Setting our own pace for change
Matt Pearl
Upon the recommendation of a business friend, I began reading a book recently that examines the consequences of and necessary responses the citizens of our world will develop toward the rapid global changes we are facing.
The author’s opening argument has been foremost in my mind: he addresses a concept that I first heard about 15 years ago as a college graduate student. That is a concept called Moore’s Law.
According to the principle put forth by the law, a 1965 theory put forth by Gordoon Moore, we see the speed and memory capacity of technology double every 24 months or so. Basically, your tech gadgets are getting fast, and the cost for speed is becoming more and more affordable.
The problem we are reaching, according to author Thomas Friedman, is one of human adaptability: we are struggling to adapt to technology in time for it to remain usable. Basically, by the time you and I figure out how to really use our smartphone or computer, technology has made the gadget we have newly mastered obsolete.
Well, it’s no surprise to me. I get my head wrapped around a new computer or software release just in time for its manufacturer to stop supporting it.
Now, I’m not going to waste time denouncing technology and throwing a tantrum because of the headaches that tech has caused for me over the years. Rather, I’m going to take a step back and look at the tech revolution from a newspaper perspective.
I have read about newspapers nationwide that have suffered as the direct result of Internet consumption. People get online, read the free stuff and forget about the rest.
Yet paper after paper has offered itself up for sacrifice, only to find financial ruin at the end.
Without dwelling on the economics of print publishing, I would like to say that our print company has made a conscious choice to protect our printed product. People enjoy holding an actual newspaper in their hands, and cutting out pictures of the kids and grandkids for scrapbooks and refrigerator display.
In response to the furious pace of technological advances in our society, I would suggest that folks remember that your hometown newspaper offers a pause from the fast-food pace of online reporting.
When a school bulletin comes in a test alert, or someone shares a Twitter video, I think it’s great. But it’s not what we sell here. We offer community journalism: we record what has happened, and we provide a reliable public record of elected boards, community issues and more.
A bad Tweet is a quick edit or panicked deletion away from going away forever. In the print industry, we are forced to stand by what we write, and to deal with the ensuing consequences.
I am content for social media to do its job, and for me to do mine. Are there times when people would like more of an online presence from our newspaper? Probably. But as the years go by, I learn more and more that each of us is much more content when we work within our own wheelhouse.
Community reporting and providing a weekly review of the area’s goings-on is our forté. Taking a step to the side of the tech roller coaster helps us remain consistent in our news coverage, and offers a similar consistency to our readers, who often want to see something familiar to them. The unfamiliar has become such a dominant reality in our lives: our hope is to put something that has classic appeal in our readers’ hands every week. Change is inevitable, but let’s set our own pace for some changes.
Matt Pearl owns and operates newspapers in King City, Albany, and Grant City.
