Peeling back the covers

Here are two columns that address the proliferation of "doom and gloom" scenarios and the motives behind them.

The first one is by Mark Morford of SFGate.com Die, newspaper, die? "Look, I'm all for media upheaval and revolution. I'm all for seeing what will emerge from the ashes of print, should it die out completely. But there's a reason the traditional newsroom model has lasted 150 years, that professional journalism is still considered so vital to a healthy democracy, that it's still a profession requiring years of training and education, and not just a casual hobby you engage in when you're a little drunk and you've read a few McLuhan books and you don't get enough sex so hey, might as well mosey over to that Planning Commission meeting and scribble some notes.'

The second one is by Randy Siegel, publisher of Parade Magazine. Behind The Newspaper Naysayers "As newspaper companies fight for survival and attempt to rectify many of the mistakes they have made in the last decade, they don’t deserve a break from anyone—their readers, their advertisers, or their competitors. What they do deserve, however, is a little more objective coverage of their problems and more detailed disclosure about the possible motives of those 'critics' and 'analysts' who are hardly unbiased observers."