Torstar Downsizing Prompts Larger Questions

As I mentioned a little bit earlier, my friend was one of the people "downsized," but I'd never even thought of blogs like Torontoist as a potential reason why -- because they're not. That first article, and the idea that PLU are somehow responsible is utter bullshit.

Blogs (or "online content") will never replace newspapers -- they're just not the same thing. Torontoist or what have you are not meant to replace a paper like The Star, we're meant, I assume, to compliment it, to cover things that wouldn't make it to the MSM. We don't have the money, we don't have the resources, and we don't have the number of staff to cover stuff like the terrorist suspects arrested. We have resources to do, as you say, the old-fashioned journalism, the "eyes on the street"-type of thing. They're two different beasts on the same ark. Have short films destroyed the feature-length film market? Are short stories killing the full-length novel genre? There are certain things they do better, and there are certain things we do. We live-blogged the Sasafraz fire with photos and reporting, but they had a staff of people finding out facts -- not speculation -- as it was burning.

Plus, newspapers won't go away for the same reason that books won't -- I hate reading an e-book, just like how I hate reading NOW or Eye online, and I know a lot of people feel the same way. I'll do it if I have to, but I'd rather have the product in my hands. Blogs are an exception because, unlike books that are simply converted into e-books or newspapers shoved online, we are consciously writing for an online audience, and we know what they like, just as NOW knows what their readers like in print, or ET Canada knows what their viewers like on TV. The medium is the message; it all depends.

In the end, it's The Star's fault for firing people, not blogs'. Even though it's a new trick, playing the "blame the blogs" game is already getting old.

I was so pissed when The Star got rid of Gherson and Goldbloom. It seemed like such a dumb time to let them go, when they had just started that great "Ask Why" campaign. They also deserved to stay simply because of the Sunday Star. Sunday is no longer Sunday to me, it's "Sunday Star Day".

And David is right, blogs won't spell the death of newspapers. Apples and oranges. I feel the same way about having a tactile thing to hold in my hands. I read NOW and Eye online at work and then I pick up the print edition on the way home. I don't feel like I've actually read it until I go through the print version.

That photo reminds me of a similar scene that I witnessed a couple of years ago. I saw a truck back into the wall of newspaper boxes, the bumper got caught under that metal thing they're locked to, and then when the guy pulled forward, the boxes went all over the street and the metal hitching post was pulled out of the sidewalk.

The truck driver stopped, looked out the window at the damage, sat there for a second, and then drove away. I thought it was something I should report in case anyone was looking to recover damages (it could happen!), so I called the non-emergency police number to file the report. Later, a couple of cops came by in a cruiser and basically chewed me out for calling them when they have better things to do.

Now, I agree that they probably do have better things to do, but I was just trying to do the right thing since the driver took-off and there was property damage. The one officer complained that now they have to fill out a bunch of paperwork over newspaper boxes.

My advice to him in retrospect is to not show up if they're busy doing other stuff. I mean, I called 911 because I witnessed some guy beating the shit out of a woman and the police were on there way ASAP until I mentioned that the two parties involved were street people. I waited with her as she bled on the sidewalk for 40 minutes and nobody showed-up so she left (against my suggestion). I'm convinced that had I not mentioned she was a street person, an ambulance and cop cruiser would have been there post-haste.

Walking around my 'hood I often see the guy who beat her strutting around and I have an incredible amount of hatred for him. I also called the company that owned the truck to let them know that one of their employees had a bit of an accident in case they needed to contact me again about it, and the driver and owner totally denied it.

Sigh.

Do we have to use the term "paradigm shift" when we welcome it?

haha I know. Buzzwords just make me cringe...