From print culture to ‘conversation’
“I am captivated by the story of the rise — and now the fall — of mass media, having devoted my life and career to the institution,” Jeff Jarvis says.
Today the veteran editor, blogger and professor is releasing his next book, “Hot Type: The Magnificent Machine That Gave Birth to Mass Media and Drove Mark Twain Mad.” That machine is the Linotype, “a quirky but brilliant typesetting machine.” I loved imagining a city with dozens of daily newspapers — something the Linotype made possible — and asked Jarvis a bit about it:
– I was struck by the domino effect you describe the Linotype having in the 1890s: The number of papers exploded, there was more to read, Americans became more literate, and so forth. Was this moment the birth of mass media?
Before the mechanization of media was complete – with steam-powered presses, cheap paper made from wood pulp, the telegraph, and the Linotype – the average circulation of a daily newspaper in the U.S. was only 4,000, limited by the power of human muscle to set type and pull the press. The Linotype was critical to bringing scale to publishing.
At the same time, this new industry of mass media had to invent business models to support it. The capitalist villain of my tale, New York Tribune publisher Whitelaw Reid, swore in 1879 that newspapers would never grow past eight pages, as readers would not tolerate more content or advertising. It was a magazine publisher, Frank Munsey, who tried selling his egotistically titled periodical, Munsey’s, for a dime and a loss, betting he would make it up on advertising. Thus was born the business model for publishing at scale: the attention economy that has supported mass media since and now infects the internet.
Following mechanization, publications were thicker with more content and advertising and much larger circulations. But with profitability came consolidation as media moguls and corporations became more powerful. Still, in 1900, New York City boasted 46 daily newspapers. By the 1970s — faced with competition from broadcasting and new technologies — only three were left.
– You reassure readers that “print will not die.” But there’s constant talk about how we’re moving from a written to an oral culture. How do you see it?
Print newspapers and magazines might die, though they can live on digitally. Note that e-books have not superseded print books. Print is all around us. It will not die. It has new company.
Yes, I do think we are entering what media scholars Walter Ong and Marshall McLuhan referred to as a second orality — in essence, a return to the shape of society before Gutenberg, based more on conversation than content. That is the thesis behind The Gutenberg Parenthesis. We see this revived orality not only in radio and TV but also now in podcasts, on YouTube and TikTok.
I see this as a democratization of media. One need no longer be a writer or own a printing press and typesetting machine to find and speak with a public. Only problem is: After five centuries of print culture, society is out of practice with conversation.
CNN commentator Scott Jennings has been at the forefront of attacking Sen. Jon Ossoff over his comment about Trump aide Natalie Harp, including on CNN’s “NewsNight.” New reporting in Politico Playbook this morning suggests it’s part of a public audition to replace Karoline Leavitt.
Would Jennings really want to give up his CNN and Salem Radio salaries for the unforgiving press secretary job? Well, he met with Susie Wiles about the possibility. And NOTUS reports that Trump “is considering a man to prevent comparisons with” Leavitt.
Asked whether he wants the job, Jennings told Playbook: “I don’t have anything to say about that.”
Trump is scheduled to tape an interview today with Michael Cohen, MS NOW’s Jake Traylor and Vaughn Hillyard scooped.
It’s the latest strange turn in the relationship between the two men. The NYT summed it up this way last month: “Michael Cohen helped convict Trump. Now, he’s making nice again.”
Cohen says parts of the interview will air tonight on WABC, where he hosts a Sunday evening show, with more to come on that show this weekend…
One day after WaPo’s Liam Scott reported that Stars and Stripes’ longtime publisher Max Lederer planned to retire at the end of September, Jennifer Jacobs scooped for CBS that Pentagon officials “have discussed firing” Lederer “before his scheduled retirement.”
A punitive measure, in other words, and maybe a way to send a broader message. In Lederer’s resignation email to staff, he said it “has become clear that my philosophy of leadership, and my understanding of the value and mission of Stars and Stripes, differ in fundamental ways from the direction the leadership of the Department of Defense has for the organization.” The military publication’s editorial independence is clearly at risk. Relatedly…
The NYT’s Elisabeth Bumiller is out with a revealing story about Jennifer Hegseth and “her hands-on role in her husband’s Pentagon.”
Jennifer and Pete Hegseth met at Fox News, where she worked for 18 years. “She is now her husband’s most influential adviser and de facto producer, shaping the job like no Pentagon spouse has before,” Bumiller writes.
