{"id":344,"date":"2009-03-18T08:49:28","date_gmt":"2009-03-18T15:49:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp\/2009\/03\/the_mass_disperses\/"},"modified":"2009-03-18T08:49:28","modified_gmt":"2009-03-18T15:49:28","slug":"the_mass_disperses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/2009\/03\/the_mass_disperses.html","title":{"rendered":"The mass disperses"},"content":{"rendered":"

I hail from a newspaper, now gone, although it continues online<\/a>. I wish it well, although I wouldn’t want to be part of it. The job is to do everything at once – 20 people (give or take) on a 24-hour news cycle. <\/p>\n

The pace of the old PI, which I considered brisk, now looks plodding. Three editors looked at everything on its day-long journey toward print. Blogs at the paper were a different story. One editor took a fast look, usually after the item was printed.<\/p>\n

When I started blogging a couple of years ago, the prospect of that fast read intimidated me. As I like to say, misquoting Sir Thomas Wyatt<\/a>, facts flee from me. Everybody benefits from another set of eyes evaluating the product, I more than most.<\/p>\n

What I discovered online was reassuring. I’d traded three editors for many more. If something’s wrong, readers say so in the comments, email me or call. I hope on this blog, they will continue the practice, even though comments are not immediately posted. I have to look at them first, and I’m already behind.<\/p>\n

Doug McLennan, AJ editor, told me to start Another Bouncing Ball<\/i> with a piece about the transition from the PI to freelance art critic. This is it. It’s not the start, but it’s close enough. Those who want more from me on the PI’s demise can find it in The Stranger<\/i> (here<\/a> and here<\/a>) and the Columbia Journalism Review<\/a><\/i>.  The CJR<\/i> quote has the virtue of being brief:<\/p>\n

The Hearst Corporation has always treated the P-I<\/i> like a
\nplaceholder. When there was money to be spent, they didn’t spend it
\nhere. This is the time to invent the template for the transition from
\nnewsprint to online only, and once again, the Hearst Corporation is
\ndoing it bare bones. A skeleton looks plump compared to poorly-paid
\nonline crew. I wish it well, but those people have a near-impossible
\ntask. The future according to the Hearst Corporation seems to be,
\njournalism without journalists.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I should have added that Hearst has always treated me and mine well. The PI was a great place to work. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I hail from a newspaper, now gone, although it continues online. I wish it well, although I wouldn’t want to be part of it. The job is to do everything at once – 20 people (give or take) on a 24-hour news cycle. The pace of the old PI, which I considered brisk, now looks […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-344","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=344"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}