unstuck .
If we go, another will rise quickly with different rules of engagement , different attitudes ,a different readership . Filled with actions ,words and writing ,images , visions, brave thoughts ,many ideas .The next time we offer solutions .Will the fire be next time?
The space will be full of the minds music and a reckless passion ,the pure noise of everyday life . Less judgement and complaining , more action. The next generation knows only forward and a chance at glory and the risks of a life yet to be built.
Newspaper journalism needs to take more risks ,
stepping outside the comfort zone.
The preservation of the past and fear belongs to their parents .
We burned in the heat , soaked in the rain, froze in the cold and wind.
We prayed with a Pope , fallowed Kings and Queens ,
We dined with the rich and the famous , and buried the unlucky .
We work hard at the things we do ,and we are good at it .
Our business still shrinks.There is a message here .
We cried with victims, celebrated with the victors , and raised money for the poor .
We welcomed political refugees , spoke up for immigrants .
We showed hope .
We heard those who could not be heard ,but for decades all media turned a blind eye to our own First Nation people , our farm roots ,and now the middle class .
We carried the fight and occasionally dropped the ball.
We have become timid, desperate and eager to please.
We are faster , and lighter .Travelling head first at the speed of light , in every direction. Cavalry charge, sabres drawn , a boxer advancing with gloves down,but advancing .
Now skeleton staffs try to keep score , and always finding ways to make things right. When we get it all right , there is nothing in the free world or any part of the world to compare .
We are continually trying to think things out.
When we were lost, we found ourselves again.
We exposed corruption and evil and gave comfort and closure .
We rise and fall , we dig and bury .
We are not East or West , left or right and yet we have at times been all that .We may be liberal but we consistently act conservative , consistently local.
Our readers didn't think were are human and are always surprised to see us as real people . We are a company of people working from a blank page everyday.
We saw the tearing down of old Main St. , old Eaton's , an old arenas and old stadiums. We recorded rapid change .
And still the inner cities are the most interesting , violent and poorest areas . Food bank continues to grow. At election time we record pages of promises.
Without wealth there can be no welfare ,the middle class slides.
The things that don't change or get worse make us irrelevant because we are not doing our job.
Journalism is presently at its highest point , but the things we don't understand would fill an ocean , and politics does not intersect every problem and we seek fair value for service.
Private and political communication specialists conspire against us , messages and access are restrictive , our methods are well known and their countermeasures are sophisticated and formidable . These are our biggest challenges .
With speed comes the blur ,and the biggest, busiest con .
A new genre in news analysis is possible and very near, but one mainstream organization has to be strong and first , the rest will fallow.
Rapid change has arrived again after more than 40 years , time to get moving .
The eyes are turning away, turned down , even to drive. We seek ,what already exists . A generation built for constant reporting , a constant witness to the lives and issues we seek.Breaking news is only the tip of a cultural and information break through. Omni present,connected ,paperless ,thoughtless newsrooms.Raw information, streaming. A gateway to smarter deeper issues.
Just receiving and routing.Just having the right voices found.
Websites provide every an answer to every problem. Conversations are meaningless with Google.The people we seek have only a ceiling made from eggshells above them and fresh air above that. The new narrative is never pitched at the morning meetings.
A day in the life of everywhere beckons.
Too many stories appear like ghosts from the past , repeating themselves over and over with every new wave of authors. Our inward pathways are well worn by the usual suspects .Newsrooms piled with stacks of yellowing newsprint ,comfort hoarding, piling/filing , voodoo dolls lined up, rituals , and cups of stale coffee.
Photographers ,with back breaking sacks of new and the last five nearly new technologies , nomadic. There is a struggle within our present frame work to be relevant.
The newsrooms-lite ,empty as the fifth floor of Eaton's during the final years with everything on sale . Madly working , economizing , clarifying , checking ,overcoming . A small surgical, local force keeps it all on the tracks .Small unit tactics , professional decisive , experienced. Drone drivers of universally passed out information .
The new , universal, breaks different everyday, never looking back , on rented platforms from every point on the globe .New and Un-local .
A newsroom with ninety fewer reporters and editors than twenty five years ago .
Doing the job of another absent 100 composing room staff .
We talk about a new, exclusive and local.
The punches keep coming .
We have been battered , blooded and we are reeling, and yet we still stand .Heads up , lumbering forward ,bobbing , weaving , counter punching ,looking curiously to our corner.We still think clearly and everyday we cope.
Warriors , bleeding , stable , fewer. Still standing.Courageous .
It is budget day .
We are resilient because we have known the best people of our time. Bricks and mortar people ,strong and fast people who did not strive for ordinary . These extraordinary people survived scrutiny , and changed history in their favour. We knew them personally , and they changed our world. We knew their struggle and we saw the result of relentless courage and conviction to accomplish things thought to be impossible. They saw that change was needed .Opportunity knocked . None were perfect and not one of them started off striving to be , ordinary or mainstream.
