Open Letter To The New Owners of The Inquirer And Daily News
On behalf of the good people of Philadelphia let us say congratulations! We should also offer a hearty thank-you for bringing the steering wheel back to Philadelphia — newspapers should serve Main Street not Wall Street. Please don’t let us down. The way we see it, you have two choices: Kick-start a renaissance age for Philly newspapering, or join the race to the bottom. Stakes is high, yo. With all that in mind, we humbly suggest the following…
After the jump.
て｢ Ask your reporters and editors to write up a brief and, most importantly, anonymous assessment of their level of confidence in the newsroom leadership, especially at the Inky. You might be surprised by what you find.
て｢ Stop trying to be TV. It just makes you look silly. If you have to be something other than a newspaper, be the Internet.
て｢ Earth to whoever ordered the saturation coverage of American Idol: People who watch American Idol don’t read newspapers. Not even newspapers with big splashy four-color spreads on people destined to become, at best, the punchlines to Trivial Pursuit questions.
て｢ The Daily News folks have held on despite a brutal war of attrition waged against them by Knight Ridder. These soldiers have fought bravely and should all be rewarded with bonuses for not just saying fuggit a long time ago. Maybe take ‘em out and get ‘em drunk, too.
て｢ If there are a million stories in the naked city, how come so few wind up in the Inquirer?
て｢ Find this guy and hire him immediately. Put him in charge of any future youth outreach initiatives you will surely enact. He will connect you to teen and twenty-something readers, as opposed to TV watchers. In the end, you can lead the sheep to water, but you cannot make them think.
て｢ Draw up a New Covenant with your readership and print it on the editorial page. Speak candidly about why readership is plummeting — and be brutally honest, it’s not just the rise of the Internet and everyone inside and outside of 400 North Broad knows that. Then tell us in great detail how you plan to reverse that trend.
て｢ That whole We Will Honor The Great Wall Between Advertising And Editorial clause that each and every one of you so nobly signed? That’s the kind of enlightened self-interest you’ll need to turn things around. After all, beyond the nobility of the words themselves, the gesture itself was a very canny disarming of your critics’ biggest weapon: your questionable credibility as objective disseminators of the facts. Put it in a box on the masthead. That way nobody can ever forget it.
て｢ Rent Citizen Kane. Don’t be that guy. All the clues to his downfall are contained in this scene:
KANE
My Declaration of Principles -
(he says it with quotes
around it)
Don’t smile, Brad -
(getting the idea)
Take dictation, Mr. Bernstein -BERNSTEIN
I can’t take shorthand, Mr. Kane -KANE
I’ll write it myself.Kane grabs a piece of rough paper and a grease crayon. Sitting down on the bed next
to Bernstein, he starts to write.BERNSTEIN
(looking over his shoulder)
You don’t wanta make any promises,
Mr. Kane, you don’t wanta keep.KANE
(as he writes)
These’ll be kept.
(stops for a minute and
reads what he has written;
reading)
I’ll provide the people of this city
with a daily paper that will tell
all the news honestly.
(starts to write again;
reading as he writes)
I will also provide them -LELAND
That’s the second sentence you’ve
started with “I” -KANE
(looking up)
People are going to know who’s
responsible. And they’re going to
get the news - the true news -
quickly and simply and entertainingly.
(he speaks with real
conviction)
And no special interests will be
allowed to interfere with the truth
of that news.
Goodnight and good luck.
sincerely,
Philebrity
