Fishwrap

While I was watching the opening credits of No Reservations, I noticed that there was a shot of Anthony Bourdain reading The New York Post. It was a sudden revelation: I'd been complaining (on my blog, and other blogs)about how dull American newspapers were since I came to this great nation, and the answer was staring me in the face all along.

What this city needs is a great tabloid. It's already got a pretty good one in the form of the express, but it could be better if they beefed up the content and charged for it. Newspapers don't need a bailout. It's time for journalists and publishers to learn something from P.J. O'Rourke. First off, try and lose that inflated sense of self-importance:

Relying on government help raises ethical questions for the press, whose traditional role has been to operate free from government influence as it tries to hold politicians accountable to the people who elected them. Even some publishers desperate for help are wary of this route.

During a job interview a crusty old magazine editor, marinated in whiskey and cigarettes, told me what the three "C's" of journalism are: crime, cash, and uhm...sex. Those are the three reasons why people read newspapers. If journalists, editors, and publishers want to hold the government accountable, I'd suggest they start working the phones for political candidates instead.

A Somewhat Related Aside: Ken Whyte, former editor-in-chief of The National Post, and currently the publisher and editor-in-chief of the resurgent Macleans magazine has written a biography of a William Randolph Hearst, a publisher who knew a thing or two about raising newspaper circulations.

A Somewhat Related Update: Nick Gillespie has a post and some links on the problem of "Zombie Newspapers" here.