I get asked all the time to explain the problems facing the newspaper industry.
It struck me again as I sat near tears in a movie theater watching the Oscar-winning move "Spotlight," which detailed the investigative team from the Boston Globe and their work in uncovering the massive problem with predator priests abusing children in the Boston Archdiocese.
The sadness for me was two-fold: First, as a Catholic, the move could not possibly have painted the church in a worse light, one by the way I believe was richly deserved. Much like what took place here in Philadelphia, the church's reaction and policies concerning child sexual abuse by priests was abhorrent.
But I felt another sadness as well, one that stems from more than four decades in the newspaper business.
The move clearly showed what we are in danger of losing in this racket, our mission of being a watchdog on what is going on in our towns and schools.
Much of it is not especially sexy. Township supervisors' meetings rarely are.
It may not get 'clicks,' the mantra of today's online journalism, but it is very important.
Maybe most important is the idea of what can happen when that 'spotlight' - literally shedding light on the governmental process, goes dark.
Bad things happen.
Things that may never see the light of day.
That is what community newspapers do - and part of what we strive to do here at the Daily Times every day.
In that vein, I have a new hero.
His name is John Oliver. I had never seen his show until this past week. I was vacationing in Colorado and was channel surfing when our hosts suggested his show, "Last Week Tonight With John Oliver."
Oliver is British, and he offered up one of the best explanations of the problems facing today's journalism I have ever seen.
You want to know about the problems I face as a newspaper editor every day?
I highly suggest you watch this.
It's not so much what we are doing, but what increasingly we are in danger of no longer being able to do.
Thank you, John Oliver.
Check out his piece here.
Comments
Click on Yahoo or Google or similar news, and you can read all you want because they have made Revenue based on ads based on your click.
So it seems the newspaper's never figured out how to make eggs from your click. Women think it's not that hard but I guess it is it's just that the print media never figured out what every other Republishing source has.