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Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology

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Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology & the Ancient World
Brown University
Box 1837 / 60 George Street
Providence, RI 02912
Telephone: (401) 863-3188
Fax: (401) 863-9423
[email protected]

"A new medium is never in addition to an old one, nor does it leave the old one in peace. It never ceases to oppress the older media until it finds new shapes and positions for them." -- McLuhan 273

When considering the future of the Providence Phoenix specifically, and alternative newsweeklies in general, it is impossible to ignore the influence of the Internet Age in which we live. While the Providence Phoenix was born into an era that allotted the task of relaying news to print journalism, television and radio, the articles printed in the Phoenix today are no longer available only in print. The publication now provides its readers with two media through which to absorb content: print and the internet.

In the reader/journalist relationship section I commented on the intimacy forged between reader and journalist as a result of the immediacy of publication on the internet. It cannot be overemphasized that news and information flow easily and instantaneously between individuals and institutions, between readers and writers, in the Internet Age. Suddenly, it is difficult for any comment to be published without consequence. Journalists often find themselves in the position of being the person written about, and journalist and reader can converse as individuals through e-mail or blogs. Personal opinion is no longer a mystery, and feedback is received loud and clear. On the positive side, the Phoenix is now capable of catering exactly to its audience's needs. Guesswork is eliminated in the process of determining what sections of the Phoenix are most popular and which sections need fine tuning. However, on the negative side, readers begin to favor the less-lucrative online version of the Phoenix. When news can be received with the click of a mouse, the news that must be picked up from a newsstand seems impossibly delayed and archaic.

The shift towards internet means less-lucrative advertising sales.

Advertisers no longer think only in terms of full, half and quarter sheet ads, but also in terms of "leaderboards", "skyscrapers", "box units" and "sponsored links." The online media rate sheet of the Phoenix advertising bundle promises that the Phoenix website averages "1.8 million page views every month, 375,000+ unique visitors per month, 4.4 page views per visit." The Phoenix sells its online advertising in terms of CPMs, which are the "cost per thousand impressions" of a single ad. An impression qualifies as any instance of an ad appearing on a website. The larger the advertisement, the greater the cost per CPM. However it is clear that online advertising is significantly cheaper than print advertising, and is a much smaller source of revenue for any newspaper.

But the Phoenix doesn't have to worry about supporting a large full-time staff!

With recent layoffs of 30 employees at the Providence Journal, the question arises whether newspapers that charge money can survive today (see a free publication). Because the Phoenix gets the majority of its articles from contributing and freelance journalists, who don't rely on the Phoenix as their only source of income, it is not faced with the challenge of maintaining salaries for a large full-time staff. This means that the Phoenix can skirt this symptom of decline and avoid drastic changes to its staff or decreases in its quality of writing.

Another side effect of the Internet Age: the collapse of the mosaic


Case Study: Blogs shed light on the future

The December 2nd entry published on Ian Donnis' news blog "Not for Nothing" on the Providence Phoenix website reveals the identity of the "unidentified editorial writer" who was among the 30 Providence Journal employees laid off this past October. In the entry Donnis states that the writer, 11-year part-time employee David A. Mittell Jr., "subsequently contacted me to identify himself as the individual in question." This means that the writer actively sought Donnis out as a journalist capable of shedding light, through his blog, on the details of the layoff spree. When I met with Donnis at the Providence Phoenix headquarters, he emphasized the fact that the Phoenix carries out the important task of reporting on the behind-the-scenes dealings of the Journal. His blog makes this job easier for the Phoenix, suggesting that in some ways the Internet Age has not spelled out the doom of the Providence Phoenix, but rather helped it. Although the medium through which the Phoenix relays news is shifting from print to internet, the publication's commitment to behind-the-scenes reporting is maintained.

