Let's Pay for Print Media

I have been reading so much lately about the end of print media. The Atlantic even went so far as to say the New York Times might close it's doors in May. (!) Well, I am here, a self appointed journalist, writing whatever I feel like when the spirit moves me, so I guess I am part of the problem. Or am I. Why do we all want to sit back and just let stuff happen? I am writing this right now, as the spirit is moving me, hehe, because I just responded to a New Yorker promo which agreed to send me a free copy of their groovy and historic cover for this most amazing day. I bit. OK. I like free stuff. I voted for Obama (God Bless America) I am saving press around this historic election. AND, I pressed the button asking me if I wanted to subscribe to the New Yorker. 40 bucks. For a year. For the best goddamned journalism out there. Malcolm Gladwell, Seymour Hersh, and a ton of other top notch PAID professional journalists who have put in their 10,000 hours. I am NOT a journalist. I am a potter. I write a blog. Maybe I'll write a book one day. BUT, I don't want to get paid for this. I do want to read the hard paid work of the masters of their craft. So I subscribed. If a million of us subscribed to our favorite print magazine or journal or paper, we might still have high quality journalism.

The free market is having a hay day with print journalism. I love the internet and I love trees. I also like analog. I like reading edited, high quality information that has been vetted by elitists. I don't have to believe it all or agree with it all but I do want to trust that there will be top notch sources for news and information that are NOT by the masses. That have been cultivated and curated and selected and honed in a chamber of knowledge that allows for top quality news to have a strong and supported voice.

My point is, pony up. Pay for your New York Times. Subscribe to the New Yorker. Subscribe to Gourmet. Subscribe to whatever magazine or journal you want to take to bed with you. Or read in the bathroom. Or clip to send to your mother. Or your best friend or whatever. Maybe, we can save some parts of the industry by actually paying for what we read.

Oh, and I am so wicked happy Barack Obama is being inaugurated today.