By Warner Todd Huston ——Bio and Archives--August 12, 2012
American Politics, News | CFP Comments | Reader Friendly | Subscribe | Email Us
I can’t help but view these real-estate changes as a metaphor for the overall role of newspapers in our society. They once were commanding civic institutions, owned by local businesspeople who expressed their pride and influence by constructing grand buildings to house their media properties. Now they’re … No longer a symbol of local power and influence, the newspaper building is merely an economic asset on a balance sheet, to be disposed of when it becomes a drain on profits.Reinan pins these woes on corporate masters that are uncaring towards the work of good newspapers. I think Reinan is wrong to imagine that this latest example of the decline in the influence of once powerful newspapers is just the penny pinching of corporate bean counters, though. It’s far more than that. Conservatives like to say that it is proof that the papers’ bias is coming back to haunt them, of course. But honestly it is more than that, too. After all, it isn’t just newspapers that have fallen in this digital age. It’s the entire printing industry, not just that of the news industry. Thousands of regular printing companies that have nothing to do with news gathering have disappeared over the last 20 years, too. In any case, Reinan is exactly right to note that with so many newspapers being forced to leave their once grand palaces, self-built in tribute to their own power and importance this great Diaspora most certainly is another symptom of the decline of the Old Media.
View Comments
Warner Todd Huston’s thoughtful commentary, sometimes irreverent often historically based, is featured on many websites such as Breitbart.com, among many, many others. He has also written for several history magazines, has appeared on numerous TV and radio shows.
He is also the owner and operator of Publius’ Forum.