Postmedia's CEO Paul Godfrey did not advance the cause of newspaper subsidies by his comments to the CBC after the 2018 Federal Budget came down. I know he must have been extremely exasperated after undergoing a 2 year government study of the newspaper business and also having to be on the CBC , a media company that exists on huge amounts of taxpayers money.
The optics are, the way it all appears to the public is that he may be the man for another time but that time has past. He is a successful and scrappy individualist and these are the characteristics that are needed to save the newspaper business. In the words of Hockey Night in Canada host , Harry Neale , he needs to “panic , productively,” and not insult those he hopes would help. He can't insult those who are current and future customers.
I just don't see what they were expecting,just how much money would help Postmedia alone ?
He said because the government is not going to help newspapers, “we are going make more cuts in order to survive and that means poorer journalism.” This quote is running on a CBC On The Money ,Twitter loop on the web. What did he just say to the public, he is saying don't buy newspapers because journalism is going to be poorer. The journalism is not going to change,let's be clear on that. They maybe less journalism but the quality will still be the same. That is a tribute to both old and new journalists still signing up to work a newspapers across this country.
I think he has the courage to keep up the fight, but the fight is in the vertical space as a fighter pilot would try to explain to cavalry officer.
He is fighting a political party and a minister who are in the age group that never picked up a newspaper nor ever will ,they never knew how great the business was. They do not see this because it was a long time ago. Newspapers have been in retreat to TV news for the past 50 years even though papers made lots of money during that time. The lens past publishers viewed success was short sighted , fuzzy, a cataract. And You, Mr.Godfey were there. The new leaders in this country, and most have not worked full time anywhere, have core instincts pushing them to web based media for economic reasons. They stand in the small vertical spaces left by the Baby Boom.And they are moving in vast herds.
The vertical envelopment, the new high ground is mostly inside the heads of a struggling new generation where time and space are without limits. They will see limits soon enough , but today they have a long life ahead of them with lots of risk they gladly face. They have the time. They are just like Mr.Godfrey in his younger days.
There have been several generations now , at least 3 that have not found full time employment in jobs they went to school for and are now also saddled with education debt. They are just out of school and made their first big and costly mistake. Past generations had big debt long after getting out of school, working, then getting a mortgage. Don't expect anyone to feel sorry for the newspaper business ,we sell dreams in credit card debt.
The newspaper business should feel this pain because it's problems started around the same time. The newspaper business has been down sized by new generations because they also have been downsized in economies that make corporations richer, bank vast quantities of cash on the backs of the laid off and through automation.
Mr. Godfrey , save the news business, people will not fallow a guy who is going to lay them off anyway. This aspect of the modern newsroom is a fact and it is self defeating with no help coming from anyone else. Dance with the ones you brought and will bring. Don't lose the newsroom, might be good advice for the publishers in Canada. Opinion by Ken Gigliotti
Topic: Mr.Godfrey You have Said Enough (Read 1045 times)