Being an industry insider I run the risk of appearing to be biased or simply critical of ?colleagues?: I shall take that chance. Am I alone in thinking that the news media has become boring, bland and predictable?
Leaving aside each newspaper?s politics the success of the more popular newspapers is still based on (mildly) challenging new topics; interesting, inspiring or controversial columnists and journalists.
But too many of today?s editors seem to be afraid of pushing boundaries or challenging the status quo. I cannot think of a single columnist these days ? okay, John Pilger, Richard Littlejohn (poking fun) and a couple of others ? but no Peter Simples or Simon Heffers to raise our hackles, enlighten us, challenge our way of thinking, to tickle us with controversy.
The local freebies are the worst. I know they couldn?t survive without advertising, which is fair enough. But can?t this be complementary to columnists who will push the boundaries and challenge orthodoxy?
People buy or otherwise take newspapers because they want the news in a format they are comfortable with, and which likely best reflect their own views. They certainly don?t buy them for the advertisements.
My locals are now just page after boring page bland advertisements, broken occasionally by news of events that are of little interest except to participants. The columnists tend to be so ?on message? their purpose can only be to assist insomniacs in dropping off. Right, rant over. Let?s ask the audience.
