John Oliver & Those Inked-Stained Wretches
My Twitter stream was filled this morning with ample links to John Oliver’s homage to an industry in decline: newspapering. In his latest essay, Mr. Oliver reverently painted a poignant picture of the vital role newspapers play in our society. Still images from the award-winning films “All the President’s Men” and “Spotlight” flashed during his 19-minute segment.
He astutely recognized newspapers for serving as the primary source for most of the news and revelations that fill today’s cable and TV news programs. What would Wolf Blitzer do without them? In Oliver’s recent blistering TV package on state lotteries, the former Daily Show contributor and fill-in host acknowledged his source: a reporter from The Oregonian… who eventually was laid off in a downsizing.
He showed a clip of Sam Zell addressing the Chicago Tribune news staff for the first time following the billionaire’s acquisition of the once venerable Tribune Company. When one reporter questioned his demand to give the readers what they want, i.e., “but they’d want to read about puppies,” Mr. Zell dismissively scolded her, ending with an epithet that begin with an F and ended with a U! He eventually got his comeuppance.
Sure, countless media pundits have chronicled the demise of the “fourth estate.” Yet it was clear Mr. Oliver was doing so out of respect, not malice — a point Washington Post media columnist and former New York Times public editor Margaret Sullivan made in response to the inane response to the Oliver segment from NAA chief David Chavern:
After crumpling up Oliver’s love letter and sneering at its author, he had a suggestion for his next installment.
“I would just ask Mr. Oliver to spend more time talking about what the future of news could be,” he wrote, “and less time poking fun at publishers who are trying to get there.”
I had the NAA as a client during the incipient days of digitally driven dwindling circulations. Whenever the Audit Bureau of Circulation numbers came out, it was our job to find the silver lining — an increasingly difficult task. We created our own measure, which we called the “Competitive Media Index” that sought to gain parity with other media. I also pushed the trade association to consider folding in growing newspaper website traffic to substantiate newspapers’ real reach.
Be that as it may, Ms. Sullivan’s gripe with the NAA had less to do with the sad state of the industry it represents, and more about the tin ear its leader showed in responding to the Oliver piece. I wonder who’s handling their PR chores these days?
Full disclosure: The author of this story has had as clients the NAA, The New York Times, the NY Daily News, The AP, the Online Publishers Association and, early in his PR career, the motion picture “Absence of Malice,” which starred Sally Field as a newspaper reporter and Paul Newman whom she defamed in an article. (As a 14-year-old, he also consumed Gay Talese’s paean to The New York Times: “The Kingdom & The Power.”)
