In praise of mainstream media

There are a lot of criticisms I can hurl at mainstream media, but I no longer have any faith that a "grassroots" Blogosphere will be able to put even a significant dent in the ability of "Old Media" to bring the majority of news stories to the majority of consumers. As vast as the efforts of the Blogosphere are, the mostly subjective nature of most blog posts makes even biased mainstream media look fairly objective. As much as I literally hate "Old Media", I don't think we are ready to live and thrive without them, at least over the next few years.

It is a real shame that editorial staffs at mainstream media outlets are being cut, because they are the source of so many interesting and informative stories that we all need to stay up on current events.

I get a daily email from the NY Times, at no charge, that gives me free access to quite a number of stories. I've never been willing to pay for it since news is available on so many web sites for free, but now I would be willing to pay a reasonable price if I were to get some assurance that editorial coverage and objectivity would be racheted up.

I read a lot of stories that originate with Reuters and Associated Press, typically on Yahoo.

I occasionally check Google News, which is aggregating headlines from mostly mainstream media outlets, albeit in Web format.

Bloomberg, Business Week, and the Washington Post occasionally have stories of interest to me.

Just yesterday I found a fascinating article on the Vanity Fair web site, which was referenced in an article in the NY Times.

Even the Wall Street Journal occasionally has articles that I find of interest.

I no longer subscribe to any magazines or newspapers and I don't watch any television, but my intellectual life would be a lot less rich without the editorial efforts at mainstream media.

The Blogosphere is a great venue for opinion and even the occasional news "scoop", but for breadth and depth of worldwide news...

Long live mainstream media!

Now, all they need to do is find novel ways of surviving, evolving, and thriving.

I want and need both mainstream media and the Blogosphere. They need to find ways to complement and assist each other.

Long live mainstream media!

-- Jack Krupansky