My dad bought the Arizona Republic newspaper on the morning that Nixon resigned (1974). He also bought the paper when Elvis died (1977). I know this because years after my dad died (1993), I found them preserved (wrapped in a garbage bag) in the attic (1996). These were quite nostalgic for me, but after years of toting them around the country I offered them for free on Craigslist in Seattle (2003), of which had immediate takers.
In 2009, a few of us were at a Mariners game when we began to hear rumblings that the “King” had died. Elvis? We did not make the connection immediately as we were merely nostalgic over the constant playing of “Thriller” & “Beat It.” A couple of hours later, we were at the Showbox Sodo having a couple of drinks & the bartender had not heard the news yet, as my friend screamed at him, “Remember me on this day! That I told you that Michael Jackson is dead!!!”
The experience of walking by a newsstand in the morning and being shocked by a headline from an event that was already days old is gone. And if having immediate access to the web, simply on a computer, for over a decade now was not enough, smartphones have sped up the transmission of information even more. Cars marketed as sources of internet information is merely a missed opportunity at this point as GPS, blue tooth and windshield projected odometers have existed for decades. Any last safety concerns are merely a design challenge, not a hindrance.
Successful newspaper companies will transform archaic business models that sell “newspapers” to selling “the universal transmission of information.” Online news content that appeared quite limited just ten years ago, now would make a company appear out of touch if their main page did not have the news of the hour. Although the New York Times, for example, still sells subscription packages (online & paper), most headlines deemed newsworthy are freely available to the public as it happens.
Not unlike editorials that newspapers publish from respected columnists, ESPN.com has published a blog called Page2 for over a decade. Sports fans hardly go a day without checking out ESPN’s headlines. Page2 is a great way to then allow readers to dig deeper & follow their favorite author or sport’s columnist. Hunter S Thompson was one such contributor that consistently posted on Page2. The greatest thing about these type of posts is that the “news” continues to be relevant. It is not a headline that somebody died. It is a punch-line, that like it or not, tells why we should care, and reading some of these posts over ten years later, still offers some ire, that is either angry or just overt hilarious. That is the news that blogs seek to provide that traditional news sources had missed out on (both TV & paper news).
Maybe once thousands of Americans kill themselves due to brain tumors & auto accidents connected to prolonged phone usage, the next trend will not be a technological one, but a social one. One that seeks to cut all ties to email, facebook, & tweets. This is a slow culture that embraces the challenge of not knowing. One that acknowledges that humans will never know everything, so what value comes in knowing the second that Michael Jackson is dead, for his music will go on forever.
Hunter S. Thompson Page 2 achives: http://totallygonzo.org/gonzowriting/hst-hey-rube-espn-page-2/
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