I know that there have been newsroom cuts, layoffs, buyouts and other things at the Boston Globe. The changing business of news has affected many newspapers in this way. What saddens me is that instead of the remaining staff focusing on putting out good, quality news stories, they are pressed into things like blogging about mascots. I would rather a thinner paper (or online offering) with reporting about news: the city council, public works, the doings on Beacon Hill.
An example of news blogging gone wrong: investigating the departure of a mascot from Out of Luck – Celtics Blog.
Is there room for a sports section in my fictional paper, probably. Yet this embattled media group has three people listed as staff for basketball, plus a fourth who posted the article below. If newsroom cuts need to happen, perhaps the number of people devoted to basketball should dwindle. Or perhaps pay fewer people to blog overall? There are 11 sports blogs, 9 news* blogs, 7 Lifestyle blogs, 4 Jobs blogs, 3 business blogs, 3 travel blogs, 2 Ideas blogs, 1 car blog. I blog, I read blogs, I don’t mind blogs. I want reporters to report. Go forth, find some wheat in the chaff. Investigate something. Have a bureau in I-Dunno-Where-ica and report from there.
I refuse to believe that journalists went to school to write commentary and banter with readers. If money is tight, bring back the real newspaper, please. In the meantime, I’ll go back to reading the Christian Science Monitor (which admittedly, also has blogs, but fewer, for pure commentary, and they are amusing when appropriate.)
*One news blog is related to property tax overrides, something that waxes and wanes through the year.
