19
2011
Extra, Extra, Daily News Is Dead… At Least in My Life
An article by Tom Terrific (Stephen Hanks)
It was tough for me to write that headline and I’m going through a bit of a mourning period over it. Tomorrow morning, as on each weekday morning since July 4th, when I get to my neighborhood newsstand, I won’t be buying TWO New York City tabloids. Except for the Sunday edition, the New York Daily News sports section will no longer be part of my life.
You see, I have been a religious reader of the two New York tabloids for almost 50 years; pretty much ever since I became a devout baseball fan at 6 years old. My father bought the News and the New York Post every day (in the ’60s and ’70s the Post was an afternoon paper and the News also had a “Night Owl” edition) and he encouraged me to devour the back pages, which is probably why I wanted to become a magazine sports writer. Some kids grow up playing catch with their dads. I did that, too, but my dad and I also threw good paragraphs back and forth at each other. “Dad, you won’t believe what Dick Young wrote in “Clubhouse Confidential,” I’d exclaim. “Steve, Larry Merchant’s Post column is a riot today,” he’d tell me. And we’d both have a great laugh over the latest Bill Gallo cartoon, usually drawn around some craziness with Casey Stengel and Basement Bertha.
So going to the corner candy store or bodega the first thing in the morning to pick up the tabloids has been a daily, life-long ritual. I’ve been so addicted that when in another city on a vacation or for work, I’d go through withdrawal if I couldn’t find a Post or a News at some local newsstand or bookstore. And as much as I love the internet and can web-surf with the best of them (hell, I’m writing for this site, aren’t I?), I’m just not satisfied reading a newspaper online. Perhaps it’s a generational thing, but I still think there is nothing like the enjoyment of holding a newspaper in your hands and flipping through the pages at your leisure and scanning the spreads filled with headlines and photos and box scores and sidebars and agate type. A web paper is great for catching up on late-breaking news or reading someone’s blog, but it can never replace–at least for me–the tactile thrill of fondling news print.
But something happened in late June that will change my life. The price of the daily New York Post went from 50 to 75 cents and I knew it was just a matter of time before the Daily News followed suit, which it did on July 4th. I was not looking for an independence day from buying the tabloids but that’s effectively what resulted from their price hikes. While I had long ago come to grips with the $1.25 price for the Sunday papers, I had already been disgusted with paying 75 cents for the skimpy Saturday papers, which are now a ridiculous buck apiece. This latest daily paper price hike raised my blood pressure higher than when I watch Mike Pelfrey pitch. Now I had to make a choice. I could never give up both papers cold turkey, so one of them had to go. I know what you’re thinking: “Hey, buddy, it’s just another 25 cents a day, what’s the big deal?” Well, if you eliminate one paper from your budget, you’re saving $195 a year and in this economy that’s not chump change, pal.
If the decision to give up reading one of the dailies was difficult, the choice of which one to drop was easy. R.I.P. Daily News, at least in my house. Let’s face it, this paper has been a prosaic read for years and when the Post refers to it as “The Daily Snooze” they are right on the money. The Post sports section has consistently been the best in town since the days of Merchant and Vic Ziegel and Paul Zimmerman and Maury Allen and Leonard Shecter, et al (Google ‘em, kids). The News has been on a quality roller-coaster since the early ’80s when I wrote a series for The Village Voice called “The Good, the Bad and the Boring,” which critiqued all the New York sport sections (including the Times‘). At that time, the News was the “bad.” When I asked the late, great Vic Ziegel, who was between newspaper gigs at the time, to tell me why the Post, with it’s reputation for sensationalism (even pre-Murdoch) and fudging stories, should be considered better than the News, Ziegel said, “I’d rather have my sports section bullshit me than bore me.” As much as I would find it appalling for any news organization to BS its readers, I found it difficult arguing Vic’s point.
The News‘ sports is definitely not the mundane section it was in the ’80s, but it’s inferior to the Post in almost every way, from the back page headlines (even when both papers come up with the same hilarious line, you believe the Post thought of it first) to the presentation of the inside pages (the News has shrunk its body type font so much to save money on paper, you need a 150+ pair of reading glasses). Heck, these days, I even find the Wall Street Journal’s measly two to three pages of sports coverage more compelling then what the News serves up. And when the most entertaining talkie on an SNY-TV show named for your paper is the guy from WFAN (Joe Benigno), you’re in trouble.
