7.3.08
Jacob's Pillow Gala makes the New York Sun
Mysterious Zelig shows up in front-page photo
7.1.08
MONTREAL DIARY
Live from the Montreal International Jazz Festival
7.1.08
WTF's NICHOLAS MARTIN TO HEADLINE FREE FORUM
[PRESS RELEASE] New WTF leader at Triplex, Sunday, July 13, 11 a.m., for REST OF THE STORY
6.27.08
[DANCE REVIEW] Mark Morris at Tanglewood
review by SETH ROGOVOY, Berkshire Living Magazine
6.24.08
Passenger air travel on brink of collapse
System headed for full-metal breakdown by end of year
6.24.08
Gas prices may usher in era of New Urbanism
Suburbs collapsing from internal contradiction of life built around cars, highways, and cheap gas
6.24.08
Ian McEwan joins Martin Amis in speaking out against Islamism
Rare writers willing to take a politically incorrect stand
6.24.08
BTF's Kate Maguire speaks at forum on Sunday, June 29
REST OF THE STORY event at Triplex Cinema
9.13.07
YOGA to be focus of forum on September 23
Berkshire Living's REST OF THE STORY event at the Triplex
6.19.08
New Mamet One-Act to Debut at Mahaiwe
[PRESS RELEASE] Benefit Performance for Berkshire Playwrights Lab June 25
6.19.08
[FILM REVIEW] ROMAN DE GARE
Review by Seth Rogovoy, BERKSHIRE LIVING Magazine
6.16.08
[MUSIC REVIEW] Jen Chapin at Club Helsinki
Review by Seth Rogovoy, BERKSHIRE LIVING Magazine
6.18.08
[DANCE REVIEW] Garth Fagan collaborates with Wynton Marsalis at Jacob's Pillow
Review by Seth Rogovoy, BERKSHIRE LIVING Magazine
6.17.08
Cafe Latino to celebrate opening of gallery, downtown arts festival
[PRESS RELEASE] Restaurant at MASS MoCA in North Adams, Mass., to display Latino artwork
6.17.08
Cafe Latino to celebrate opening of gallery, downtown arts festival
[PRESS RELEASE] Restaurant at MASS MoCA in North Adams, Mass., to display Latino artwork
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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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