On By the Numbers: The McSweeney's 'San Francisco Panorama' Experiment
What's interesting about these comments is that they are really stuck in old constructs about what a newspaper MUST be. This is exactly why the industry is dissolving before our eyes. State-of-the-art color presses are not be used to their potential in the new "shrunk-down" product. As Panorama shows, clever, in-depth graphics can really tell their own story. They are also more digestible for readers in their twenties and thirties. Meanwhile, everyone is still hungry for great local enterprise reporting. What we're getting now in the major metro's is not working -- for the readers or the advertisers. Why not try something different -- even if it's once a month? That's exactly how the rotogravures and comics started at the turn of the twentieth century.
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On By the Numbers: The McSweeney's 'San Francisco Panorama' Experiment
Wow! This sort of reaction sounds very similar to what all the brilliant magazine people said about Wired. Who would ever want to read about technology except the guy who plugs in the computers? Who would ever want to advertise in that thing with its tiny type and crazy art design? Please give Eggers some credit. He can certainly generate more buzz than anyone left in the newspaper industry and he certainly delivered on the content. If you ask me that's a pretty tall order for a launch. Some chain with half a brain should be working to sign this guy up ASAP, because like Wired, where there's buzz, readers and advertising will follow.
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On By the Numbers: The McSweeney's 'San Francisco Panorama' Experiment
I was replying to you in part and your concept of the newspaper industry. What's going on today is really bad. I don't want to minimize it. But there have been other times of turmoil and change with much more creative responses than we see today -- e.g. when the upscale broadsheet tapped out, Hearst and others came back with the tabloid. Newspaper lifestyle sections were a response to city magazines, etc. Something much more dramatic and out-of-the-box is needed for today. In my mind, Eggers and Panorama suggest several different ideas that the industry should emulate. I don't see why you're so quick to dismiss them.