The newspaper industry has for years turned out legendary investigative work, analysis and trend packages -- looking through sources’ eyes. But the mess the industry’s in at the moment raises questions about the clarity of its own vision.
The industry never had to use its own eyes that much during those decades of fat times, but there was effort in some quarters. While rummaging through some of my files, I found a printout of an AP story that gives a sense of that effort.
The story from April 3, 1990, carried a compelling headline: “Trying to Envision the Paper of 2020 --- If It Still Exists.”
A colleague at the Corpus Christi Caller-Times had printed out the story for me on a dot-matrix printer (just looking at the printout took me back several lifetimes). I’d kept that printout on fanfold paper just for grins, to compare its view someday with how things were turning out.
Mike Feinsilber’s story, datelined Washington, focused on concerns among editors attending that year’s American Society of Newspaper Editors convention.
As usual, they were wringing their hands over eroding circulation and readership, but they had gotten an intriguing report from the Future of Newspapers Committee regarding prototype newspapers that had been designed. It’s interesting reading as much for what’s not there as anything.
“The prototypes,” Feinsilber wrote, “suggested what the paper might be in 30 years: full of color; full of graphs and charts; highly compartmentalized, organized, indexed, with pages labeled and stories color-coded so readers would know at a glance what’s in the package.”
There were other visions –- of utility, usefulness, etc. Had me chompin’ at the bit to dive in and begin trying those things.
Turns out the committee’s vision was pretty good but shortsighted because of what they couldn't see coming. As of 2009 and with 10 years left to realize the vision of '90, some of what they saw has fizzled and some has come to pass.
But think about what was missing, what no one was talking about and what only a few editors had the foresight to imagine: an emerging force called the Internet.
The rest is history. The industry's trying to adjust. So is ASNE. Take a look at their Web site. The dominant hed: "ASNE Webinairs."
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