Comments on: Update – Talking To Old Media

By: sheila metz

sheila metz — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 03:06:58 +0000

Interesting topic. As a retired reporter, the term cut and paste–actually meant cut and paste. As you will notice, editors now have Masters in Business, not in journalism. Their decisions on editorial directly affects the bottom line–not what the audience needs to know. Look at any major paper and see the credentials of most editors. MBAs. That, in my opinion, the increased cost of paper, new technology, and the need for speed at any hour, will kill the business. How much time does anyone spend reading a paper on a daily basis? We Americans have pushed our fast food mentality to every aspect of our daily lives. Also, the sound bite has replaced any real story telling. However, it is more healthy for myself to spend time in the garden than reading about the madness of today’s world.

By: Gene

Gene — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 01:49:16 +0000

Hello George,

While I’m not a great fan of Ms. Dowd’s a google search for “Mysore City” suggests it is as frequently used as the simpler “Mysore”; just thought you might want to look it up…..

PS: I AM a fan of your periodic messages. Cheers!

By: Grams

Grams — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 00:01:30 +0000

You are so right about the news and what they are feeding us. Or rather, what I am not being fed. I am always on the outlook for an interesting idea, plant, or anything pertaining to gardening. My favorite garden writer just last Sunday went on and on about nothing! Give me substance!

By: Marge

Marge — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 16:17:44 +0000

I too am an addicted gardener who has an extensive gardening library to spend my winter idle hours pouring over and I don’t see books fading away. However newspapers are another story. My husband is addicted to the Philadelphia Inquirer’s (sports pages in particular). Especially when we are both addicted to CNN. Personally I do get a chuckle out of an occasional article. However I am the one who has to haul them all to the recycling center and I yern for the day when I can get curb side recycling.

By: Martha/All the Dirt on Gardening

Martha/All the Dirt on Gardening — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 00:56:07 +0000

Here’s the deal: It’s only us old gardeners who care about the demise of newspapers and magazines.

Garden writing is a retirement activity for me but I can’t imagine how someone in India can write about their gardening experiences in zone whatever in the U.S.

And,isn’t that what we love about the great garden writers?

Change can suck.

By: constance

constance — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 23:55:38 +0000

perfect…

By: Betsey Hansell

Betsey Hansell — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 22:26:15 +0000

Hello George,

You said “blog updates”, or what are, I guess, exclusive stories sold to the papers from peoples’ blogs…”

My son, Saul Hansell, a longtime reporter at the New York Times, edits a blog called Bits on the Times’ Web site. On Bits, he and other NY Times business reporters write the very latest technology news and put it in context throughout the day and evening. Such blogs (Saul’s is very popular in the world of bits and bytes,)are newspapers’ way of trying to stay alive in a world where people are reading papers less and less. The Times frequently prints stories from Bits and its many other blogs – all reported by its own reporters according to NY Times standards. Other newspapers and magazines do the same. They enrich the reader’s experience immensely. Try the New Yorker, the New York Times, Philly.com (the Inquirer and Daily News) etc. etc. You can learn an incredible amount about what is happening in the world any time you want.
Try it.
Betsey Hansell
ps We read three newspapers daily in our house.

By: Maureen

Maureen — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 22:13:34 +0000

Hello – we have just lost one of our two english language gardening magazines in Canada – Gardening Life published its last issue this month. It is certainly a chilling thing that print is becoming harder to maintain. I enjoy blogs and love the information highway aspect of the internet, but a magazine in the hand is something else altogether, and a good one is wonderful. Marjorie Harris was editor-at-large and did a great job; evidently she was told by phone at the 11th hr that the mag was closing. Poorly done.

One little thing… what is a folk’s pass? Faux pas, perhaps? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faux_pas

thanks for your thoughtful treatment of a scary issue. Outsourcing is everywhere and the bottom line is governing things that should be more highly valued than they are. The Lincoln quote is terrific!

By: TC

TC — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 22:12:52 +0000

I suppose I’m lucky, but I don’t know how much longer I’ll be writing my weekly piece for a small town newspaper (Allied News in Grove City, PA). My editor, who said she worries over her paper like a mother worries over her kids, reminded me recently that the Web site doesn’t bring in one cent in revenue. I was complaining because my articles aren’t on the Web site. You mentioned newspapers “evolving,” into what?

By: Ram

Ram — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 20:43:33 +0000

Great catch, George. Thank you and thanks also for the blog – keep it flowing. While at it, I thought you’d like to know this. I came to Heronswood reluctantly and with resentment. That because I was a great fan (and customer) of the old Heronswood. I resented that it was bought up (taken down?) by yet another gorilla (Burpee). That was before I knew the full history of Burpee and before I visited you guys and before I started reading you, of course! So, thanks again.

Another good catch on “Mysore City”! I’m a fan of Dowd too and it’s easy to forgive her. I’ll also forgive her assumption that all Indian/Pakistani writers have to be trained in Britain. It’s bloody rubbish, bollocks! Never been to the olde maid. Me here, swam ashore straight from a small little village in Mother India. And I swear!