If you're interested in what's happening to newspapers, you need to read blogger David Sullivan's most recent piece, Sic Semper.
You especially have to love a choice ad he pulled out of a 1976 newspaper directory:
"The Money Tree: Looking for choice pickings? Look no further than Bristol. ... Make your sale in Bristol with The Bristol Press."
Update: As I read more on his blog, I can see he's really onto something with his comparisons between the department store business and newspapers. There's an awful lot of similiarity, which probably isn't surprising given the symbiosis between the two institutions.
As someone who loves papers, as Sullivan does, it doesn't make me feel very good to recognize the truth in his observation that all those old city and regional department stores that seemed like immovable objects are gone, either vanished or melded into Macy's.
Perhaps, too, his observation that the financial crisis has made it impossible for newspapers to age gracefully and then perish has more truth than I'd like to admit. It is like a great tsunami is sweeping away newspapers all over the place, washing them out with the tide of history.
But I'll keep trying to bail water as the floodwaters rise because what the hell else is there to do?
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Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com
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