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Reason to buy a newspaper—yeah, I said *paper*

2009 July 16
tags: , , , ,
by paulbalcerak

Im not the biggest Adam Strange fan ever, but these panels are a masterpiece.

I'm not the biggest Adam Strange fan ever, but these panels are a collective masterpiece.

Waaaaaaay back in December 2008, someone mentioned at the first Pitch that—and it’s not documented at that link, but someone said it—the comic book industry could have something to teach newspapers in terms of a business model. The point, as I recall it, was that comics were dying during the mid-90′s (this I can attest to, as I’ve been a huge comic book nerd since the mid-90′s) and their resurgence came when companies shed some of their surplus titles (I’m talking to you, Marvel 2099) and started producing higher quality products (nicer paper, etc.).

It feels like I’ve come full circle, now that I’m sitting here a year and a half later spewing about how genius DC Comics’ Wednesday Comics campaign is and how it makes me want to buy a newspaper again. To be honest, I wouldn’t care much about the rest of the paper—though admittedly I’d probably end up reading something—but as Bobby Solomon (of style, design and coolness blog Kitsune Noir) says, “you could totally frame one of these pages as art and put it on your wall.” That solves one of my common gripes—that newspapers are useless once you have the news. Turn them into collectibles (wouldn’t it be great if we could elect Barack Obama every week?) and you’ve got something.

Now where can I get one of these?

from → journalism business models

  • http://eatsleeppublish.com Jason Preston

    I believe that was JP Montagnet (eljope on Twitter) who started talking about comic books at The Pitch.

    The funny thing is I subscribe to the Seattle Times in print and most of the time I end up reading a few comics and the front page of the local section – I get the rest of my news from the (gasp) print NYTimes and WSJ.

    I know, I know, I’m an anachronism.

  • http://paulbalcerak.com paulbalcerak

    For what it’s worth, I still own/wear a watch in the age of cell phones and clocks everywhere, so anachronism, schmanackronism.

    I’ve been trying to pin this down for a while, because I don’t hate print—I just can’t think of what would make me like it. I think it really comes down to two things: (1) I’m never at one location long enough to have something delivered to my doorstep every day/week (I usually end up at my apartment, but I’m in and out quick) and (2) I like to read the news with a mind to share what I’ve learned (re: link to it). I just can’t do either of those things with the paper (I guess the first is doable, but I’m a skimmer anyway, so the phone makes so much sense).

    Hence my excitement with something like Wednesday Comics, which gives new use to something I just can’t find or justify any use for right now.

  • http://eatsleeppublish.com Jason Preston

    Heh – I’m a watch guy too ;)

    I actually didn’t read any physical papers until about 5 months ago, when it suddenly occurred to me that I wasn’t really reading any news, period. I find reading most newspaper websites surprisingly distasteful, and when I want to share things, Google works quickly to give me a link.

    I now use the newspaper as an excuse to drag my lazy butt out of bed early enough in the morning to have breakfast.

    The surprising thing is how much I like the experience. Headlines and first graphs are surprisingly informative, when I’m short on time, and reading on paper is more relaxing than opening up my computer first thing in the morning.

    schmanackronism that.

  • http://paulbalcerak.com paulbalcerak

    “I now use the newspaper as an excuse to drag my lazy butt out of bed early enough in the morning to have breakfast. “

    Best argument I’ve heard yet ;)

    Seriously, though, you make good enough points that I’m compelled to try it, but it’d have to be a local, local paper (like the Ballard News-Tribune) and I’d have to get a place with a driveway (my current routine would be: wake up, walk all the way across my building, ride an elevator, walk all the way across my complex, pick up paper, return).