The Tennesseean (Or, Brian Haas et al have left the building)

[hipower]

Yes. The almost instant communication provided by the glorious World Wide Web, and the rapidly increasing number of more and better phone technology, has quite literally brought the world to our doorsteps in real time.

Not sure that it has been all for the best though.

[E4 No More]

No offense intended towards Brian, but flushing this toilet doesn't matter because some other turds will just occupy the empty space.

[Lumber_Jack]

Hey guys!

I'm still around and definitely no "victim" in this case (I'm not a fan of that label even if I were one). As someone else has pointed out, I am indeed now Public Information Officer for the Nashville Fire Department.

It was a good move for me and I'm excited to be here. The timing was right, the job was right and I'm already really enjoying it.

(And, for the record, our chief at the department is an avid shooter!)

-Brian

EDIT: I forgot to mention the only downside of this job so far... I had to shave the tactical beard.

Shed a tear for a beard.

Sorry to hear about the beard. I hate to see good facial hair cut down in its prime. True shame. Maybe we can dream of a day when a man isn't forced to go beardless in the name of professionalism. Fight the power

[MacGyver]

There is such a market for a print edition, local paper! There is intrinsic worth in sitting down with a paper and a cup of coffee that delivers exposure to the reader in a way that the Balkanized worlds that we create for ourselves online will simply have a hard time competing with. As a reader, I should be able to sit down with my local paper and see both stories that are of interest to me as well as a variety of stories that I have not been exposed to, yet.

The problem with Gannett, E.W. Scripps, et al is that they've turned these local papers into financial instruments that are designed to deliver value to shareholders instead of delivering value to their readers. The reason I quit subscribing to the Tennessean when it was still $0.35 was that I realized I could pick up a copy of the Tennessean, The Jacksonville Sun-Times, The New Orleans Times Picayune, The Atlanta Journal Constitution, etc... and essentially read the same paper. The management of these papers mistakenly thought that they could become rebroadcast services for the Associated Press, Reuters and UPI and that no one would notice. They replaced local knowledge with syndicated content and fundamentally misjudged the value that they brought to their readers.

It's probably too late for these companies. The newspaper of the future is going to have to support a business model that doesn't depend on classifieds, obituaries and ad circulars. Bruce Dobie is going to have to answer these questions with his experiment with the Nashville Banner. I hope some of the staff of the former Metro Pulse in Knoxville can find a vehicle to answer some of those questions as well.

I spend several hundred dollars a year on a print subcription to the Wall Street Journal. I have online access as well, but that's not the primary method I use to interact with that publication. I would love nothing more than to replace that subscription with a daily local paper of value. I hope someone will take me up on that.

Brian, I appreciated the voice that you and several others brought to the Tennessean, and I respect you guys for hanging on as long as you did. Good luck and Godspeed in you new endeavor. Don't be a stranger!