So says Steven Rattner, managing principal of Quadrangle Group in this interview with the Financial Times. Rattner’s insight is worth reading. The interview contains this quote from Rattner:
I personally believe that fundamentally the problem is a changing appetite for news on the part of consumers, for the worse. And its something that I feel very sad about, because the fact that people are more interested in whether Britney Spears shaves her head and goes into alcohol rehab, or what is happening at Guantanamo Bay, really is troubling to me.
Of course, Rattner is speaking from a US perspective. My view is we are better served by newspapers here than in the US. While we do have a strong tabloid press, we also have a robust more serious press – just look at the on going campaign by The Age about the plight of David Hicks.
The ‘changing appetite for news’ Rattner mentions is nothing new. In the late 1800s, Alfred Harmsworth (aka Lord Northcliffe) at the helm of the “Daily Mail” revolutionized the newspaper publishing industry by appealing to the less-refined tastes of the masses. Here’s an excerpt from his biography, written by Hamilton Fyfe (Northcliffe: an Intimate Biography, 1930) —
“He knew what the mass of newspaper-readers wanted, and he gave it to them. He broke down the dignified idea that the conductors of newspapers should appeal to the intelligent few. He frankly appealed to the unintelligent many. Not in a cycnical spirit, not with any feeling of contempt for their tastes; but because on the whole he had more sympathy with them than with the others, and because they were as the sands of the sea in numbers… The best people did read the ‘Daily Mail’. It was now seen in first-class railway compartments as much as in third-class. It had made its way from the kitchen and the butler’s pantry of the big country house up to the hall table.”
In addition to the softer news articles, Lord Northcliffe’s newspaper emphasized sport and human interest stories, included articles and sections for women, and introduced serials.