The Office: metaphor for American journalism

The state of the newspaper industry remind me an episode of The Office, a prime time “mockumentary” on NBC that follows the lives of office workers toiling away at a failing Scranton, Penn.-based paper supply company.

In the episode, the bumbling and inept head of the office Michael guest lectures at a business school, where he struggles to explain why regional paper companies are still relevant in "an increasingly paperless world."

"Real business is done on paper--OK? Write that down," he says, as the camera pans to the class clicking away, taking notes on their computers.

Too many newspapers act as Michael does. They suffer from such tunnel vision that they can’t seem to accurately assess and react to their abysmal situations. Journalism is rapidly changing, and these newspapers try to cope by resorting to outdated technologies and belief systems.

Vin Crosbie discusses this in his media industry consulting company’s blog: Digital Deliverance. In the first two parts of a three-part series (the third part has yet to be posted), he explores why newspapers are struggling. He said that many strategies associated with buzzwords like multimedia or convergence are just Band-Aids. It isn’t enough to simply throw in-print stories onto outdated and confusing Web sites. Media organizations don’t understand that people don’t access journalism in the same way they did 50 years ago.

Fewer people have an allegiance to a specific publication. In Chicago, there were “Tribune families” or “Sun-Times families.” People identified with their newspapers. Now, more people simply Google the news they want to know about and are directed to a Web site with that information.

In addition, there’s the Drudge Report, which does all the searching for you. Matt Drudge links to news stories from all over the world that he finds to be the most salient. The Drudge Report rarely does its own reporting.

The Internet gives people the opportunity to get information from sites that focus on certain interests. For example, people craving news related to the environment can subscribe to the Web-only publication: Greenwire. People into Washington politics can check out the sites of publications at which I used to work: Congressional Quarterly’s free site or the Chicago Tribune Washington Bureau’s blog The Swamp. There are even media gossip sites like Fishbowl LA.

But I would disagree with Crosbie's suggestion that people like Sam Zell are “infatuated” with the business so they are buying media conglomerates to stave off the impending doom of newspapers. If there's one thing I know from listening to Zell speak while I interned at the Chicago Tribune's Washington bureau during the 2008 spring semester, it's that he has no interest in maintaining the status quo.

There will always be a place for journalism. But where that place is will change drastically in the next ten years. And those who cling to broadsheets like security blankets will have trouble waking up to the reality of the industry.