Times-Union Redesign

[KenFSU]

I probably consume as much, if not more, digital news/media than anyone I know. My morning, afternoon, early evening, night, late night, etc. wouldn't be complete without frequent refreshes of Reuters, CNN, Fox News (good to keep tabs on the enemy), Reddit, Digg, ESPN, you name it. For instant news bytes and quickie stories, I totally agree that digital media is the way to go. Further, for straight news that hasn't been put through the corporate/mainstream media meatgrinder, the internet rules.

But sometimes I think us tech savvy young folk forget that our voracious appetite for digital media, scouring dozens of our favorite websites daily, isn't the norm just yet. To use a topical analogy, we are the Ron Pauls to the John McCains of America. The older folk, and even some of the younger folk, like tradition. Maybe even more importantly, they like to have all their information in one place.

In opening up a quality newspaper you instantly have in the palm of your hand:

- In depth coverage of the major news stories happening in the world.
- Exclusive coverage of all the top local stories in your area.
- Detailed local weather reports.
- A complete rundown of the previous day's stock market activity.
- Local and national sports results, box scores, schedules, and columns.
- Well written, edited letters from local citizens voicing their opinions on the week's hot issues.
- Quality reviews of the week's newest movies, books plays, exhibits etc. from people who are qualified, educated and experienced enough in each field to give a fair review.
- Hard hitting, often controversial editorials on local or national news (NOT yet another moronic spin off of LiBeRaL vS. CoNsErVative.
- Witty political cartoons.
- Weekly reviews of the areas top restaurants by, again, competent critics
- A calendar or list of notable events taking place in the city
- Movie showtimes
- TV LISTINGS (never underestimate how important this is to a newspaper)
- Horoscopes, a Crossword Puzzle, maybe a Sudoku grid (certainly passes our days at work a little quicker when things are slow)

Say what you want about the USA Today, but every evening when I get home from work, I grab my USA Today and walk around the neighborhood for about 30 to 45 minutes reading it. By the time I get back, I know all the major bullet points for the day's top stories, what Dwight Howard and Jameer Nelson's field goal percentages and total lines were for the previous night's game, how my stock portfolio is looking, what movie I'm taking my wife too over the weekend, what book I need to go out of my way to read, and what I'm watching on TV after dinner. All information gleamed from the bajillion media sources out there in the universe and folded into a nice, comprehensive, easily managed stack of papers in my HAND. Pardon my excitement, but to me, that's a beautiful thing. A newspaper is something that can lay on the break room table in the office and be thumbed through by 40 people in a morning. It's something than can sit on a chair at Starbucks and be read and re-read throughout the day by innumerable people. Everywhere you go -- the gas station, the grocery store, the pharmacy, the street corner, your favorite lunch spot -- the newspaper is there staring you in the face. You don't have to plug it in. You don't have to track it down. It's a ubiquitous part of life.

Further, a great newspaper has a wonderful way of unifying and giving a sense of identity and purpose to a city.

If you ride the Subway in New York or the BART in San Francisco on a weekday, you'll see thousands of people of all different shapes, sizes, and classes, people from every walk of life, holding the Times or the Chronicle under their arms, awkwardly reading it in a cramped corner seat, or discussing an op-ed they feel particularly strong about. That synergy is priceless and gives a city a single, unified backbone and pulse that 5,000 internet websites and blogs will never be able to provide.

I've always felt that the quality of a newspaper is in some ways a reflection of the quality of the community. The Times-Union, sadly, seems especially fitting for Jacksonville. It's an insecure publication that would rather focus on empty sizzle than take the time and effort to fix what is fundamentally broken. I guess it's the rough equivalent of the city proving how great it is by blowing five million fucking dollars worth of fireworks into the air at every opportunity while ignoring a riverwalk slowly sinking into the river, doing nothing about aggressive vagrants and a fundamentally broken parking system driving business out of downtown, and building bigger and better pocket parks while allowing the existing parks to rot away to nothing.

If the Times-Union is the public face of our city, no wonder so many people have such an inferiority complex about Jacksonville.

A great newspaper could do truly great things for the morale and quality of life in Jacksonville. I'm convinced of it. And I'm also convinced that if a quality newspaper were to be produced in Jacksonville, it would fly off the newsstands.

The time has never been better either for a rival newspaper to emerge.

The T-U still has a relatively strong circulation, but that has to be out of habit and need, not because it's a good newspaper. We all know it's shit. Pardon my language, but it's fucking trash. It really is. You open up the Times-Union, look at all the colorful headings and massive bullet points and dumbed-down coverage and immediately think, "Whoever produces this newspaper believes that I, the reader, am literally retarded." I never joke about retardation, it's a very serious issue, but there isn't any other way to describe it. It's just garbage. Like Ronald Fucking McDonald was writing a newspaper about Happyland. If the T-U is to be taken seriously, everything that happens in this city is either wonderful. Mayor fights the crime problem by spending tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars on a big prayer party? Wonderful! Bus Rapid Transit to cost Jacksonville over a billion dollars over 20+ years, no other options seriously considered. We can't waitl! Restaurants, plays, local artists, performances, galleries. They are ALL winners! It's like someone is grinding up somas and putting them into the water coolers at the T-U. Like the Times-Union was written for Mothers to smile and read to their first graders at night.

We need an honest newspaper written for intelligent adults. We need strong, objective, intelligent opinions on local issues, not this middle-of-the-road, pandering bullshit from the T-U. We need local involvement. An op-ed from the mayor on what the hell has caused his courthouse to balloon to nearly half a billion dollars, why a vertical plan that would allow sell off of some of the land isn't being seriously considered, or why this entire mess has taken so long, coupled with an op-ed from somebody on the other side of the fence. Readers can be trusted to make up their own minds. Community involvement is key. How about UNF English Professors doing guest book reviews, JU Theater Directors doing guest play reviews, etc. There's got to be an experience, freelance food critic in Jacksonville who can do weekly restaurant reviews. Two restaurant reviews every Wednesday -- one casual, one upscale -- with star reviews, would just go so far in rewarding and exposing some of the great restaurants in Jacksonville. Objectivity is key. It keeps everybody striving for perfection.

No reason we can't have something akin in quality to the (great) St. Petersburg Times here in Jacksonville.

No reason at all.

I'm dead convinced that it would do more good for this city than just about anything else possible.

Sorry to rant, I just love me my newspapers.

[Jason]

Are your fingers bleeding after having typed that response? 


Question, Since you and I have grown up doring the internet revolution what do you see in store for the future of printed news?  Our children will most likely follow in our footsteps and could be easily passified by simplicities of digital media.