Newspapering is so old, and its chief champions are fusty enough that it’s easy to set aside its histories as the relics of an extinct industry — like beeper sales or switchboard operation.
But 20th century newspapers weren’t just a light-manufacturing industry. This trade developed how we gather and distribute news and information in ways that shape us today. That’s my continued interest in the “invention of the news,” and its many histories.
One of the most influential publications in shaping today’s information ecosystem was that century’s Wall Street Journal, and its longtime leader Barney Kilgore. It’s worth reviewing their origins.
That’s the focus of Restless Genius : Barney Kilgore, the Wall Street Journal, and the Invention of Modern Journalism, a 2009 book written by Harvard-trained lawyer Richard Tofel, who became ProPublica’s founding general manager. Today he is a thoughtful, and prolific journalism commentator.
Though I follow Tofel’s writing, I hadn’t read this particular book yet. It reads primarily as a history of the Wall Street Journal, and this one particular leader, but there are more lasting lessons Tofel draws. It’s still worth reading.
The broadest reading: High-quality news and information can be assembled into a product that solves clear enough problems for people to spend money on.
After the peak of Gilded Age “yellow journalism“, many modern journalistic standards were established in the 20th century. This mass-media era developed a positively-reinforcing dual incentive: quality was a distinction, especially first in business news, that attracted paying subscribers, who were valuable and hard-to-reach enough that advertising was lucrative, which in turn justified more investment in news gathering and product quality. That particular bundle was famously disrupted by various internet-enabled platforms, but the lessons remains true. Tofel helped lead a ProPublica team that attracted philanthropic and reader-donors. National and business media have also had success with new subscriber models, many newsrooms today have robust event strategies that differently package their news. In our own way, my news organization Technical.ly has come out of the pandemic selling our reporting as a service that addresses a communication gap that economic development faces (which has required entirely new language, which other journalists often sniffle at). Plenty other examples exist, and more to come.
Below my notes for future reference.
Continue reading The invention of modern journalism
