I like to read your section to find out what's going on with the youth culture in town. I like seeing names I recognize. I like hearing about bands I have connections with. I like finding out about interesting art I can access locally that I might be otherwise unaware of. I already read Pop Candy, which you quote very, very often. Don't worry about hat-tipping Pop Candy. I know it came from there. I read it 7 hours before you published your blog. Why do I need to read your blog at 5 to catch a post Whitney posted in the morning?

Old news.

Everyone has to serve their own purpose, and if they're not doing that, what good are they? I can read about local goings on in the Bollard or the Phoenix. They do local pop culture and arts. They do it well. Whitney does national pop culture and arts. She does that well. I like the fact that you cover what "the young people" like, but it often isn't anything I am not already picking up elsewhere. There is a huge hole in Press Herald arts coverage as a whole. The arts section covers safe, if any crap. You cover stuff I am already seeing elsewhere. Man, I love it when you talk with Justin Alfond or do an exclusive interview with a national figure before they come to Maine. Even when you do pull something local off with any regularity like the VPJ section, you're still talking about movies I can read about ANYWHERE else. Even your regular local section is only local in its characters but not its content. As for the rest of what you typically post--YouTube links, news about ironic, mustachioed anti-heroes, whatever--I need another pop culture aggregate like I need a hole in my head.

Also, as you noted and as I think you've nailed correctly, I think that young people are reading the news more than ever (and further, Sarah Trent is one smart cookie). The industry needs to shift. I've seen this in magazines and I see it in this paper and others. The sad thing isn't so much that people need to make a shift now -- it's that the necessity of this shift was clear the day that millions of people and I began downloading songs for free on Napster but VERY FEW publishers saw fit to really put into place an infrastructure that would support the change that was being railroaded through their offices by way of a series of cables, wires, and servers. I remember talking with folks at the Phoenix nearly three years ago and even then they were refusing to acknowledge the implications of the movement to the Internet. Instead, one blue grasser in particular spoke resentfully about people who demanded free content and decried the unwillingness of people to pay for their news. Fortunately for them, their content floated the publication through the transition and it looks as though they might be doing ok. Unfortunately for many, many news sources, the necessary strategizing that could have actually helped create more industry and electronic ads revenue was traded in for putting the problem off until a virtual apocalypse.

All the while, I am going to Cursor.org and getting directed to my hard news and going to Pop Candy and getting directed to my soft news. And based on Internet ad revenue and fund drives, these folks are getting paid while the dinosaurs are dying left and right.

In short, what I am really saying, is that the Press Herald won't truly catch the attention of the youth until they begin consistently throwing content up that doesn't make stupid assumptions about young people. I see that the Press Herald sees that young people aren't reading it, so it gives me my very own youth ambassador, Justin Ellis. But why do I need the Portland Press Herald by way of Justin Ellis when the Phoenix and The Bollard already work to reach me without any sort of middle person? And why do I need Justin Ellis if his assumptions about what I like are already being covered elsewhere? If the Press Herald is trying to capture "the youth market" with the efforts of one man, they're only going to get back the very little that they're putting into this effort. Having recently done a lot of research on the "Millennial Generation" or "iGen" or whatever it is called at the moment, I realize more and more that schticks like disaffection, irony, and pop-fetishization are second to content and substance in the eyes of a chunk of people who were raised with a universe of digital information and communication at their finger tips. This can't be the only way to bring them to the table, especially if there are millions of more attractive tables out there on the virtual market.

Well, as usual, Sr. Steed makes good points; everyone around town knows he's a smart cookie. And, hey, thanks for the (almost) compliment about the 'Justin and Videoport Jones' movie column (every Tuesday right here, kids!), what with us doing things 'you can read about anywhere else' (although, hey, let's not slight a representative of the 'big, bland, corporate media, etc giving, at his own initiative, a media voice to a representative of a locally-owned, independent, community-active arts institution [Videoport])but taking Justin to task for the perceived (and, of course, very real) failings of the media as a whole and local corporate media in particular seems misguided. Justin's a good writer, he has his nose to the streets (and we all know how unpleasant that can be), and, as you pointed out, even the jaded, intellectual Portland literati can appreciate his efforts. What can I say- I like Justin's work, I like the Bollard, I think the Phoenix is a valuable entertainment resource if an unpardonably sloppy journalistic enterprise (and, hey, howsabout hiring a local movie reviewer and not pretending we're just a lesser outpost of the real, important Boston franchise; oh, and the Videoport ad/column [written by Jeremy Stover] is the best writing in the thing), and I respect Justin's attempts, however difficult and burdensome, to direct his corporate parent's attention to more 'relevant' youth-oriented issues; it's an oceanliner and it's hard to steer one of those things. I respect him for his efforts. Oh, and if I may, I think a devotee of the Phoenix taking him to task for employing 'schticks like disaffection, irony, and pop fetishization' is, well, ironic. I think there are enough smart, young people in this city to make some salient points; I further think that sniping and infighting in the name of 'attacking the big guy' isn't helpful. You're a smart guy Alex, and I don't necessarily disagree with much you say, but you're picking the wrong target.

Dr. Jones --

Very well put indeed.

Several things --

To clarify: I am not in the least a Portland Phoenix devotee. I am obviously a Bollard devotee (full disclosure: I am an occasional contributor to The Bollard). The Phoenix's disaffection, as you point out (and I intend to revisit this here), is boring, predictable, unexciting and dull. What I am saying is that while I don't fully comprehend what the Press Herald is trying to accomplish by way of having a "youth voice," I have a feeling that they're trying to create the appearance of appealing to The Bollard and The Phoenix crowds. I ask why I would go to the Press Herald and watch them pretend when I could easily just go to The Phoenix or The Bollard. Why see a movie starring Vin Diesel when you can see Arnold Schwarzenegger play you're favorite futuristic cyborg or misplaced kindergarden teacher? Of course, as you point out, The Phoenix could do a far better job than they do offering "local" coverage. Then again, the Governor of California could have put a little more effort into offering a dramatic range. Even when it comes to stronger option, there is often less to be desired.

