This house ad from the Journal Star is absolutely right. The important events in history were not announced on blogs. But the the last 60 years, they haven’t been “announced” on the pages of newsaper either. Consider the following list, right off the top of my head:
- The end of Wold War II.
- The attack on Pearl Harbor.
- The JFK assassination.
- The Martin Luther King assassination.
- The death of Elvis Presley.
- John Lennon assasinated.
- Ronald Reagan is shot.
- Pope John Paul II is shot.
- U.S. embassy in Iran is seized.
- Hostages freed from Iran.
- U.S. The fall of the Berlin Wall.
- The fall of communism in the Soviet Union.
- The OJ Simpson verdict.
- The World Trade Center and the Pantagon are attacked.
- Space shuttle Challenger explodes.
- Space shuttle Columbia explodes.
- Man walks on the moon.
How many of these news stories did most people learn for the first time because they read it in a newspaper? None of those that happened during my life time. Good old radio long ago knocked the newspaper off its pedestal as the source of breaking news. Then came television. Then the Internet.
Newspapers are in fourth place.
Advertisers know this. That’s why advertising on the Web is skyrocking, and newspapers ad revenue is declining.
Just keep whistling through the graveyard, PJS. It will all get better if you just keep wishing it were true.
Hat tip: Chef Kevin.
Billy Dennis is a former reporter and editor at small daily and weekly newspapers in Illinois and Missouri. He comments on media, news and politics. He also owns and operates 
That is the dumbest pro-newspaper ad I’ve ever seen. Breaking news is not the newspaper’s forte anymore, as you point out.
Looks to me like the ad is touting the significance of published “government public notices”, not advertising or historical events. RTFA?
Marty -
That was the basis of my blog: what is this ad saying? The headline has nothing to do with the main part of the advertisement and the last little blurb about good government depends on you has nothing to do with the other two parts.
Billy, who on Earth do you have such a hard-on against newspapers? I mean, it gets pretty weird how you just wanna rip into print and french kiss the laptop. Is it because you weren’t able to cut it as a newspaper reporter? You have decent writing talent (when you bother to proof-read), so I’m not really sure why you didn’t end up making an acceptable living at it. Did the PJS do you wrong?
Let me take your “argument” one step further. If so many people did NOT learn about all of those major happenings in human existence from the newspaper, and yet the newspapers are still around, what makes you think that the stupid laptap will put it down for good? Radio and TV had MUCH larger impacts on the general populace than the internet (no matter what you try to argue there), and yet the papers are still breathing. Ever walk past the magazine aisles at the store or at Barnes & Noble? There are tons of them… new ones all of the time. The internet hasn’t sunk the printed word… no matter HOW badly you want that to happen.
This is probably the 946th posting you’ve made on the subject. Weird.
“Who on Earth” should be “Why on Earth.” I’ll slap myself with the Billy Proof-Reading switch as soon as I sign off.
Space shuttle Challenger explodes.
I learned about this first from a Journal Star reporter who called me at home.
John Lennon assassinated.
I learned about this first from the same reporter who called me at work.
Thanks, Mike.
Since the beginning of media via radio, most news breaking events have been broken to the public over the air waves. If something happened overnight and made it into the newspapers, then many may have found out by the printed word. But nowadays, there are a lot of folks who turn the tv on before the coffee pot in the morning. Many wake up to the sounds of the radio and not that infernal buzzer! Any breaking news is usually blasted across the airwaves every few minutes.
Billy is right, most of those headlines were probably heard for the first time over the radio or by television. I think I was in the 4th or 5th grade when I heard an emergency broadcast over my little transister radio , telling the world that Bobby Kennedy had been shot! Both shuttle explosions, I watched on tv. I can remember actually watching the launch and explosion of Challenger and wondering what the hell had just happened. I think it hit home more than had I found out by newspaper. Sort of like watching the news about the planes hitting the towers and as you are watching current feed, you suddenly witness along with the rest of the world, as they come crashing down.
Newspapers still have their place. They just aren’t at the head of the class when it comes to late breaking news.
ExJS’er: I saw the Challenger explode on TV, and the first I heard of John Lennon’s death was when Howard Cosell broke the news on Monday Night Football, of all places. I would be willing to bet your reporter friend got at least one of those two stories from the TV or radio before he called you.
I learned about Challenger in the Daily Eastern News newsroom when our photographer came bolting out of the darkroom to tell us. He was listening to the radio in there.
By the way, Billy, I KNOW you read the Dilbert cartoon today… be it in the paper or on-line… but, Oh My God! Hilarious! Uproarious! Totally IRONIC! Geez… that dude who writes and draws that brilliant strip… sheer genius. The rest of you out there, run, don’t walk, to the nearest source of the Dilbert strip… geez… my sides were rockin’ AND my brain was thinkin’, “Wow. How ironic.”
(Sarcastic Quotient : 8.97 on a 10.0 scale)
Are you trying to be funny?
Bill needs newspapers or he wouldn’t have anything to make himself feel better with. He hates the PJS and the people there, and trashes it saying his blog is better. End of story.
GG: Absolutely right. I’ve said that very thing a million times.
Thanks for your input.
Heck, Billy, there’s no ROOM for any other “funny” so long as Dilbert is on the scene. I find it ironic that you find Dilbert thought provoking and ironic, and it’s in the NEWSPAPER. You’d think it would lose its potency if we cannot receive it exactly when it’s finished. ‘Course with that fine artwork, and ironic word blurbs, it must take all of, say, 11 seconds to get a three panel strip done by the genius who writes and draws it… ol’ Whats-his-name.
All of this would be immaterial if we just had Wi-Fi.
If the newspaper wasn’t around, Bill wouldn’t have anything to link on this blog.
I don’t link to NEWSPAPERS, per se. I like to newspaper websites. And TV Websites. And radio Websites. And online only Websites. And candidate Websites.
But thanks for your input.