Tuesday, January 24, 2006

PR Week is not necessarily the most likely place to find an assessment of the state of today's journalism and today's newspapers, but here's one based on an interview with Jack Shafer, "the prolific media critic for Slate."

He sees alternative weeklies as mainstream these days, says he does his best to avoid PR people -- "I'd much prefer talking to somebody who's in the decision-making capacity and is not the spear-chucker for the person in the decision-making capacity" -- and says that sometimes the White House press corps includes a bunch of "loons."

As for newspapers, he predicts "a long, steady, and profitable decline" that started with the arrival of radio in 1920. "The newspaper industry has gotten used to having quasi-monopoly positions in most of the major markets, and now that they have competition, they are screaming like spanked little children about their losses."

Interesting perspective.
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