The News stuffs the Post on basketball coverage with the solid Frank Isola and Mitch Lawrence, but I favor them mainly because I’ve never been a fan of Peter Vescey’s convoluted column-writing style that poses as conversational. And the News investigative reporting and feature writing team (including Wayne Coffey, Christian Red, Michael O’Keefe, et al) is top notch, which is why I will continue to buy the paper on Sunday. But the Post wins almost every other key writer match-up. Post media columnist Phil Mushnick may have gotten a tad pompous and strident over the years, but he’s still a better read than the pedestrian Bob Raissman (who has actually improved from the borderline hack he was earlier in his career). Comparing the Post‘s hockey writers Larry Brooks (who also does a fine job as a baseball columnist) and Mark Everson to the News‘ guys is the difference between a slap shot and a shank. As for coverage of the NFL, it’s not even a contest. The News‘ pro football team is like a Pop Warner defensive line going up against Nick Mangold and company.
On the baseball side, while the News‘ Bill Madden and John Harper deserve their due as solid veteran pros, Joel Sherman’s well-crafted columns in the Post are consistently insightful and speak the inside baseball language to the hard-core fan. Among the baseball beat writers, I’d probably call that “even,” but I’m getting increasing impatient with the News‘ Mets writer Andy Martino–a young scribe with terrific potential–trying to be quirky and cute in his game stories.
The columnist match-up is a huge edge to the Post, from superior utility man/football maven/Sunday Q & A interrogator Steve Serby, to the aforementioned Sherman, to the exquisite Mike Vaccaro, who has become the best sports columnist in the city and could hold his own with the great Post writers of the ’60s. Vaccaro is where Mike Lupica was around three decades ago when Lupica was the News‘ Boy Wonder. But Lupica has been mailing in his sports column since the Pony Express was put out to pasture. “The Lip” has been shooting blanks for years, but it’s tough to keep a sports column on target when the higher priorities are writing tweener sports novels, opining about politics in the front of the paper (thank goodness he’s a liberal or I’d really lose it), and doing television and radio for ESPN.
In the spirit of full disclosure, I currently work full time in ad sales for a family of community newspapers owned by News Corp. (which owns the Post). But believe me, if the Post sports section wasn’t worth the newsprint it was written on, I’d hammer them as well. Besides, if Rupert Murdoch either decides to, or is forced to, unload his newspapers because of the recent scandal in his media empire, who knows if the Post sports section will be worth 75 cents a day anymore? I might have to really blow my budget to hell and buy the Times on days other than Sunday. Where’s Red Smith when you need him? (Google him, too.)
About the Author: Stephen Hanks
Stephen Hanks (Tom Terrific) is a magazine editor and writer based in Brooklyn, NY, who has been the publisher and editorial director of publications ranging in subjects from sports to health to archaeology. Hanks began his career at the late, great SPORT Magazine in 1977 and in 1983, he co-founded NEW YORK SPORTS Magazine (which ceased publication in 1985). He has written and edited coffee table books on baseball history, penned unauthorized biographies of Bo Jackson and Wayne Gretzky, and in 1990 authored "The Game That Changed Pro Football," an oral history of the 1969 New York Jets Super Bowl Season. Stephen has also played baseball for 45 years and currently plays in an Over-40 hardball league based in Northern New Jersey. Even though he grew up near Yankee Stadium, he loathes the team from the Bronx and has been a die-hard Mets fan since attending his first game at the Polo Grounds in 1963.
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Much ado about nothing. With ESPN, MLBN, NFL Network, and every other sports station, as well as Fox News, MSNBC, CNN, etc…plus talk radio and the internet, which this article was written for; thus proving the point, that newspapers are dead. No one under 60 gets the majority of their news, sports, etc. from newspapers anymore.
Which is why many of us “senior citizens” are in mourning.
The newspaper is a dying art. I think that’s a shame but… what is there to do? The CD player now means nothing compared to the mp3s, the IPODS… And imagine thinking back to record players, 8-tracks..etc.
