Whitlock on the death of newspapers

Tip to Joel, Big Sexy is hot under the collar.  Some NSFW language (B.S.)

We refused to change. We didn’t make room for Bill Simmons. We remained beholden to an APSE contest that in no way takes into account context, impact, relevancy, traction or innovation.

That approach is fine and dandy when there’s no competition and local newspapers printed money. You can ignore your readers and put out content targeted at contest judges when there’s no place else for readers to go.

Unfortunately, it’s 2010 and not 1986. You don’t need the newspaper to find out what’s playing at the movies, or what the weather is going to be like, or what’s on TV, etc. The things that made newspapers essential can be found other places.