Postliveblogging the Debate
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NEXT »: Les Misbarack
And They'll Fill Their Columns With ... What, Exactly?
Roaming around the Internet, scanning the arts coverage on myriad sites, I'm always disheartened by how little of it is original and how much of it, even in the biggest metro dailies, is wire copy. And the sameness is hardly limited to the culture beat.
So what to make of newspapers' move away from the AP, with Tribune Company being the most recent to give notice that it's dropping the service?
I can't quite see papers, accustomed as they are to jettisoning staff and slashing freelance budgets, forking out more cash to pay for their own coverage. So what's their plan? To get rid of content altogether?
I've been wondering the exact same thing, Laura. Throughout this whole newspaper-business-crumbling crisis I've been thinking that the best positioned media company has to be the AP. Newspapers have to fill those column inches with something after laying off so many staff writers, right? But I suspect that after reducing editorial newshole to the bare minimum to be able to fit in the ads, papers will turn to the shadowy advertorial syndicates all too willing to provide puff-piece copy free. I can even see, for example, movie studios "sponsoring" the inside pages of entertainment sections by buying display ads and then providing their own editorial copy to fill.