By Chris Daly
So often, the field of media criticism/analysis partakes of the spirit of sports journalism. If you watch ESPN a lot, you realize that most of the people on the screen have a very specific skill set: the ability to make bold, provocative statements about the near future. (There is a similar skill set involved in politics and military analysis, too.)
I will admit that this is an activity I am not very good at, so I will not try. Instead, I take a more agnostic and empirical approach (more in keeping, I think, with the genius of journalism and history, which are essentially backward-looking enterprises). I am applying it now to the NY Times newly announced pay-for-news plan.
To its credit, the paper has started covering the issue a bit better, including a piece today.
Some of those people who are gifted with knowledge of the future are already weighing, as here.
I say: let’s get some data first, then try to figure out what it means.
Until then, I must say I wish the Times good luck in figuring this out.
NYT publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. last week.
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Prof Chris Daly's Blog 