Big newspapers != the newspaper industry

Yet another pundit (Megan McArdle, this time) makes a fairly basic mistake when discussing the health of the newspaper industry:

The circulation figures for the top 25 dailies in the US are out, and they’re horrifying. The median decline is well into the teens; only the Wall Street Journal gained (very slightly).

I think we’re witnessing the end of the newspaper business, full stop, not the end of the newspaper business as we know it. The economics just aren’t there.

Maybe, maybe not. (I suspect she’s right, to an extent.) Except, Megan, the top 25 newspapers are not the newspaper industry. In an era where we can get our state, national, international, sports and entertainment news practically anywhere on the Internet, you’re right that there doesn’t seem to be a place for the one-size-fits-all newspaper that tells you about everything from the local school board meeting to what the president ate for breakfast.

Fortunately, that’s not the only sort of newspaper out there. Small newspapers are the majority of papers out there, and while some of them are being dragged under because they’re chained to failing large metro daily dinosaurs, most of them are doing fine.

If, say, the Atlanta Journal Constitution were to go out of business (at least in its current form), it’s unlikely the residents of Atlanta, the suburbs and surrounding towns and cities would say “well, I guess that’s it for news.” It’s also unlikely that local television or radio will take over for everything the paper covers. (Not only is broadcast news not well set up for covering a lot of the kind of stuff print media covers, it’s in worse shape than print journalism; they just don’t talk about it in public the same way as the print folks do.)

Instead, just as new growth springs up in the forest once a mighty tree goes down, new media outlets (some of them “new media,” others print products) will spring up in their place, living off the now freed-up advertising revenue and scooping up many of the now-unemployed AJC veterans.

Truthfully, this isn’t a bad thing. There may be people who don’t get any news from the radio, television or Internet, and rely on their local newspaper for 100 percent of their information, but the four or five of them in the country will adapt.

There is a future in the newspaper industry, just not in the newspaper as a one-stop-news-shopping outlet industry. It would be great if more pundits realized this and helped shift the industry’s focus, rather than insisting that the past model is the only one that matters.

(Via Olga Khazan.)

The return of SpyroHints.com

The domain name has been restored and so SpyroHints.com is back. Commence your PS1 game playing.

30 Rock’s Scott Adsit on goal-setting

I don’t even watch 30 Rock (I know, I know), but this quote jumped out at me: “If you’re a young actor and you want to make a living, don’t learn to do anything else. If you have something to fall back on, you will.”

Hear the rest here:

Tamale Pie

This recipe originally came to me via an article I wrote for the Star in December 2005, but it didn’t make the jump to the new Web site when it launched a year and a half later. (Sharon and I were frantically getting as many animals into the ark as possible, but recipes were low on the list, and got left behind.)

The recipe is now a favorite in our family. Jenn is more generous with the chili powder, garlic and cheese than Cora was, but here’s the original to use as a basis for your own cooking:

Cora Flores’ Tamale Pie

1 cup of cornmeal
4 cups of water
2 tablespoons butter or margarine
2 teaspoons of salt
2 tablespoons olive oil or vegetable oil
1 large onion, chopped (1 cup)
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 pound ground beef, pork or chicken
1 can of kidney beans, drained
1 can of whole corn, drained
2 8 ounce cans of tomato sauce
2 teaspoons of chili powder
1/2 teaspoon of pepper
Shredded cheddar or Monterey Jack cheese (for topping)

Blend cornmeal and one cup of water in a bowl until smooth.

Bring the three remaining cups of water, butter and one teaspoon of salt to a boil in a medium-sized saucepan, stirring constantly and gradually adding cornmeal mixture.

Cook, stirring often, until thick. Cover and set the mixture aside.

In a large frying pan, heat the oil and add onion and garlic. Sauté them over low heat for five minutes. Brown the ground meat, breaking meat up with a fork as it cooks.

Stir in beans, corn, tomato sauce, chili powder, remaining salt and pepper. Heat to boiling. Reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes.

Line the bottom and sides of a 12″ by 8″ by 2″ with half of the cooked cornmeal. Pour the hot meat mixture on top of the cornmeal. Top with the remaining cornmeal. Sprinkle with Monterey Jack or cheddar cheese.

Bake at 350 degrees for 50 to 60 minutes or until the filling is bubbly hot.

The original article, detailing the recipe’s origins, after the jump.

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SpyroHints.com will be right back

Yes, I let the domain name registration for SpyroHints.com lapse. This was an oversight, and next paycheck, I’ll be reactivating it.

If you are looking for hints for the Spyro series of Playstation games in the meantime, you can still access the site at lby3.com/spyro.

I apologize for the inconvenience.