Black, White & Read All Over

I have spent my entire career weathering the vicissitudes of the media game—from classified ad-eating Craigslist in the early internet to paywall snafus (“information wants to be free—oops”) to the algorithmic siphonings of social media, Big Tech’s annexation of advertising and the ever-receding mirage of the creator economy.

Some will argue the future has never looked bleaker for the rag-and-bone shop of journalism. I’m not so sure.

One of the peculiar quirks of the alternative newsweekly trade is that our print day—Wednesday—arrives fashionably late to the party. By the time ink hits paper, the news cycle has already burned through several outrages, issued corrections or excoriations, and moved on to the next big thing.

Between this writing and your reading, something ridiculous and existentially irresponsible will have emanated from Washington. Ditto an apocalyptic innovation courtesy of Silicon Valley, whilst Hollywood laments and lauds its demise and rebirth in a single breath, and …