Nice piece. It’ll be sad when everything becomes online, you know. Ease of access trumps everything these days.
The thing that worries me, Satish, is that in many ways writing for the web has made people–even professionals–lazy and sloppy about their writing and editing. The shorthand, the emphasis on “search engine optimization”, etc. is not geared to generating the kind of writing that you find in great newspapers and magazines. I hope that doesn’t continue. But I guess the demise of newspapers is inevitable. I just hope we have magazines to kick around a bit longer.
I know what you mean.
If you think about it, when you have the ability to post a blog within seconds (and write it with spell check and online dictionaries and a thesaurus…), everything can be done for you and there’s no editing process or anything.
The world of journalism, reporting, and expressing opinions overall has surely changed.
The world of journalism, reporting, and expressing opinions overall has surely changed.
Satish, you’re right, basically it sucks. A dedicated blogger is million times better than a sportswriter.
Clubhouse Confidential, Diamond Dust and even the great Bill Gallo compelled me to go out every evening to buy the night owl edition of the Daily News. Those were good times. i always made sure to buy a good cigar while I was at it and smoked it on my walk home. It was my one bad vice. These days we only get the Sunday edition delivered. It’s not the same. Thanks for an interesting read.
Seligman, my compadre!
Thanks for mentioning Diamond Dust. I used to run out and get the night owl edition, too, especially after day games that the Mets won! In those days, I lived in the Bronx and the night newsstand was a few blocks away. So the paper pickup was usually accompanied by buying either a Carvel cone or an order of crinkle cut french fries in a wax paper bag filled with salt from the local deli.
If I may quote the Simpsons. When Grandpa was speaking with a reporter.
The reporter said. “I write for the local paper” Grandpa replies “Ahh the Newspaper industry, something that will die before I do.”
I guess the saving grace is all the tress that will live thanks to the web.
So many paragraphs to bemoan an extra 25 cents? If ever there’s an example of boring writing and excess, in my opinion, what you wrote today, Stephan, is it.
While I totally agree sports writing on the internet is ripe with carelessness and inexcusable errors, of course the price of paper copy is bound to rise given reduced readership. As a middle aged person myself, I too bemoan change for the worse and miss the old days but that’s also the cycle of life – things change. It’s just an unfortunate sign of the times that our society has morphed into carelessness, where speed is greed and breaking news – or inventing news – is first and foremost…and accuracy isn’t.
As for the Daily News and NY Post, individual writers have individual agendas, much of which sensationalizes content, deliberately raising the ire of readership. In general, they all seem the same to me.
Can you imagine how long and boring the piece would have been had they raised the price 50 cents? If all the writers seem the same to you, LongTime, you’re not reading carefully enough.
I read them both on the web
So you need to choose. You chose Murdoch. I choose the other guys. How hard is that?
I hear what you’re saying Paul, but if I decided not to read the best sports section in the city just because of who owned it, I would be depriving myself of some entertaining writers like Vaccaro and I’m not willing to do that.
We follow the Mets in spite of who owns them, so why not read the post too. Both owners screw people for a living.
Bro, as a fellow “old timer” I too read the Daily News sports section almost everyday. Sadly, I find the quality of their reporting to be at about cesspool level. A few years back, John Harper recklessly hinted that a Reyes illness may have been caused by steroids.He offered no proof and his reported was discounted on WFAN the very same afternoon. When Willie Randolph was fired, the News called it “the worst firing ever’, completely ignoring the five embarrassing times Billy Martin was fired by the Yankees. In reading articles by Madden & Raissmussen, it’s apparent they have their own axes to grind, and agendas to set.
I too, will soon be joining you in saying adios to the Daily News.
You go, Gregga!
Well Tom all I can say is welcome to the age of the conglomerate!
Think about WHY the Post (news corp) can attract and pay better talent than the local only Daily news? (Who does not have a TV Network with contracts for just about every sport BUT the said Basketball you said the DN was ok at.)
Why do they get better reporter Talent? Because they know better talent? Or because that better talent knows that by going to the Post they have a foot in the door to Fox Sports and the National Spotlight?
Basically what your doing is comparing a local paper to Time Magazine (if Time had it’s own TV Network.