We have , at times been all of them in our own way .We need to do that one great thing for ourselves .We have to yield our single voice to the many .Surprisingly, we have never been the smartest even though we have been smart . Never seeking a top to bottom approach to success , our business walks in the dark , but our night vision is keen and senses adapt .
Again we are threatened with another new, powerful but non-exclusive media . Our future is in our hands .Still in a position of strength.
Married to our readers in good times and bad , through thick and thin , in hot and cold , in sickness and health ,forever steady and true .A history of heat and steam ,love ,hate and lust.
We have seen it all before.This is the toughest and most meaningful fight .
Just as the city and it's people have moved forward , we were always present and recorded it all . Now everyone is recording , many voices are speaking at once . We don't have to make sense of it all. We just need to cut ,shuffle and deal the deck of information. Punches in bunches . Popular Science meets Today's Parent , meets the financial Post meets breaking news.A day planner for life's meaning .
It is time to move boldly forward again, and see the world in ways that previously seemed unfathomable .
Just like the oceans ,that seem so familiar , only 3% of its history , geography , vegetation and organisms are known and recorded . We swim only yards from shore .Our readers have already seen all our easy stuff.
Forever evolving , we start again into a brave and uncertain new world that owes us nothing, because we have already been paid in full.
Still here , still standing , still a struggle. Leaning away from a wild swing , we still have power loaded in our right hand. Stronger than we think .The ones that remain are the RIGHT ONES. The ones that are left have adapted at every stage , and still push new.Fewer, smarter , adaptable .Still standing and committed .
We lived it all in “full” for 140 years and counting . There are two stories, and two faces intertwined in the things we do everyday. This clouds our vision of the future , and prevents us from seeing our product in any way other than the way it exists today.
We have created clubs , organizations and give away awards to ourselves over the years to support the good and noble parts of our craft that have been constantly under stress. We have cheated , advancing culture long enough.
We support ourselves and defend our actions but in our hearts we don't want anything to change .
We know in our hearts everything has to change.
We have two faces , pushing limits of idealism and pragmatism , boundaries of taste in upper and lower ends of the scale .
Our calling has been meshed and matches a pillar of democracy with a business model that needs to guarantee it's survival. Basic Western Freedom has capitalism as its base. It pushes and pulls us in all directions .It is edgy and fluid, and if left unregulated it may be the end of all we hold dear in our culture. Allowed to correct itself , it will bring a renewal as it always has.
Everything rises and falls. Everything has a price and we push limits to minimums and maximums there to.
There is a second wind and we are in the late rounds .Points aren't going to save us now. But we still stand with that bloody, silly, sly grin. We have seen it all before ,twice .This is not our century , but this is also not the day.
This is budget day.
We are all that is left , no one new is coming. Newspapers people cannot be stopped.
For those effected by terminal cynicism and long term occupational injuries inflicted during this struggle .
A toast ,
To those who endured long periods of exposure to “toxic” low dose negativity & repetition ,breathe the fresh air of “time off” and new energy , a clear head.
To those having constantly to see the world in daily “possible worst case scenarios” ,seek balance , rail against it and keep your family life in order.
There is beauty and sadness in every corner.
To those who engineered great victories ,changed laws building codes , brought comfort and change ,sought justice ,promoted freedom and have been wounded and battered ,take heart , there is one more great battle .We are all about the fight.
To those who endure earlier and earlier deadlines ,more and more responsibilities, doing more with less and having to repeat tired formulas , pray ... drink , row.You are the stuff of Greek myths , punch drunk boxers, and calvary charges .
Your Cynicism has been acquired honestly , and many other good people simply left with regret , for an easier life , others foolishly sent away.
Even though our business can not love us, we still ride forward .The Charge of Light Brigade, “Half a league onward”. We still have one precise straight right knockout punch .
This is a “tip of the hat” to those solid people who survive it , and work to keep it all honest. Underneath it all we are still the same people that signed up for duty. We never gave up. There is no greater feeling than righting a wrong , or giving a voice to those no one would hear, and bringing home a pay check.
We are not a cost ,WE are the benefit , WE are the newspaper .
We still bleed black ink , and will continue to make a difference no matter what we bleed in the future.
If this is truly a rocket ship to the sun , let us not worry about UV exposure or eye protection , let us build a new and unique information platform that reflects the texture and depth of the neighborhoods we live in .There is no need to look or act like another newspaper . Let us make this thing , what we always thought it could be .No fear of the future , if we flame out we do it with rules we created . If we go out , we go out with our boots on and standing .
At every stage we created a better version of our selves ,at every stage that version had became stuck and needed a powerful and painful reboot .That time painful time has come again .
It is budget day .We are not asking for the sun .
A New Year Holiday Message – a personal opinion k gigliotti - -
Topic: The Story of Newspapers Revisited 2013 (Read 958 times)