Thursday 21 June 2012

drum roll, please!!!!!!

it's a non-doula-ing post!
but there will be more where they came from!

the news this week said that fairfax is going to downgrade the sydney morning herald. it will become a *shock* tabloid. it will lose 25% of it's journos. it may. even. stop. making newspapers ALTOGETHER!

people have been predicting the death  of the newspaper for ages but i dont want to see it happen. the sydney morning herald is a sydney institution. the newspaper is a institution period. (gimme a break on grammar there, i gotta be entertained somehow)

i spent my school life quoting "SMH 30.4.85" or some similar date.

i spent my saturday mornings selling the sydney morning herald and the occasional australasian post.

i earned my living at a factory where they invented and refined coloured inks for newspapers.

my mother earned a living typesetting for newspapers. my father reads newspapers. my grandfather used newspaper clippings as intellectual trade.

what will we do without newspapers? what will we use to pack breakables in? start fires? line the birdcage? hang behind the dunny door? what will we forget to buy on the momentous day our kids are born? what will we later pay a small fortune for as a special keepsake?

most distressing of all.......

WHAT WILL SERVE AS INFORMAL TIME CAPSULE AND HOLD US ENTRANCED WHEN WE COME ACROSS IT UNEXPECTEDLY MONTHS YEARS OR DECADES LATER???? 

5 comments:

  1. It is sad. I love my morning coffee and newspaper. On days when I don't get it (Mon-Wed) I read it online. Actually, I read a lot of news online. Love the Huffington Post. But... it's not like holding the paper in your hand.

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  2. I gather this "slimming down" of the SMH and The Age is all linked to Gina Rinehart's attempt to take over Fairfax. Presumably the idea is that "leaner, fitter" newspapers will be less in need of an emergency rescue by the mining magnate.

    I'm glad we still have so many newspapers in the UK, and many excellent investigative journalists.

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  3. mr charleston,
    i read news online, too and i only get a paper once a week so i guess i contribute to the trend .....
    *sigh*


    nick,
    the way i understood it gina was making the takeover bid because of the announcement but i dont really pay attention.....

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  4. "The times they are a changing " No papers in the future ? Maybe they will invent a Wii style remote to teach a dog to sit, swat a mossie, and to say to the kids " one more time and I'll ..( insert psuedo threat here )" Ha ha . Hope you have been well , I've been away and just come back to reality now... Fee xo

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  5. hi fee!
    i noticed you havent been about....take a holiday? just climbed from under a red tape horror?

    you got it! anyone can read the news online but what about all the other things newspapers do???? it's a problem.

    i'm good, had a bit of a lurgy but looking and feeling like a trainwreck is the new black. trainwreck chic, anybody?

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