"The New Republic" è imploso, come racconta un lungo pezzo di Ryan Lizza, un insider, sul New Yorker. Una finestra sul giornalismo statunitense contemporaneo. Seleziono due elementi che mi sembrano significativi, e un terzo che mi diverte.
1) Dipendenza dagli inserzionisti.
"Foer had been cheered by the favorable response to an October 9th cover story he wrote arguing that Amazon, which was fighting with the book publisher Hachette, was a monopoly. But on October 27th, three days after the infamous Vidra presentation, Amazon’s ad agency sent T.N.R. an e-mail concerning a campaign for its new political TV show, “Alpha House.” “In light of the cover article about Amazon, Amazon has decided to terminate the Alpha House campaign currently running on The New Republic,” the e-mail said. “Please confirm receipt of this email and that the campaign has been terminated.” It was signed “Team Amazon.”"
2) Incentivi reputazionali.
"“We are not only disruptors and incubators and accelerators,” he said, seemingly mocking the language that Hughes and Vidra often used. “We are also stewards and guardians and trustees.” He went on,“The questions that we must ask ourselves, and that our historians and our children will ask of us, are these: How will what we create compare with what we inherited? Will we add to our tradition or will we subtract from it? Will we enrich it or will we deplete it?”
3) Poesia. Come non provare simpatia per i poveri giornalisti, che si sono dovuti sorbire i powerpoint siliconiani? Alla fine, la fuga deve esser stata una liberazione.
"After Wieseltier resigned, she e-mailed him a poem, inspired by Byron’s “The Destruction of Sennacherib,” that former staffers circulated:
The Siliconian came down like the wolf on the fold,
And his cohorts were gleaming in wireless gold,
Crying Media Company Vertically Integrated!
As all before them they willfully extirpated:
The Back of the Book and the Front and the Middle,
Until all that was left was digital piddle,
And Thought and Word lay dead and cold."
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