And if your going to judge a paper you have to do it by more than just the Sports Section!
While Fox has pretty much taken Sports over the rest of the paper is a bit lacking. The entire front of the newpaper seems to be more tabloid and pundit than actual news. Opinion and Pontification is as much a part of their reporting as the actual FACTS. And perhaps the reason the News appears boring to you is because it pretty much does what every newspaper used to do since the dawn of time…
Report the facts and leave the editorial for the editorial section!
Now before anyone goes claiming I’m some Liberal that just despises the republican view point forget it. I’m a conservative/Libertarian and agree with many of the opinions but I have to say on regular news I feel LESS informed by the Post as I do the DN.
What I want from a newspaper is the facts not the flourish. The whole point of reading a newspaper and the one advantage a newspaper has over TV is it’s ability to expand on the details. Unlike TV it’s not just a 10 second sound bite followed by 1:20 of pundit/analysts slanting that sound bite in one way or the other.
Thats fine for the sunday morning news shows and even fine as an expansion of a subject after the initial news has been reported much as the PBS Newshour does so well.
The Internet has harmed the media industry at the same time it has helped it grow and diseminate at a faster than light pace.
I got into the business when TV had less than 26 channels and your cablebox was labeld A-Z. A time when there were so few news services that only the BEST reporters would get hired and every one of them had to have a degree in jounalism and that meant a class on Media Ethics and reporting.
Today all you need is a web server and internet connection, you don’t need to do any fact finding yourself or confirmation by two sources, just read four or five web sites and then spit out your version of those events.
Before an editor or producer would allow a fact to be reported it had to have TWO sources of confirmation before it was put into the paper or aired on TV. And those two sources could not be OTHER news sources as is the case today!
Hell they even will use the Star Magazine as a confirmation these days!
The new pyramid structure of the Media industry is not only hurting the long time local papers such as the Daily News to attract talent those local papers are getting on the same fast track less fact more opinion game to keep up.
And all us are worse off and less informed because of it!
I suggest to anyone who fancies themselves a potential reporter to read Woodward and Bernsteins book “All the Presidents Men”.
ignore the facts of the Watergate story itself. Read everything about the reporting PROCCESS and HOW they had to go about proving and confirming the facts (Two Source Rule)before they were allowed to be printed in the paper.
I don’t know what the courseware for a journalism degree is these days but if the actual reporting I see is any indication I would have to say they merely eliminated the class entirely and tell them print whatever you want as long as it sells papers and reflects the owners political views.
And we are all worse off because of it!
Great comments, Metsie, and I agree with much of what you say. I started my career as a sports magazine intern and my first job was as a fact checker. We had to verify every single stat before it got printed and I’m a fact-check freak to this day. But I’m not sure I agree with you about why the Post sports section is better than the News’. First of all, “Daily News Live” on SNY shows that News guys can get TV gigs, too. And while the Post may be able to pay higher salaries than the News, the Post sports section has been superior to the News way before Murdoch bought the paper. I’m talking back to the 60s when “the liberal” Dorothy Schiff owned it and it was an afternoon paper. The Post sports has a reputation than transcends Murdoch and that’s why good writers want to be there. As for the front of the paper, hey, I don’t agree with their politics, either, but damn, it can be a fun read.
BIG BIG difference between SNY and Fox…
Fox is a national network and while SNY may be available nationally via Dish service it nothing more than a regional network (like NY2 or Cable 12) that is in the digital stream.
Fox also has an entire national news division as well.
Really it’s apples and oranges when you compare Fox to SNY. SNY is just a regional network like MSG
Sure you will see guys from the daily news and they get a show named after them.
And thats because the Post guys do all their work for Fox Sports.
The Daily news used to be one of the largets national newspapers back when your talking. You could find it just about anywhere in the country. That and the Times.
Times is the antithesis of the Post. Post is conservative, Times is Liberal.
Daily News is a bit more in the middle. It is also not a national venue anymore since things like USA Today took over that spot before they had issues.
And the Daily News has suffered greatly ever since the Tribune took it over.
Metsie, I’ve been in the business for 30 years. I didn’t really need the primer on the reach and political leanings of news organizations.