9.07.2005
opinions
What does it tell us about the new mode of news delivery that the New York Times and Washington Post "most emailed articles" sections are dominated thoroughly by opinion and editorial pieces.
At the New York Times, it's four of the top five, and seven of the top ten. Of the top twenty-five articles listed, eleven of them are opinion or editorial.
At the Washington Post, it's three of the top five (the other two are columns written outside of the reporter's normal detached view).
At the Chicago Tribune, it's two of the top five. And at the LA Times, it's two of the top six, with a third being a column.
So what's it mean? The ubiquity of big news stories like Katrina or Rehnquist are everywhere, so people don't have to email them around to their friends. That's a given. But beyond that, I'm not so sure. We're now seeing the Times and the Post getting out of the news business and into the analysis or commentary business. But what that means for the future of the newsmedia I haven't a clue. I'm still going to read their papers.
Just noticed that my updates from England have been time-tagged with the time in Boston. So I'm not going to go through and amend them, just to note that the posting times from *now on* reflect the time in Oxford.
So I'd draw your attention to one of the lesser-noticed articles in the Washington Post's top 20. Headline: Freshman Classes Getting Hooked On The Classics. I think it's great that students are now getting back to the core curriculum. Of course, places like Chicago have never abandoned such classes, and at Oxford, the Classics mods are not called 'classics', they're called "Greats". Outstanding. :)
At the New York Times, it's four of the top five, and seven of the top ten. Of the top twenty-five articles listed, eleven of them are opinion or editorial.
At the Washington Post, it's three of the top five (the other two are columns written outside of the reporter's normal detached view).
At the Chicago Tribune, it's two of the top five. And at the LA Times, it's two of the top six, with a third being a column.
So what's it mean? The ubiquity of big news stories like Katrina or Rehnquist are everywhere, so people don't have to email them around to their friends. That's a given. But beyond that, I'm not so sure. We're now seeing the Times and the Post getting out of the news business and into the analysis or commentary business. But what that means for the future of the newsmedia I haven't a clue. I'm still going to read their papers.
Just noticed that my updates from England have been time-tagged with the time in Boston. So I'm not going to go through and amend them, just to note that the posting times from *now on* reflect the time in Oxford.
So I'd draw your attention to one of the lesser-noticed articles in the Washington Post's top 20. Headline: Freshman Classes Getting Hooked On The Classics. I think it's great that students are now getting back to the core curriculum. Of course, places like Chicago have never abandoned such classes, and at Oxford, the Classics mods are not called 'classics', they're called "Greats". Outstanding. :)