Among her contributions: Encouraging battles with the media. “Once Mr. Hegseth was in office, Mrs. Hegseth was eager to revoke the credentials of Pentagon reporters who she felt had written negative stories about her husband,” Bumiller reports, citing sources. Here’s a gift link to the full story…
>> Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan’s “Regime Change” just notched an astonishing eighth week at #1 on the NYT bestseller list. (X)
>> Sean Duffy’s donor-financed show, “The Great American Road Trip,” is finally out after months of delays. As I said on “CNN News Central” this morning, the YouTube view count is very low so far. (CNN)
>> A team of WaPo reporters compiled a detailed look at “the biggest changes Kennedy Center leaders are planning for the arts building.” (WaPo)
>> They’re also planning to add Trump’s name “back to the front of its building in early September,” Devan Cole reports. (CNN)
>> An Army unit is offering a four-day pass to play the new “Grand Theft Auto VI” as a “reenlistment incentive.” (CBS News)
>> Charlotte Klein spoke with sources throughout CBS for a recap of the “60 Minutes” conflicts. Unfortunately for Bari Weiss, she writes, much-needed innovations to the broadcast “have so far been totally eclipsed by her dysfunctional relationship with her new employees.” (NY Mag)
>> Jeremy Barr FOIA’ed documents that shed light on “close coordination” between Brendan Carr, the White House and right-wing media. Among the revelations: Undisclosed meetings with Lachlan Murdoch and Sinclair boss David Smith. (The Guardian)
>> Aidan McLaughlin profiled Lauren Sherman for Vanity Fair’s Style issue, detailing how she built her Line Sheet fashion newsletter into one of Puck’s most profitable franchises. (VF)
California AG Rob Bonta is highlighting a new study prepared for the LA County Department of Economic Opportunity showing that the Paramount–WBD merger “could result in the loss of nearly 4,500 film and TV jobs” in the county over the next three years.
“As I have said repeatedly, the proposed unlawful Paramount–Warner Brothers merger will lead to significant job loss and massive damage to the economy,” Bonta wrote on X.
A Paramount rep told Variety that the LA County study “underscores what we have been saying all along: our industry is in decline, production is down and jobs are being lost — and lost for good if we don’t act.”
>> Politico’s Daniel Miller noted this “litigation calendar news” from yesterday: “Judge Araceli Martinez-Olguin will hold a hearing on Paramount’s request for a $1.88 billion bond on Sept. 24. A week later, on Oct. 1, Paramount must begin paying about $7 million a day in penalties if the deal hasn’t closed by then.”
“I truly am sorry for the mistakes I made,” Ross Barkan wrote in a statement yesterday after several days of worsening stories about plagiarism in his past. He said none of the mistakes were “willful or intentional,” and apologized to the “journalists whose work I did not properly cite.”
Barkan said he’s taking a break from writing professionally and told the NYT’s Ben Mullin that he intends to use that hiatus to “self-reflect on how my conduct on the internet, on Twitter, on email, is not what it should be.”
Conservative radio host and OutKick founder Clay Travis announced his new sports media venture, Sport & State, with a candid intro column that explains his approach to the business.
Essentially, the website and shows will be a content funnel to promote his non-media businesses. “I will either own outright or own substantial percentages of all the advertisers on this platform at our launch,” like his law firm and a coffee startup, he wrote…
“Azerbaijan is taking CNN to court over the network’s reporting on the Iran war, accusing the news organization of falsely linking the country to Israeli military operations against its neighbor,” TheWrap’s A.J. Katz reports.
A CNN spokesperson said, “We stand by our reporting.” And Katz says the case is “raising the question of whether a foreign sovereignty can sue an American news organization for libel in the first place…”
>> Charter “has completed its acquisitions of Cox Communications and John Malone’s Liberty Broadband, creating a new cable powerhouse,” Georg Szalai reports. Charter CEO Chris Winfrey will hold a press conference call later today. (THR)
>> MS NOW “will launch a membership program next month.” Max Tani says the network “is leaning more into the parasocial relationship its fans feel with its journalists.” (Semafor)
>> Rosie O’Donnell’s first night subbing for Jimmy Kimmel drew the “biggest audience for any of Kimmel’s guest hosts so far this summer,” enough “to beat NBC’s ‘Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon,’” Jed Rosenzweig writes. (LateNighter)
YouTube “is offering millions of dollars to popular channels if they upload their videos to the site exclusively for a certain period of time, in an effort to halt Netflix’s pursuit of its biggest stars,” Bloomberg’s Lucas Shaw reports. “The payment would come in a couple of different forms,” Shaw writes, with YouTube having discussed “directly financing some programs, and it has also offered to allot a portion of major brand deals to creators.”
Looking ahead to this weekend, “Insidious: Out of the Further” is opening wide, “likely enough for second place on North American charts,” Variety’s Rebecca Rubin writes. But “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” should “retain the No. 1 spot in its fourth weekend.”
On Wednesday, the Spidey movie “crossed $800 million domestically after 19 days, the fastest film to hit the milestone and fourth movie ever to do so,” Rubin adds.
This edition of Reliable Sources was edited by Andrew Kirell and produced with Liam Reilly. Email us your feedback and tips here.