3.8.10
Berkshire Living Finalist for Six National Awards
One of only nine magazines in the nation to win six or more nominations
2.18.10
Community Radio Station Gets Full-Power License
WBCR to become regional powerhouse in three years
2.15.10
[Eagle Watch] Whoops! They did it again.
Berkshire Eagle headline contradicts story
2.11.10
FILM REVIEW: Crazy Heart
by Seth Rogovoy of Berkshire Living Magazine
1.20.10
The Filibuster Fiasco
The majority party must wield the reins of power delivered unto it by the people
1.14.09
Weekend Cultural Highlights 1.15-1.18
by Seth Rogovoy of BERKSHIRE LIVING Magazine
1.5.10
Yiddish Book Center receives 'transformative' $3 million bequest
[Press Release]
12.30.09
Emanuel Ax Plays for Mahaiwe, Lola Jaffe
Saturday, Jan. 2, 2010
12-30-09
FILM REVIEW: Up in the Air
Review by Seth Rogovoy of Berkshire Living Magazine
11.26.08
MASS MoCA DIRECTOR to BRING SOL LEWITT SOUTH
Rest of the Story event at the Triplex on Dec. 14
11.28.09
Taylor-King Tour to Reunite Original Musicians
Setlist to be based on 'Tapestry,' 'Sweet Baby James' albums
11.12.09
James Taylor and Carole King Reunite for World Tour
Will tour stop at Tanglewood?
11.4.09
An Original Joke
Did you hear the one about the funeral director?
10.31.09
The Return of Israel's Existential Dread
from the Wall Street Journal
10.23.09
Weekend Cultural Highlights
by Seth Rogovoy of BERKSHIRE LIVING Magazine
10.23.09
Weekend Cultural Highlights
by Seth Rogovoy of BERKSHIRE LIVING Magazine
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(Eagle Watch #5) The end of a free press
6/2/05
No sooner than we began posting links to various Berkshire Eagle articles and letters to the editor, in the hopes of provoking critical discussion of the local media (and indeed, very quickly conversations began, as you can see from the various comments visitors have posted this past week), did the Eagle redesign its website (more on that atrocity in coming days and weeks), including ripping down all of its archival material. So now those links we posted to old articles and letters are dead, and if you want to find them (good luck trying to find them using the Eagle's search engine, because I tried and it doesn't work), you'll have to pay $3 per hit -- that's right -- it'll cost you $3 to read some lousy article, review, or letter to the editor. But you have to pay BEFOREHAND, so buyer beware!
Chalk another one up for the bottom line, and another down for the glories of the free exchange of ideas. Ideas, it seems, will cost a pretty penny if they run in the Eagle. So much for the free press.
If a publication wanted to increase revenue via the web, wouldn't it make more sense to facilitate the placement of classified (and display) advertising. Or offer value added services to their advertisers?
It has always been my understanding the newspapers sold the paper to cover the distribution/printing costs, and that the advertisers were the revenue source. Moreover, the advertiser's value proposition was that the newspaper had an audience, and that was what an insertion fee was predicated upon.
Now, at least in the Eagle's case, the model seems to be to charge for information, and that is a failed model. It is a failure as a business model when the web has made ALL information available ALL the time for essentially NO cost. It is a dereliction of duty as a cultural model, when the unique function of a newspaper (or any editorially selected informational source) is to make judgments as to relevance, and to organize and facilitate the access to information.
Small wonder that as newspapers become conglomerated corporate holdings (Dinosaurs) the little mouse driven web renders them redundant.
dlm
6/3/2005
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