The demise of the print media was quite exaggerated about 15 years ago. It became hard to resist the proclamations really, I mean with the rapid growth of electronic communications, the Internet. I can't wait until some nostalgia-prodding histories of the Internet get written.
I got pulled into the brave new world, as it were, by working at the Morris newspaper. Surely a fair number of people still remember that re. me. I get waited on by high school girls at DeToy's who weren't even born when I stepped out of the Sun Tribune building for the last time. So I remind people sometimes.
I gained competency with the Internet in my final years with the paper. So I had the good fortune to be able to carry over that competency to when I launched the next phase of my life.
I watched with interest as various well-known journalists like Michael Wolff saw huge danger signs ahead for print. Wolff might actually be my hero as a journalist/writer. He frees himself from many of the rules and shackles of his craft. He does not always follow the "absolute" standards for accuracy. But wait, isn't it essential to do so? So many say "yes." I would say you have to take risks sometimes, because absolute verification is hard to achieve sometimes.
As an online writer if I write something that turns out to be far afield, I can always correct or "delete." But I don't recall ever having to do that. Michael Wolff still writes the standard paper books. He gains his critics of course, while the veteran guy Bob Woodard churns out books the established way according to norms.
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| Michael Wolff |
So wouldn't the print media collapse like a house of cards? Nothing stays the same indefinitely of course. Naturally we have seen cutbacks with our Morris MN print media. I can proclaim I was part of the salad days of a twice-weekly product with page sizes much larger. I could roll up my sleeves and do so much more than would be offered today.
And ironically the paper has gone through price hikes! But I suppose we can assume people have more money to spend? The arc is always upward, isn't it? Hey I can remember when we caught heck for raising the single copy price from 50 cents to 75 cents!
The newspaper used to have old-fashioned "carriers" around town. It could be quite an imperfect system, ahem. But I guess the price charged by the Post Office for the service was prohibitive? Well, what gives with the carrier system having been ditched for the P.O. now? And with the single copy price having gone through multiple hikes?
Forum Communications of Fargo really wanted to hike the price once and Jim Morrison resisted. I think that's when the Forum wanted to charge "a buck," the way I recall Jim talking about it. A dollar for the Morris paper! Well, what is it now? And everyone just rolls with the punches, just like with food prices! I'm not sniffing any sort of rebellion, at least not yet.
So look at the cost of an Easter buffet any place but DeToy's. DeToy's hangs in there as a more or less middle-class restaurant, bless them. At this stage of my life I have a fair amount of assets, enough to contribute annually to the University of Minnesota Foundation, but I won't even consider going to one of these pricey buffets for Easter!
And yet we'll see a lot of sweet senior couples going in and out the doors of the pricey places, unfazed, unfailingly sweet and smiling. So, maybe DOGE ought to look at Social Security benefits - too generous? I have actually long wondered that.
I remember when Stone's Throw of Morris had an Easter buffet. Why can't that restaurant get going again? I mean, it is all set up. It had a really nice atmosphere. It could have a re-start as a conventional bar/restaurant rather than a social hub for the "NPR crowd." So UMM-oriented folks liked the place. But I did too. Why can't it get a jump-start?
Well here's one theory: the Morris economy is distressed. I read recently that the Morris Theater has become quite stressed, might be challenged for its survival. That's where I saw the movie "Cimarron" starring Glenn Ford back in about 1962. And the same year, "The Longest Day" with John Wayne who told his troops in France that when they encountered the enemy, "send them to hell!" Us kids thought that was naughty language and by the standards of the time, it was.
Dad took me to see the movie "Hatari" with John Wayne set in Africa. I'll never forget how Dad had us leave early because of the romantic storyline. My parents were Victorian. Dad called that part of the movie "Hollywood hash" and he left me no choice but to leave, and I was actually rather upset.
"Hatari" had scenes of Wayne and his partners capturing the wild animals. Did you know that the hippopotamus is actually the most dangerous African animal? Not the "big cats." You don't want to get around a wild chimpanzee. The ones you see in the movies and TV have been drugged and neutered, and even at that I'm sure there are safeguards.
Comeback for ELCA mag!
Whither the print media in 2025? We should not listen to Michael Wolff again. So, this "old" form has in fact found a degree of stability. I got to thinking about this when noticing recently the "comeback" of the ELCA Lutheran print magazine! I was in fact shocked. The magazine had previously been canceled for good, we were told in a ceremonious way in the "final" print edition.
The circumstances have been misleading. You see, the issue may not have been the viability of the print-based media, I think the issue was the viability of the ELCA itself. That's my denomination: First Lutheran Church of Morris.
I was so happy to grab a new copy of the revived "Living Lutheran" magazine. Now we'll see what happens to the church.
Addendum: I certainly saw some Elvis Presley movies when the Morris Theater was in its prime! Bob Collins was the owner. Remember the Elvis movie where Elvis and his partner had the cropdusting plane?
Someday I'd like to see how this movie ends!
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com
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