like i have said before to you, welcome to the mainstream

here is yet another example

anyway be well

frankD

Should the conversation open up to include new ideas? Duh. But NJJN may not be the place for that.

Larry’s making me divulge my dirty secret: I read neither the NJJN (except for Andy’s stylish opinion pieces) nor the Jewish Standard or the Jewish Gosh-Darned anything, unless it’s good and dusty.

My news comes from Larry and Joshua Micah Marshall (talking points memo).

And I’m with ya, Kung Fu, on the intermarriage thing. Let’s let some light in to this cozy little party. The gene pool will thank you.

But, the answer is not to give up. The answer is not to shut down papers until they have to. If it’s self sustainable, it deserves to exist. Hell, even if it’s not sustainable, it deserves to exist too. I don’t actually think the “market” is the last word. There’s always posterity. I have great hopes for posterity. And the answer always, always, is more voices. New Voices, and old voices and those who don’t know how to ask.

Given Andrew is clearly saying that a single newspaper can’t communicate to everyone is it better to diversify that money? Can the newspaper subsidy decrease without bankrupting the newspaper?

I’ll note that I have no clue about NJJN’s current financial situation so feel free to talk about NJJN or keep this on an abstract level.

Yes, I have a problem with media consolidation — when it’s a multinational corporation, with questionable profit motives glomming up local papers and pushing an editorial perspective upon them. But the JMetros plan is not-for-profit and ensures continued editorial independence for each local node, while keeping its hands entirely off your print edition. That does not seem worrisome to me at all.

I want folks to have choices as well, but having one local Jewish paper in their media market already -isn’t- choice. Only major metros like NYC have more than one paper. And even then, they’re all struggling to stave off collapse and talking consolidation amongst themselves.

I’m not being selfish, I’m being realistic. The status quo is unsustainable, and everyone knows it. It’s high time publishers admit it to themselves.

Dan and KFJ: As far as wishing me ill — KFJ’s “so be it” and Dan’s “I don’t care one way or the other if the NJJN continues to exist” sounds callous and selfish, however you spin it. I care a lot whether other media thrive — from blogs like Jewschool to news services like JTA to whatever new venture you’re in the process of planning. I want folks to have plenty of choices, and media that serve their particular interests. And I think you do care more than you let on: I can’t imagine with your political passion you would really like to see all Jewish news coverage in the U.S. subsumed under the umbrella of JTA or the Jewish Week. I thought progressives consider media monopolies bad for democracy?

Let me use another example:

Ultimately, Jewschool doesn’t deserve to exist. It exists only so long as I and others write worthwhile material and attract readers and a minimum amount of advertising. That is all. As Jewschool has teetered on the brink of collapse more than once, sometimes it is amazing to those of us who administer it that we’ve not thrown up our hands with frustration and walked away.

The same is true about our approach to the Jewish community, its politics and its press too. Lots of my brethren are indeed walking away. And I find it my role — as perhaps you did yours — to believe that someone out there in communal leadership is listening. That someone will change course. That I care to get frustrated says that at least I wish it continued existance. Many of my generation don’t know NJJN or JTA exist at all, nor would they read it a second time once they did. Regarding the latter, I had a few suggestions in my post. I did not assume that nobody never carries any such stories, but that is the advice we gave.

And I’m not so starry eyed and self-assured as you might portray either. I met with almost every one of the 15+ generations of staff before me who ran New Voices when they were young. Each told the same lore: of their generation’s needs ignored by their predecessors, of being the new kid on the block with radical ideas, of being among the few who cared to make it work. They told of fights over campus life, wrestling over Zionism and Israel at war, and funding battles with the establishment. And almost all of them now ran Jewish publications or worked for The Man they fought before. And it was endearing that each of them regarded my politics with a bemused smirk, as if to say, “So this is what I looked like?” God willing, I will also be in that place. I became aware of this cycle as soon as I joined it. And I stayed because of it. I am already excited to see young contributors at Jewschool who will one day supplant me.

If it means anything to you, I read your posts and admire your work. And your links to us do not go unnoticed. Where that leaves us regarding the purpose and fate of the Jewish press, I don’t know. But I appreciate the dialogue and you shouldn’t take offense.

Peace out,

KFJ