Akkam’s Razor

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This post was prompted by Tom Ferrick’s whining and Mark Bowden’s attempt at outrageousness.  I’m not going to bother parsing their statements (Ferrick’s on Casinos aren’t bad for Philadelphia’s waterfront followed by the usual journalists’ waaaaahumbulance cries that he gets hatemail, and Bowden’s Waterboarding isn’t torture and it’s A-OK with him if it works) in current and recent columns.

Brian Tierney, in a Philly Mag interview called Press Lords 2.0 laid out his vision for Philly.com, one where it became a MySpace with User Generated Content (UCG) including those wacky Mentos-and-Coke videos, along with online content created by those in his employ in the analog properties (ie. the papers). 

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Newspapers and new internet startups are having the same kind of problem(s) in two different areas.

Newspapers think salvation will be in doing the same old things in new ways , with less resources, less staff, fewer readers, and declining advertising reveneues.  Think Web 1.0, the action the preceeded the bubble bursting.  Do the same exact things you currently do, just do them online.  Then you get others, like Mr. Tierney of PMH (Inquirer and Daily News), who wants to turn his news properties into MySpace - just an assemblage of reporter-created mixed-media, while daydreaming of owning the Wall Street Journal…

Then you have the plethora of internet startups, who are continuing pre-bubble-behavior with no financial bubble present - they hope for acquisition by one of the big five, which for most of them ain't gonna happen.  When the attention-bubble pops, I suspect that the internet will be strewn with abandoned betas and broken code.

Both are suffering from a lack of entrepenuerism, and not in the traditional (entrepenuers are small business people) understanding of the word (I've spent the last week or so reading Peter Drucker's Innovation and Entrepreneurship).Print is trying to reinvent the industry, while internet startups are trying to invent products that some other industry will buy, with insufficient thought as to the impact their webapps are having in the big picture.

Both need to sit down and think out what they are doing and start thinking strategically, and focus on INNOVATING and not INVENTING (or re-inventing), in print's case.  A good way for them to refocus their energies would be to stop focusing on how they do what they have been doing in a new format (or how to get acquired by being the newest bright and shiny object) to re-examining how people use and experience their products - as in what can I use this for.

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Full disclosure:  I have friends who currently work for Tierney, have worked in the past (and were layed off and subsequently "temped" to avoid paying benefits). and know others who have worked there in the past.

I put a poll up PhillyFuture inquiring as to whether the collective Inky-Daily News/philly.com (hereafter referred to as the "Philly Press") have improved since Brian Tierney has taken ownership.

Personally,  my feelings are mixed.

• I'm indifferent as to the rightward-tilt of the new talent and the Sunday Currents section.  As far as national politics are concerned, we've seen how well a Republican Majority has influenced public opinion (as being firmly against having a Republican Majority).  It remains to be seen as to how this will play out in the 2007 Philadelphia Mayors race as well as the 2008 State and Federal Election.
• The constant pimping of condos to the wealthy (endemic of all the media, telling us how wonderfull things are for the creme of society, implying that we should aspire to their lives) seems culturaly irresponsible and ignores the majority of the Philadelphia and greater regions residents in lieu of the economically priviledged.
• My perception is that "bought" wired stories are up as a percentage of content, and original reporting is down.  Again, this seems like an artifact of my second point.  Philadelphia is a 1/10th scale New York - the perspective of the Philly Press seems to be one that focuses on Manhattan and ignores the other boroughs, unless murders are involved.
• The back-page-front-page seems like a good idea, but sources indicate that there are strong opinions that it may compromise some journalistic integrity - How likely would the Inky investigate an advertisers role in loan-making with local politicians and municipalities if they're a major advertiser.  This runs parallel to thoughts that the current Philly Press would NEVER have covered the Priest Abuse Scandal (as Tiernney flacked for the Archdiocese throughout that affair).
• I'll be honest - aside from Will Bunch (online), I haven't read the DN in ages.
• I try to link to Philly.com sources whenever appropriate, even if it's a wire story from McClatchy or the NYTimes, in the hopes of helping a local publication.  It's a shame that the reporting isn't originating here.
• The suburbs - yeah, how about that?  Art galleries and feel good stories?  I could get that from the local paper of record, the Delco Times.  I suspect that it's the same for the other suburban counties as well.
• Flash ads on Philly.com.  You DO realize that they annoy the crap out of people, right?
• I'm not even upset by the rumors of the reappearance of Rick Santorum as a columnist - he'll fit in perfectly with Jonathan Last and Michael Smerconish.  I look forward to more insanity, cheerleading, and water-carrying throughout 2007-2008.
• Web 2.0 stuff - where's the comments?  The trackbacks to the story on Technorati?  The social bookmarking links (add to reddit, digg, del.icio.us, etc.)?  How about automatically ranking stories based on those criteria?

What are your thoughts?  Do stop by the poll and vote.

I've noticed that the "Currents" section of the Philadelphia Inquirer has moved to the right lately, and frankly, I don't think it's a bad thing.  The remaining readers of the Inquirer are likely "learned" enough to separate the wheat from the chaff, and if CEO Brian Tierney squelches his promise to not interfere with editorial content (other than changing the editors and staff), there would likely be a further exodus of readers and a loss of profits.  No, I expect the Inky and many "moderate" conservatives to follow the Lou Dobbs script of xenophobia and protectionism, targeting the middle-class.  

Furthermore, Attytood reports that Michael Smerconish is now writing weekly columns for both the Daily News and the Inquirer.  I don't think that's necessarily a bad idea.  I commented the following on his post: