So I started my day with a group of PR professionals chatting around the table with Larry Platt, the new editor of the Philadelphia Daily News. Like all newspaper editors Larry is facing a tremendous challenge.
Over the years the circulation of the tabloid Daily News has dropped from more than a quarter million to about 80,000.
The Daily News has always been the preferred paper of sports fans and Philly is a place where fans are truly passionate about sports. So, that helps.
And it also helps that the Daily News has dropped its paltry Saturday edition and replaced it with a bright new weekly called Sports Week which already seems to be enjoying encouraging buzz and circulation.
Larry seems to be a likable guy. His background is in sports and magazines.
So, it makes sense that he wants to give the Daily News more "attitude" and make it more like a daily magazine with features, lively columns, etc.
Sports writers have more latitude to insert their particular viewpoints into their stories. In a sports story, that's almost mandatory. And magazines generally integrate a personal or collective viewpoint as well.
And, let's face it: For better or worse we really don't expect pure objectivity anymore and we're no longer sure there really ever was such a thing in the first place.
Larry suggested that what readers came to suspect (or maybe even resent) was not so much objectivity itself but rather the pretension of objectivity -- the myth.
They knew that writers were not necessarily objective. They got it.
Now, the Daily News won't even aspire to be the paper of record (that's more the Inquirer's role) and you will know that the writers have a point of view and what that point of view is.
And of course all of this is being integrated into philly.com and the digital editions of the paper and its apps.
Hey,in our information-saturated age this is a struggle.
But what other options are there? How else is a newspaper like the Daily News gonna survive?
It seems to me this is worth a try.
In one form or another, I wanna see newspapers survive.
So, I'm wishin Larry Platt and the gang
much success!
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