If news happens and no one reports it, does it make a sound?

I wrote yesterday about the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies conference here in Portland, and the panel discussion with Arianna Huffington, Matt Taibbi, and Jane Hamsher, which was about the future of political reporting, the future of alt-weeklies, and the importance of blog reporting.

The consensus: the mainstream media (which certainly includes alt-weeklies these days) are not nimble, they're not community-based, they don't inspire discussion.

In the audience were representatives from Willamette Week (Mark Zusman, the editor-in-chief, was the moderator, and the paper hosted the event and the conference), the Portland Mercury, and papers from around the country. Now it's been nearly 24 hours...and from reading their blogs, you wouldn't even know it happened.

Not that the blogs haven't been updated with fresh content. Willamette Week's WWire has info about a fashion show featuring "unconventionally belted separates"; the Mercury's Blogtown, PDX has a "web-exclusive" review of the new Fantastic Four sequel. Over at Oregon Media Insiders, no one even seems aware of the discussion -- but there is a delicious-sounding recipe for pork ribs puttanesca.

If news happens and no one reports it, does it make a sound?

Comments

[Cuisine Bonne Femme]

"The consensus: the mainstream media (which certainly includes alt-weeklies these days) are not nimble, they're not community-based, they don't inspire discussion."

Yep, you pretty much sum it up here.

Furthermore, it feels that many weeklies have become more interested with themselves as cultural institutions and self-proclaimed "taste makers", rather than as news and culture conduits that they have succumb to belly-button gazing syndrome. What weeklies are not getting is that they are not the interesting part of the story and that they do not drive the culture. Good ones help raise the discussion on it and spread the word on items of note and interest in it, but news is no longer a controlled top-down linear entity.

Alas, this is something that they have had years to address, and the train is so far from the station at this point that I do wonder how long many of them will last in their current form much longer.

[Kevin]

"Alas, this is something that they have had years to address, and the train is so far from the station at this point that I do wonder how long many of them will last in their current form much longer."

Well, I think the point is that they can't, and they shouldn't, last in their current form. The question is whether they'll be able to maintain (or regain) relevancy and profitability.

A half-assed, timorous, control-freak attempt at blogging won't work. Surprisingly, some of the major dailies are being bolder than the alt-weeklies when it comes to creating discussion fora.

As far as "figuring out financial models that will allow us to pay contributors what they're worth blah blah blah" - they've had more than 40 years to figure that out, and it's become a ongoing con.

If they want to use the work of people "who need the experience," then God bless 'em, but people who don't need the experience need to tell them, cheerfully but bluntly, that perhaps they need to find some managers, editors, printers, accountants, landlords, and newsprint companies "who need the experience" and use the money to pay their goddam writers a decent wage.

[Matt Davis]

"A half-assed, timorous, control-freak attempt at blogging won't work."

Couldn't agree more. And I'm sorry I didn't cover Huffington. It's inexcusable...

[Cuisine Bonne Femme]

Matt: It's not too late