[Justin is not Vin Diesel; The Press Herald pretending to not be The Press Herald visa vis Justin is Vin Diesel. Justin could be Arnold if he were cast in a cool Arnold movie. Unfortunately--for the time being--in this context and as things exist right this second, he's rocking the whole Hercules In New York / Jingle All The Way thing with The Terminator through True Lies, Governor or California stages respectively awaiting him o'er the horizon.]

Speaking of the Phoenix: Jeremy Stover is the best writer the Phoenix has writing for them, even though his words don't technically belong to the Phoenix. I once asked Stover to write for Angioplasty and the word limit was 800 words but he submitted 4000 and I didn't edit it down one bit because Jeremy Stover is a genius (and I was a terrible editor) and the Phoenix is ignorant for having a Boston import do the work a local genius like Stover should be doing.

Regarding your Videoport offerings, I love the store (as you know) and your weekly coverage. I wish, however, that this wasn't one of the only few local content anchors I could rely on in this blog. I can find witty banter about this week's DVD releases absolutely anywhere. Unfortunately, however, Amazon, The Onion A.V. Club, our friends at Pop Candy, etc. aren't pumping out interviews with Sam James, Cult Maze, Honey Clouds, Gabe F.M., Micah Blue Smaldone, Fire on Fire, etc. In order for our scenes to get coverage, the aforementioned outlets need to be able to tip their hats at our local media once and a while and how can we expect this to ever happen when our hats are always off because they are always being tipped in the other direction?

At the end of the day, I do like Justin's work when the NXT blog actually features Justin's work. I don't need links to other people's work. That's all I am saying. Whitney Matheson of Pop Candy does a good job and rather than having another link to her blog (she gets plenty of linkage day in and day out), I'd rather read Justin's words about the local scene. I am sure there are time restraints, deadlines, office odds and ends and many other explanations for why we are not seeing 100% original reporting (or even 70%), but the solicitation at the end of the article was "As always, we're open to suggestion" and I didn't take that to mean that I was being asked for a carefully weighed, overly considerate, rational and contextual response. By the look of the final product the Press Herald throws together day in and out, they could use a lot less rationalization as I assume that contextualized excuses for their increasingly dire present state have helped them (and many other papers in similar positions) get to them to a point in which they ask for advice and really mean it.

Oh. Back to the Phoenix being an "unpardonably sloppy journalistic enterprise." Hilarious and true. And since we're back at the Phoenix, and since we're back to remembering that I am not a Phoenix devotee, I stick to this and my other points: The Press Herald--and most of "the news" in general--refused to prepare for making a print to Internet transition and they're suffering at their own unpreparedness. It is unfortunate that Justin is part of the cork they're using to plug their ice burg gash but the writing he puts out as a result is often good when it is his own. Justin is a good writer when he is writing about something relevant to the scene and not writing link descriptions. And again, the Phoenix is not my bag, but if I have to pick between reading the Phoenix and watching the Press Herald court the Phoenix readership, I, like many other young people, feel compelled to check out the Phoenix instead. Epilogue: I'm really pretty much over irony and mustaches, and it isn't so much a "this was so over last year" sort of thing as much as it is a "this was so over five years ago," country girls saying "whatever" in the Clueless context circa '00 sort of way. Sorry everyone. It's just sort of over. And finally--a new point--Jeremy Stover should get a job saving the Press Herald from the grave it's dug itself over the years.

Oh. And another new point. An idea I've evangelized for years -- Stephen King should finance a real, authentic, local Southern Maine newspaper. If this would give Justin all of the freedom he needs in order to express himself journalistically without worrying day in and day out about steering an ocean-liner, as it were, that would be reason alone for celebrating its inception and dancing on the grave of the Press Herald.

Thanks for the kind words in your rebuttal, and I always welcome a challenge.

Take good care,
a.

Um, I like bacon and basketball. Long live the Illini!

From Time Magazine, 03.24.08:

Because of the Internet, you, the reader, no longer have to buy information in pre-fabricated packages like “newspapers.” You can just go online and individually select the articles you want to read. And there are lots of websites and blogs to help you out. Every day, Matt Drudge, the Huffington Post, Yahoo, Google, Swampland, or a hundred other different bloggers, will pre-select articles for you and provide links. You choose your own adventure.

http://www.time-blog.com/swampland/2008/03/the_internet_effect_on_news.html

I enjoy my morning paper, I can't start the day without it. I would hate to lose that. Sure when I have the time I can check the news on the web or the tv but I like something I can carry around with me. Sometimes the only exercise I get is walking to the mailbox to get the paper. I hope I am not considered old, although I am well above the average age of Justin's audience. I enjoy his writing and his love of bacon. I think he has a ton of talent and hope to be reading him in the PPH for a long time!

One thing to remember is the internet provides a choice, if you don't need the scanner, don't click on it when there is an update in your blog reader...plenty of people don't spend their time all over the internet and actually enjoy a weekly update of what's going on that they aren't catching themselves. Another thing that is fun about the scanner is the reader suggestions.

And using the mustache posts as an example of things GenNext shouldn't do is just silly, there are always lots of comments on those posts. Look back to when Justin himself was part of the trend. The readers like it, so taking it away would go against the whole attracting readers thing.

We don't need less GenNXT, we need more!