City Paper on Daily News

I find stories of the media covering the media interesting. This City Paper cover story is no different. Mike Newall [who defected from PW to CP earlier this year] spent some time in the Daily News newsroom talking to the reporters and editors about the decisions from the KR brass. He describes the paper in its glory days:

On one side of the Flamingo Room hangs a collection of black-and-white photographs, many of which recall the paper's early-1980s heyday.

There's one of the famed columnist Pete Dexter pulling what looks to be a piece of gum out of his ear. Dexter penned beautiful, Hemmingway-esque dispatches often drawn from his hard-living lifestyle. "I didn't have a beat. I just did what I wanted to do," Dexter once said, remembering his time at the paper...

And now, when things are looking more than grim:

But today, on the other side of the Flamingo Room, opposite the photos, is a glass partition that overlooks the newsroom, which is far more subdued now; it feels more like an emergency room waiting area. There's good reason for this.

"The mood is shit," says one reporter. "We're doing our best to put out a great paper but we're also really busy looking for jobs."

He reports that more than twenty-five editors, reporters or designers have applied for the buyout which will make the process a little easier than if Editor Michael Day had been forced to fire people, "but is symbolic of the paper's sagging morale" Newall writes.

The papers of the United States are slowly dying. One by one, they are tightening their belts and they can only go on for so long without adapting to new times. I think that they themselves are partly to blame as many have become lazy in not reporting the news. The recent tribulations of the paper of record The NY Times with Jayson Blair and Judy Miller don't help the public's image of our newspapers either.

I read both papers online, never in print. It's just more convenient for me. I'm not awake enough in the mornings on my way to work to be able to pick up a paper and read through it on the train. I can't just sit at my desk with a newspaper sprawled out in front of me either. But I don't read as much of the paper online compared to how much of a paper I read when I have it physically in my hands. Lady recently subscribed to the weekend edition of the NYT and I pick it up at some point on the weekends. Reading the editorials, a few stories off the front page and flip through some sections. I must read through the NYT Magazine though. I grew up with the NYT. I've been reading it since I was about ten or so. I'm just used to it. I still haven't gotten used to reading the Inky or the DN yet. I dunno if I ever will. Now, I dunno if I'll ever get the chance to get used to it.