This particular December 2nd blog entry, entitled Former Writer: ProJo spiked my final column, also reveals that Mittell's final article, a "lament on the self-destructive ways of the newspaper industry," was spiked, or removed from publication, by Journal publisher Howard Sutton. Once again, the blog feature of the Providence Phoenix allows breaking news to be quickly gathered and published. Donnis even publishes what would have been Mittell's final column in the body of his blog entry. In the candid, unpolished tone characteristic of blogs, Donnis prefaces Mittell's article with the following introduction: "Here's most of what was intended to be Mittell's final ProJo column."

The article that Mittell would have published discusses why newspapers have begun to go downhill in recent years. Ironically, this downhill slide accounts for the Providence Journal's current financial issues and subsequent layoffs. In the article Mittell claims that newspapers have made the mistake of "believing their bad press" and in doing so have "stopped believing in their own product." In other words, because newspapers no longer see their own value in a world increasingly dominated by the internet, they are giving up without putting up much of a fight. Mittell compares the newspaper business to the railroad system, which quickly deteriorated in the face of automobiles. Many publications have their executives to blame for this degradation. These executives are often blind to the value still possessed by the printed newspaper.

With increasing irony, Mittell includes the following quote in his article. Though intended to be published in print, the quote's value is diminished by the fact that it has been published in a blog**. Finance and economics journalist David Warsh states: "The paper-and-ink version {of the newspaper} is easy to read, easy to share, comforting in its corporeality, reassuring in its permanence: it has a durable niche market... Many readers will be satisfied with the inferior information they can get... on the Web. But many will continue to prefer the real thing."

Mittell implores the newspaper market to understand that print journalism has not been permanently surpassed in relevance and practicality by the internet. There will always be a market for print journalism, because a tangible newspaper has many unique characteristics that a website cannot emulate. The blog entry in which Mittell's column is published is a glimpse of the direction in which print media is headed unless the print newspapers begin to see themselves as a valuable entity once more.

To sum up: The answer to the question "where is the Phoenix headed?" may be simply "towards the internet." However, this case study shows that the internet has made it easier and more efficient for the Phoenix to promote its ideals and maintain its commitment to individuality. There is still a place for the content of the Phoenix within its community of readers, regardless of what direction the medium is moving in. As suggested by Mittell, maybe the greatest danger facing print journalism today is the newspaper's lack of faith in its own importance. As long as the Phoenix website can remind its audience of the relevance of print journalism, there is hope for the newspaper yet! The Phoenix in print and the Phoenix online can coexist, collectively catering to the diverse needs and interests of its audience.

**Although Mittell's article was first published in a blog, it appears in print in the December 5-11 2008 issue of the Phoenix. Maybe the choice to publish the article in print is a nod to Mittell's continued faith in print as a unique and valid medium for news.


--> In the body of this blog entry Donnis posts a link to a Providence Journal article entitled In journalism, gadgetry trumps content. The article details the negative effects blogging has had on journalism as a career, and suggests that the gadget fad among newspapers has made journalism a less-appealing profession to senior staff members at many publications. This raises the issue of a steep decline in quality of staff.

Providence Daily Dose: High powered news and nonsense is an example of a Providence-based blog that is not associated with a print publication. The particular entry in this link bemoans the quality of advice in the Dr. Lovemonkey column of the Phoenix. However, the statements made are obviously strictly the opinion of the blogger and are not supported by outside sources. Llewellyn King states in her article "Requiem for U.S. newspaper journalism" that "No entity in the blogosphere has the resources to take up the newspaper role. Opinion is cheap. Reporting costs money — a lot of money" (King, 1).

Side note: My father, a full-time journalist for Fortune Magazine, read through this section of the wiki only a week after Fortune laid of 18 employees. Although his position is safe, as part of the new arrangement he and the remaining writers are expected to devote one day a week to reporting for the publication's website. He attests to the fact that, especially for a 51-year-old self-proclaimed "old dog", writing for the internet "definitely makes my job less appealing!"


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