(January 7, 2009) So, here it comes. Print media are about to collapse. Guess whose fault it is?

It’s raining articles about the impending failure of major press institutions.

• If the New York Times dies, does the news die? in the Industry Standard
• End Times in the Atlantic Monthly
• How the Newspapers Tried to Invent the Web on Slate (and Dave Winer’s response)
• The Shape of Things To Come (Clay Shirky on Media Futures)

Each article lionizes the owners and/or employees of big media. Framing investigative journalism as print media’s raison d’etre, the articles paint a picture of well intentioned nincompoops who are the victims of technology disruption. These heroes tried valiantly to embrace the technology. Somehow, costs just never came under control.

The sympathetic portraits go on to idealize the role of investigative journalism in our culture. Bemoaning the potential for the loss of the well reasoned essay, they come close to the tired argument that the press is, somehow, a constitutional fourth arm of the government, a sort of ultimate audit bureau.

These impassioned essays  have all the objectivity of any eulogy or retirement speech. The fall nicely into the “never speak ill of the dead” style of journalism. Conveniently overlooking levels of failure that would result in the termination of any employee, they focus instead on the difficulties of the time and the failed heroics of the unique class of big media journalists. Even Clay Shirky, a web evangelist, misses the depth of the transition.

It’s as if giving the Iraqi Occupation a free pass wasn’t a failure. It’s as if the great fortunes bequeathed to the current generation of newspaper owners weren’t squandered. It’s as if the investigative media didn’t fail to unearth the various financial bubbles of the last decade. When Bernie swindled those billions, where was the all seeing eye of the investigating press? The elbow rubbing of the members of the social register taints our news. The existing big media firms are the culprits, not the victims.

The technology transition is just a part of the problem. Incompetence and corruption are the other half of the equation. It’s just bad manners to mention them at the funeral.

Even now, amidst the great clamor for Mom, Apple Pie, Flags, Fords and Chevies, the media is looking away from the stories of the day. Where did the bailout money go? Why aren’t White House computers being treated like a crime scene? What about the real automotive problem – kited financing on the entire American fleet?

The demise of the media institutions of the 20th Century is a foregone conclusion. Web economics and Google’s overthrow of the advertising industry make it impossible to manage a business with old school overheads. Sadly, the institutions of journalism and publishing forgot about the sacred “firewall” that separated one from the other. In the various eulogies, you can see the fraternal influence of one on the other.

Journalism is not a business and publishing is not journalism. Like salt and pepper, they go together while delivering different values. In the past generation, the lines between the two have blurred. The result is journalists in search of a business model.

That’s a shame.

Older Reading / Other Sources

• SF Chronicle in Trouble (Tim O’Reilly from a two years ago) and Doc Searl’s list of to dos
• Newspaper Death Watch Great resource with layoffs, closings  and tracking of the critics. Really comprehensive.