TV offers stimulation over substance--Boston Globe, Jacoby

That television has been a greater factor than the internet in reducing newspaper readership:

• "But is the rise of the Internet really the cause of the exodus from newspapers? When I signed on 20 years ago, the slide in readership was already underway. Daily circulation was already falling. The absence of a newspaper habit among younger readers was already prompting concern. Today the crisis may be more acute, but the symptoms appeared before the World Wide Web did.

So if the Internet isn't at the root of newspapers' woes, what is? I nominate not the computer screen, but the TV screen.

• Newspapers have been undone by the rise of television, which emphasizes stimulation over substance and fast-paced imagery over focused thought. A generation raised on TV mindlessness is a generation less equipped to read a newspaper - and therefore less interested in doing so."

From Boston Globe article by Jeff Jacoby, "Will Newspapers Survive?" 10/28/07, Via Poynter.org/Romenesko

• P.S. The last paragraph of course made me think of ESPN.

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