Prescott Media Watch

There's a new(s) blogger in town; his mission is Courier-watching. And critiquing. A fine entertainment for Steve as well as his readers. A blog sure beats letters to the editor as a way to get heard on a regular basis, though it probably doesn't reach nearly as many folks out there. Criticism may improve the writing style of our paper; I question whether it will have any impact on treatment of local sacred cows that the editor dare not touch.

Picking on the local newspaper is a time-honored tradition and by no means confined to the shortcomings of small town journalism. When I was young and a copy girl on the long-lamented Chicago Sun, everybody carried on about Col. McCosmic and his Chicago Tribune: his politics, of course, but also his hang-up on spelling reform (fotograph, anyone?) Nonetheless, any time one of Marshall Field's hand-picked crew got an offer from the Trib, he/she jumped at it. The colonel paid twice as much as the guild papers in town. Oh, yes -- politics aside, the Trib's local coverage was also a lot classier. We had a Hearst paper to pick on, but its problem was merely that it was tacky and on the way out.

Curiously enough, I would guess that right now the Courier is in better shape financially than 2007's Chicago Tribune, which was just sold, or possibly the Arizona Republic, which appears to be cutting back. Is the Internet doing what TV failed to accomplish? Consider those classified ads, whose role is being undercut by the on-line likes of Craig's List. The classifieds kept pumping $$$ into newspaper tills over the years even as national display advertising migrated to the tube. No more.

It has to do with that old truism: the classified, like all news, is local. And good, bad or mediocre, local is why I read the Courier. And ReadItHere. And the Yellow Sheet. And Monsoon. And those slick-paper magazines that pop up periodically. (Right now Yavapai Woman and Yavapai.) Yep, I'm a print junkie...

But I also link over to Coyote Radio, The Truth PV (even more critical of our local press than the new kid on the block), and now Courier Watch. To find out what's happening in my world, a world I can enjoy here and now and possibly influence -- as opposed to Everywhere Else, where I'm just one more atom. If I want to get the feel of the real world out there, I read local blogs from Elsewhere. They are written by people who are firmly anchored in their own piece of the earth -- and it shows.

(Note: I may have spoken too soon about the health of the Courier. When I consulted the Google for the Craig's List URL, I discovered CL had recently opened new Prescott and Flagstaff editions. The link above is to the local version!)

How Many More Trees?

A forbidden thought occurred to me this morning over coffee. I looked at the pile made by a week's worth of newspapers; it was over 10" high. Maybe I should cut back from two to one paper a day. Maybe none. Think of the time I'd have for the Internet. Or taking pictures. Really learning PhotoShop. Reading science fiction and even mysteries. Walking and exploring. Gardening.

The thought made me cringe with guilt. For you see, I began my journalism career as a copyboy on the old Chicago Sun. In my world, news is a duty that has always equaled ink on newsprint. Back when most folk shifted their allegiance to the ubiquitous tube, I stayed with print. Despite my emphasis on graphics on this blog, I remain convinced that the importance of real news and events can't be determined by how exciting the pictures are. Nor by how much talking heads shout at each other. On the other hand, the older I get, the more today's news resembles yesterday's.

But there's that admonition from my 103 year old mother: always do the puzzles -- they'll keep your mind working. Just like this year's crop of researchers have discovered (there's nothing like proving the obvious!) It's actually the puzzles that are taking all the time I spend with the paper. And, of course, those devious feature editors added Sudoku just to further entice me.

So I can't figure out which paper to cut off. The big state daily from Phoenix has the best puzzles; the local Courier offers the local coverage I need as I work on my various blog posts. Maybe I might compromise and settle on weekends only for the Republic. I'm most likely to wimp out and do nothing, as I have done with the cable TV.