MEDIA FARM: ODE TO THE GREYBEARD

For executive editors, it must be terribly confusing to find out Ustream is not an adult diaper.

Here at Media Farm, we poke a lot of fun at the fogies of the journalism industry. We pick on them for not wanting to “tell people what they ate for lunch” or that they still use @aol.com [America Online—Ed.]. They complain when they have to do more than file a story (“Share it on Facebook?! Me?!?!”) and cringe when they see a misplaced quotation mark. This is how journalism once was: a persnickety, grousing, terribly neurotic bunch that paid attention to nearly every detail, because they had to.

These days there’s spellcheck and autocorrect. Publishers choose to crowd source copy editing and go live with cellphone videos of torture. To sell ads, websites would rather feature a streaming Pardon the Interruption-style video argument than a thoughtful 800-word column.

But still. The tip of the press hat to all the admitted “newsosaurs.” Thanks for everything.

On Saturday, the day after the Boston Herald moved from their iconic building in the South End into its new sleek digs in the Seaport, columnist Joe Fitzgerald pined for the days when Rupert Murdoch bought the goddamn thing. “The Herald’s still going places” read the headline. Fitzgerald goes on to spin an honest, heart-tugging tale about when the Evil One performed moneyed CPR … 10 minutes before the paper went under. A stream of cars and trucks surrounded the massive building, either honking in euphoric glee that the paper had not gone under or because they were bottlenecked getting onto I-93.

Regardless, the paper went with a “bodacious” red headline, measuring 120-point font:

YOU BET WE’RE ALIVE!

A grand old tale to be sure.

Then when larger-than-life mayor Kevin White died a few days later, Herald columnists rapped eloquently, yet the Editorial page spun us a yarn:

A generation or two are probably wondering what all the fuss is about. A former mayor, age 82, and not heard from in about a decade, has died, and yet he still seems to be big news. How does that happen?

Let us tell you.

Grandpa’s knee was never so comfortable.

Our hearts go out to them though. It must hurt the once great generation when NESN announces their new curvy baseball correspondent Jenny Dell. In a statement, NESN President and CEO Sean McGrail said Dell makes “the ideal choice” due to “her ability to connect with viewers.”

They must wince when Tim Keck, publisher of Seattle’s The Stranger, repeatedly calls out the “aging ownership” of middle-aged alt-weekly publications.

It must be weird when Adam Freeman at the Guardian says the future of journalism is in “the experts outside of the building … They don’t have to be called professor.”

And our thoughts truly are with the journalists who, in their pristine suits and perfumes, were required to approach the media tent at their nearest Occupy location.

For executive editors, it must be terribly confusing to find out Ustream is not an adult diaper.

THE POINT IS: when was the last time you heard of a 25-year-old journalism whiz? The Boston Globe crams us with next great generation meatheads and meatmistresses while the brainiacs escape to the Ivory Tower Journalism Labs (“Pushing to the Future of Journalism … Out of the Window”). If there are young hounds, they are taught to hunt new dogs with old tricks, then interned with ensconced forbearers. When the journalism business of today looks itself in the mirror, it is craggy, sullen and embittered.

Reporting the past is important, but there comes a time when newsrooms, like every industry, must hire younger and younger. In order to survive, it doesn’t matter what kind of technology you have or how ergonomical the chair is. You can have all the Twitter accounts in the world, but if the people behind them aren’t innately familiar with the medium, it falls flat. When moveable type was introduced, I can assure you the hands placing those cast metal sorts were young and small.

It’s pretty simple: By ensuring those publishing the stories are new, the story will always be new.

You know, as in:

News.

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