Comment by Animats | Hacker News Reader

Comment by Animats | Hacker News Reader

The second Opinion unit, for outside submissions, is the Amazon reseller concept applied to news. It's why you can't buy anything important on Amazon any more.

There are very few American newspapers left that have actual reporters in the field. The New York Times and the Washington Post are almost the only ones left. The result is that most stories begin from some press release. Look at the Washington Post right now.

- "Trump, European Union reach trade deal with 15% tariffs" - from a press release.

- "Israel to let more aid trucks into Gaza, under pressure over hunger crisis Israel said..." - press release

- "Denied federal flood relief, a Maryland town is left on its own" - actual reporter coverage of regional news.

- "Trump’s imaginary numbers, from $1.99 gas to 1,500 percent price cuts" - desk work, rehash of existing info.

For most other newspapers, it's even worse. Few if any boots on the ground.

"News is what someone doesn't want published. All else is publicity"

The economics of journalism was killed with craigslist and has only gotten worse as the Internet has matured.

It is not the fourth branch of government anymore.

It's amazing that Craigslist killed the profitability of newspapers, and at such low cost.

Somebody should do that for social media.

Really? Were the classified ads that important?

I know some Dutch newspapers that didn't have any. It was mostly the free local papers that did.

Edit: these papers are still around, I just don't know if they still don't have classifieds because I don't read any papers anymore. The whole idea of getting a dead tree delivered is kinda old fashioned to me.

> Really? Were the classified ads that important?

Yes. There was a time when newspapers were the place to list ads. They made money hand over fist.

One difference between actual journalists and people who just post their opinions on the Internet is that journalists will make phone calls. Even when they don’t talk to people in person, that’s still valuable.

Bari Weiss and Paul Krugman wouldn't agree on almost anything but they agree it's a better life to be writing for Substack than for the NYT.

I enjoy reading Krugman so much now because he seems to be having so much fun now that he doesn't have the weight of the New York Times editors on him.

Which articles would you recommend? I used to like his writing way back when he wrote for Slate.

https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=pastWeek&page=0&prefix=tru...

I particularly enjoyed this bit of nihilism:

https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/enshittification-and-the-...

>Hell hath no fury like a tech god scorned

Looks like generic "here's the horrible things rich people are thinking!" from a person who's never been around rich people and doesn't know any more about what they're thinking than anyone else.

> they agree it's a better life to be writing for Substack than for the NYT.

The NYT pushed them out because they made fat salaries, money that could, in the company's view, be used to pay for cheaper and younger labor, among other cost-saving measures.

More importantly, true journalists follow the "no surprises" rule and contact the subject to allow them to hear what will be reported, respond to questions, and provide additional information or context that could inform the story.

A lot of people claim to be journalists and yet lack a fundamental understanding of journalistic principles and best practices.

The key result from talking to the relevant parties pre-publication is that it usually enriches the story.

Even if someone is blatantly trying to deny or turn the story, they may give you information you didn’t have before (and that they were unlikely to give you absent publication pressure).

It’s a superpower to be able to say ‘I have words written. Now what would you like to tell me?’

All of these institutions are cooked.

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