Insiderish?

At the moment this insiderish event in the “news” business strikes me as fairly significant. Detroit still has morning and evening papers. They started out independent, then semi-merged in 1989 with a Joint Operating Agreement. The upper levels of management and financing were together while the newsrooms were independent. In the 80s many papers formed such agreements, then most converged into single papers or no papers as the “news” business destroyed itself.

Holding companies can work well. GM ran this way for a long time, a single connection point for finance and overall strategy while divisions did their own designs and manufacturing in strong competition with each other.

Now the two Detroit papers have split entirely instead of converging, and each editor looks forward to “the resumption of hostilities”, a healthy attitude. Businesses SHOULD fight against other businesses to gain more customers. Businesses SHOULD NOT fight against their customers to gain more venture capitalists.

I’ve been noticing a healthy attitude in the Spokane paper since it was disconnected from the corrupt Cowles family and turned into an independent entity. The reporting is more focused on WHAT’S HAPPENING HERE and less on insulting local yokels. A year-end article by the editor is remarkably accurate and unbiased. He SEES how things work around here, and describes the fucked-up mess objectively. I might even consider subscribing if this attitude continues!