Radio Sweethearts

This afternoon, I caught some of American Public Media’s “Marketplace” while I was driving. It’s classic public radio, really - host with a somewhat pretentious name that no one can spell (also, I picture Kai Ryssdal -yes, that’s how you spell it - wearing wrap around sunglasses and making finger guns when he makes a point), serious discussion of serious issues, and a topic that is kind of depressing.

Anyway - this afternoon, I’m listening, and Mr. Ryssdal is ending a story on declining airline profits. He then transitions to the next story by saying “And the airlines aren’t the only business having trouble.”

To which, I shout “Newspapers!” gleefully.

This makes a bit of sense - I work at a newspaper, so I have a bit of vested interest in them.  But there’s more.

Quoth NPR correspondent Alisa Roth: “It’s taken years for the newspaper industry to realize that it’s no longer really in the newspaper business. It’s in the information business.”

My response? Yelling “INTERNET!!!!!!” very loudly. I’m an adult, alone in my car, yelling answers at the radio like I’m four and “Dora the Explorer” is on.

Sadly, the story didn’t get any less predictable. It can be summed up like this: newspapers are having a hard time adapting their business model to new media. They’ve tried lots of half-ways things, like putting PDFs of print editions on the internet and reforming the print product with hyper-local stories, but people aren’t going for it.

By the end of the story, I was yelling the last words in sentences like I’m a Beastie Boy. Thanks to the miracle of the internet, y’all can play along at home.

In other internet news, the Bryant Park Project launched their new Web site today, and it looks awesome.