The man who dumbed down journalism in America more than anyone since Hearst has died:
Among Al Neuharth's survivors are the suffering readers of The Greenville News."Our target was college-age people who were non-readers. We thought they were getting enough serious stuff in classes," Neuharth said in 1995. "We hooked them primarily because it was a colorful newspaper that played up the things they were interested in — sports, entertainment and TV."
I had the misfortune of working for a Neuharth paper in the late 1990s. What a miserable experience. The entire chain was the embodiment of what journalism shouldn't have been: formulaic, corporate-driven and an emphasis on hyper profits.
ReplyDeleteLooking back, it's apparent that Gannett was just ahead of the curve with its model.