{"id":1077,"date":"2005-05-02T11:15:01","date_gmt":"2005-05-02T18:15:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp\/2005\/05\/a_tabloid_future\/"},"modified":"2005-05-02T11:15:01","modified_gmt":"2005-05-02T18:15:01","slug":"a_tabloid_future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/2005\/05\/a_tabloid_future.html","title":{"rendered":"A TABLOID FUTURE"},"content":{"rendered":"

The marketing geniuses hired by print publications to promote their
\nimage<\/FONT><\/B><\/A> as an important, lasting medium for advertisers long into the future
\nhave come up with an age-old answer to the threat of extinction from the Web — tabloid
\njournalism. How creative!
\n

<\/P>
\n

<\/A>Have a look at the stories featured on the fake Newsweek
\ncover, right, of March 21, 2095. Besides the cover story about California’s popularity as an island
\noff the North American continent 62 years after the Big Quake and “Clones in the Military: Don’t
\nAsk –Don’t Tell,” the story cover lines read as follows:<\/P>
\n


\n

Politics: The New Demopublicans
Business: Weekends
\nReinstated
Religion: Shanghai on just $50K a Day
Science: Cats Develop 10th
\nLife
Sports: Can Yanks Reverse 100 yr. Curse?<\/BLOCKQUOTE>
\n

<\/P>
\n

The science and sports cover lines really belong to the low-grade mentality of supermarket
\ntabs like News of the World. They long ago infected the newsweeklies with their peculiar fetish
\nfor the occult. But c’mon. A-list advertisers don’t exactly go for News of the World and its ilk.
\nAnd by the way, can anyone enlighten me as to what religion has to do with Shanghai on $50k a
\nday? I have no idea.<\/P>
\n

Here are some other cover lines, according to the Magazine Publishers of America<\/FONT><\/B><\/A>,
\nfrom “faux” covers of the future:<\/P>
\n

Parents:
\n<\/SPAN><\/I>“Pregnant at 75:
\nThe Risks and Rewards”
<\/SPAN><\/FONT><\/FONT>Reader’s
\nDigest<\/SPAN><\/I>: “Androids
\nv. Clones: Where Do You Stand?”
<\/SPAN><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n

Travel +
\nLeisure<\/SPAN><\/I>:
\n“Road-Testing the New Self-Packing Luggage”
<\/SPAN><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

Smithsonian<\/SPAN><\/I>: “Exploring the Beaches of Antarctica”<\/st1:place><\/SPAN><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

<\/st1:place><\/SPAN><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

<\/st1:place><\/SPAN><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

Also, have a look at some other “faux” covers<\/FONT><\/B><\/A> to see what
\nelse may be in store for us from the wonderful world of print. Then check out the cutes-y
\nfuturistic ads. I doubt they’re the answer to circulation woes<\/FONT><\/B><\/A>.<\/P>
\n

Postscript:<\/B> Last time I looked, MSNBC.com was still using words — mostly AP’s
\nand Reuters’s, when not tapping into The Washington Post’s and Newsweek’s or Forbes’s and
\nBusinessweek’s. To believe Jon Friedman’s
\npuff piece<\/FONT><\/B><\/A>, however, you’d think not. You’d think MSNBC.com had
\nre-invented journalism “by using resources other than mere words and still photos.” The site has
\nbeen pushing that PR line for years. Friedman is just sucker enough to fall for it. The top editor
\ntells him, “We have a lot of tools in our toolbox for telling a story.” But reporters and original
\nreporting — what real journalism is all about — don’t count for much in that toolbox, since
\nMSNBC.com is mainly a glorified content aggregator. Friedman has nothing to say about that
\nexcept some hooey on being “liberated from old-fashioned journalism’s usual limitations.”<\/P>
\n

Post-postscript:<\/B> A photo is worth at least several thousand words, says Leon (“He’s Our Calvin Trillin”)<\/FONT><\/B><\/A>
\nFreilich:<\/P>
\n

CHEZ MSNBC<\/STRONG><\/EM>

Words
Are
\nfor the birds.
Photos
Are graphic grab-alls that tell a story with enough color, shading,
\ndesign, depth of field and harmony, all achieved on the cheap, to mesmerize, both within and
\nwithout Kansas, discerning canine buddies of Toto’s.<\/EM><\/P>
\n

Post-post-postscript:<\/B> A reader sends this message as a memo to the MSNBC.com
\nhonchos:<\/P>
\n


\n

Take it from the aggrieved remark of Oscar Hammerstein’s wife: “Richard
\nRogers didn’t write ‘Some Enchanted Evening.’ He wrote ‘La la la la la la.’ Nice, but not the same
\nthing.”<\/BLOCKQUOTE><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The marketing geniuses hired by print publications to promote their image as an important, lasting medium for advertisers long into the future have come up with an age-old answer to the threat of extinction from the Web — tabloid journalism. How creative! Have a look at the stories featured on the fake Newsweek cover, right, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","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":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1077","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-main","7":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbvgEs-hn","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1077","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1077"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1077\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1077"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1077"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1077"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}