Revisiting the DaSilva-Tampa Trib layoffs story
August 20, 2008 at 9:28 am by Wayne GarciaYou may recall that I blogged a while back about Jessie DaSilva, a Tampa Tribune intern whose blog post defending the new direction at the Tampa Tribune, as elucidated by editor Janet Coats, drew lots of praise and criticism online.
Now, a former Trib reporter who left just before that incident, Billy Townsend, has weighed in on the issue with a very thoughtful analysis of the problems of the news biz. I point this out not only because he says nice things about my piece but because he hits the nail on the head:
Mass audiences don’t pay to read content. They never have, at least not since the rise of free television.
Advertisers, who have funded the major newspapers, have never cared about journalism. They paid for the press – the means to reach a mass audience. With the rise of the web and Google, advertisers can now reach almost infinitely larger audiences with measurable, local precision. The marriage of journalism and advertising, which I think never existed, is undergoing an ugly, irreversible divorce.
I also had a chance to meet DaSilva last week at Bill McKeen’s book-signing and found her a very bright journalist. She’s headed back to Gainesville, where she will start a term as the editor in chief at the Independent Florida Alligator. I wish her good luck.
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August 21st, 2008 at 11:04 am
Advertisers, who have funded the major newspapers, have never cared about journalism. They paid for the press – the means to reach a mass audience. With the rise of the web and Google, advertisers can now reach almost infinitely larger audiences with measurable, local precision. The marriage of journalism and advertising, which I think never existed, is undergoing an ugly, irreversible divorce.