The Revolution Is Over, And It is Time For A New One -Opinion by Ken Gigliotti adapted from an earlier post They Accommodate Us.
The last true revolution was different for each Canadian paper but the dates are written in stone on the press buildings. It was a time when new presses and therefore buildings replaced 80 year structures built around the time of the turn of the century and before WW1. Presses had a fifty year life span that brought a fifty year mind set. New/old presses were replacing with similar letterpress technology in the 1950's and sixties. By the 1990's most Canadian papers got not only new presses, but also computers, and the Toronto Star format that is mostly unchanged across Canada except for the actual dimensions of the paper size for broadsheets. AND, pictures and design were to become a thing. The Sunday paper began (it began the erosion of religious influence and led to Sunday shopping) as well as the morning paper. This was all big stuff. The big enthusiastic thinking was radical and gave a new generation of journalists and managers the keys to a run down product with no where to go but up. The newspaper business got old again and grudgingly moved into the digital age. Here we stand,the keys are being handed over again.
This may sound harsh but if you watch the Movie Ford vs Ferrari you will see just how hard it is for big old companies to innovate. Henry Ford 2nd had Lee Iacocca on staff , Henry Ford 1st.had the Dodge brothers working for him.Industry innovators were inside the Ford factory when they were needed,but they were not seen. Both Ford's company structures just could not get out of the way of their own success. It was trash talk and those who were out spoken and difficult who pushed innovation. Always looks good in a movie.I love this movie.
Why do they rejected us? - They hate us,because we make them look funny,we make them look fat, because we sneak around, or just barge in unannounced.
They don't buy us because they think our coverage lost their election, and still they “accommodate” us, to get their pictures in the paper. They reject us because we took them for granted,we were too full of ourselves and because we depended on them to accommodate us. They hate us because of the paper. They just hate paper. They hate it and we can't give it away.
They don't buy us because the revolution is over, so it is time to start a new one.
They hate us because we laughed too hard when they rose and way too hard when they fell.Now we fall.They hate us and reject us because we never wanted friends or help and now we are begging for them.
The revolution is over and it is time for a new one.
When they are experiencing the worst day of their lives,we arrive in packs and run rough shod through their lives like bulls in a china shop and three days later leave without as much as a goodbye. We brag about our humanity at a time when we should listen and not talk. Like an old hockey player that could always skate circles around the opposition, those circles are just getting bigger and bigger. They hate us because of the repetition, a record,spinning like vinyl on turntable,only going so far. It is time to go further.They have seen our best work,time for some new approaches and formats.
The revolution is over it is time for a new one.
We say it is the advertising but I think the advertising held us back. Advertising kept us old, comfortable in the groove and spinning. The readers moved on like the shoppers at Eaton's and Sears.
The revolution is over and it it is time for a new one.
We need to NETFLIX our product, with original content and push some boundaries and promote ourselves better. Every worker needs to speak up to win that new day that seems impossible, and give the readers something better and newer, Because Their Worth it,because WE OWN IT, because we can JUST DO IT. Can we see that advertising can change the market with just three words in every decade. It is not about us it is about them.
Informed and Forewarned, Informed and Unstoppable, Informed and Unafraid might be a good first start.
Even though sometimes the underlying hatred for the work we do bubbles to the surface, even they see that it has done profound good in the end. Even though we hate to see people in pain, showing their pain brings action. Our readers see people in pain and instead of seeing a negative they see a positive, they are moved to help. Governments, and agencies that needed to be better find a reason are shamed into taking the next step.It is now our turn to be shamed. First Nation Reserve housing and clean water, child welfare, climate change, drugs and poverty, we share the failure. Reporting decline is futile.
The revolution is over,it is time for a new one.
Some of them will always hate us, and some of them will see some benefit to the things we do later on .
Sometimes they love us because we made someone look good, someone look strong, some guilty, some heroic or made someone look smart, they love us because we try to inform, because we don’t try to get it all wrong .
They love when we get it all right, because it brings repercussions, or uncovered some evidence, or simply recorded the scene and that helped them understand what happened when their loved one crashed .
They love us because as a profession we stumble across disturbing seemingly isolated occurrences that turn into trends that will be noticed by the public and forced to be fixed by the manufacturer who already knew there was a problem.
They love us because we got THAT moment absolutely right , because we do things that help, we do things that let other people help , they love us because we cause things to change for the better. They miss that about us.
They love us because the poor and powerless sometimes get their say or because we love to go to war, but we never stick with it .
They love us because they can laugh at themselves through our pictures and stories. They love us because we are the only media that will routinely publish corrections when we are wrong.
They love us because we take amazing news and sports pictures in places that have “no light” and no place to stand, and even more amazing picture in places were there is lots of good quality light and access .
They love us because sometimes our pictures and stories cut through all the crap and reveal something that is true or unexpected.
They love us because we take them to places they can’t go but always wondered about .
Sometimes the people who hate us the most, look good in the paper because we really are unbiased, or we are just flawed by a personality defect or just couldn’t remember them after 20 minutes. They love us because of the words and the pictures , they do have something to say, and they love us because we get to push the button or type the words and say the things they always wished to.
They love us because we do more good than harm and we can share the history with theirs, and not just the way we record it .
They love us because pictures are the heart of media and printed words the soul. We need to be better, we need to last , we say something about a time that would be other wise lost. We start with a subject, but we also have background and foreground . Clothing and hair styles and automobiles can all be dated . In time the importance of the subject will diminish, the background, foreground and context will gain in importance.
It is no longer a straight line from the “thing” to the paper to our readers. Regardless how they feel about us, our tenacity has to be respected. Everything we do no matter how negative or painful, or damming, it seems to be at the moment , eventually leads to a positive result. Laws get changed , procedures change, people change .
We have to know when we are working that sometimes people hate us, and sometimes they have good reasons . We have to respect that and still be able to do our job. Knowing these things will make us better when it counts , and keep us honest without baggage and to never stray far from where we started. The revolution is over it is time for another. Opinion by Ken Gigliotti
Topic: Closing Papers- Time For A New Revolution (Read 954 times)