Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow

I enjoy political cartoons and that’s how I first came across Ted Rall. Rall is a left-leaning political cartoonist, author, and syndicated columnist.

A lot of the time his cartoon is not quite my cup of tea. It isn’t so much that I disagree with him (though I do disagree with him on some points), but more because it just doesn’t make me laugh. The weird drawings and mean spirited attitude is a little over the top for me.

But I think his columns are excellent. After reading a series he just finished called “Future Imperfect,” I feel particularly ashamed that I don’t think I’ve ever really paid to read them.

The columns were about the direction the field of journalism is moving in and discusses things like the financial havoc Al Gore caused when he invented the internet. (If you didn’t see the joke there, either I really stink at comedy or you never watched late night TV in 2004.)

Part I, Part II, and Part III were enthralling, and sometimes disturbing, columns. I thought I would highlight some interesting portions.

From Part I:

Print media is dragging content providers into the abyss. First comes downsizing. Writers, cartoonists, and photographers are losing their jobs to peers willing to do the work for less or, in the case of readers invited to submit their comments and images for the thrill of appearing in the local rag, nothing. Then they squeeze those who remain for pay cuts. A cartoon that runs today in Time, Newsweek, USA Today, The New York Times or The Washington Post--the most prestigious and widely disseminated forums in the United States--brings its creator less than The Village Voice would have paid for it in the 1980s. Some print venues offer no payment at all.

From Part II:

…Venture capitalists are investing in "consolidators," websites like the Drudge Report and Huffington Post that link to columns and articles written by unpaid bloggers and professionals who've managed to hold on to their jobs. Creative people who actually make the product they sell, meanwhile, are receiving squat.

It's inevitable that, sooner rather than later, these intellectual property vampires will suck creators dry. Professionals with mortgages and car payments will flee for greener pastures, replaced by hacks and rank amateurs happy to work for "exposure." We're already seeing the effect as journalism increasingly suffers deprofessionalization; 16-year-old bloggers with mad HTML skillz are demanding, and often receiving, equal access to readers.

…There is a solution to the online payment problem, says Simson Garfinkel, a fellow at the Harvard University Center for Research on Computation and Society and the author of "Database Nation: The Death of Privacy in the 21st Century." (Disclosure: We're friends.)

"If content is appropriately priced, of an appropriately high quality, and easy to access, people will pay for it," asserts Garfinkel. "What is required is a system that is easy to use and licensing terms that are not onerous."

From Part III:

…In 20 years, the U.S. newspaper landscape will look more like Europe and Japan. The market will be dominated by two major segments. At the top we'll find a small cluster, perhaps 10 or 15, of huge national titles--papers such as The New York Times and USA Today will get even bigger. Existing papers (The Washington Post?) will expand; new ones will launch.

…None of this will improve the quality of journalism. "Ultimately [free dailies] will breed in people the idea that news shouldn't cost anything, even that news is cheap," points out media commentator Roy Greenslade. "But in fact, news, done well and properly, requires investment and money. They will no doubt tell us what happened--but news should also tell us how and why things happen. I fear that approach will be lost."

~Geoffrey Dobbins
Vice President, UCABJ