From Publishers WeeklyStarred Review. If you have ever loved a newspaper, this book will provide a gut-churning mix of joy and nostalgia, amazement and disgust, and no little sense of fatalism. Award-winning Chicago Tribune reporter Madigan collects a powerful array of commentary from journalists and observers, who enumerate the varied forces driving the decline of newspaper readership: the internet, the consolidation of section stores (and their advertising), metro sprawl, decades of job-cutting and the demise of family ownership; the idea that chain papers have “slowly carved out the soul of local papers” is repeated throughout. Highlights include a look at the altering face of the New York Times and painful stories of once-great papers like the Philadelphia Enquirer and the LA Times gutted by suits who see themselves “in conflict with sanctimonious and unrealistic idealists.” The editor of Idaho Falls’ Post Register contributes a singular, but too brief, ray of hope in his thoughtfulness of small-town dailies (around 1,420 of them) where, beneath the ownership of littler companies, honorable journalism thrives and earnings boundary line may run in excess of 20 percent. The most daunting questions come from David T.Z. Mindich’s examination of the uninformed citizenry: “making sure young persons see themselves as citizens ought to be the priority of each news executive in the country.” Though it may be too late to reverse the trends examined here, this anthology will inspire a healthful measure of resistance.
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From BooklistIn case anyone’s still marveling whether American newsprints as we recognise them are on the road to extinction, the answer, implicit in the title of this wistful and rather dolorous new collection of essays edited by lately retired Chicago Tribune newsman Madigan, is yes. The question remains why. Madigan and his subscribers grapple gamely with the problem, but the root causes they discern are for the most part the usual suspects: the flight of readers (especially the young) to television and the Internet, falling ad revenue and circulation, and the misplaced faith of the blogosphere that it may replace the mainstream media it spends so much time simultaneously ridiculing and stealing from. In a few cases, the culprits are more novel. In his elegantly curmudgeonly essay Trapped in Transition, for example, Joseph Epstein blames newspapers’ fall on their being too philistine as chroniclers of the arts (a charge they without doubt or question deserve), too liberal (a canard best left to talk radio), and too adversarial (huh?). Nance, Kevin
Review”-30- is critical in understanding the decline and fall of America’s major newspapers.” — GEORGE COHEN, ForeWord Magazine
“A series of sharp-minded, sobering and doleful obits…on the state of the American newspaper.” — JONATHAN MESSINGER, TimeOut Chicago
“Move this one to the top of your reading list.” — JOHN B. SAUL, Seattle Times
“Powerful array of commentary from journalists…[on] the decline of newspaper readership…will inspire a healthful measure of resistance.” — Publishers Weekly
“30 is critical in understanding the decline of America’s major newspapers.” — George Cohen, ForeWord Magazine
“Wistful and rather dolorous new collection of essays…Madigan and his subscribers grapple gamely with the problem.” — Kevin Nance, Booklist
A will have to read for any person fascinated in the fate of the print media….Madigan has done a masterful job… — Tom Ferrick in Philadelphia Inquirer
A utile and eclectic collection with regards to what looks to be a national tragedy. Let’s hope it inspires some originative solutions. — Eric Alterman
This collection of essential, revealing essays shines a bright light into a good deal of dark corners. — Joseph L. Galloway
Disappointing, with one remarkable exception
The age of the urban newspaper is over