Inside the newsroom

A leader of the ‘democratization of printing and publishing’ is gone

A shining light from the early days of personal computing died last month. Paul Brainerd, the creator of the page layout program Pagemaker, was 78.

Brainerd is likely an unfamiliar name to most people, but his contribution unleashed capabilities and opportunities for untold numbers of communities and computer users … including me.

^{March 26, 2026}

A fraught time for punctuation

I’ve tried to accept with equanimity the rise of the exclamation point, formerly a bit player on the grammatical stage. I’ve long lived with the hostility some serious writers have toward the semicolon, although it baffles me and hurts my heart. But now I’m hearing that the em dash, that workhorse of the emphasized phrase, is seen as evidence of A.I. writing.

Stop. Just stop. (Or, I suppose: Stop — just stop.)

^{Dec. 4, 2025}

‘Drop dead’: a 50-year-old headline still has something to say

Journalists of a certain age well remember Oct. 30, 1975, when the New York Daily News led with President Gerald Ford’s announcement that he would not support federal assistance for the then-struggling city: “Ford to City: Drop Dead.” With its brash, pitch-perfect tabloid attitude, the headline homes in on a truth with ruthless economy of language.

A half-century later, is there still a lesson in that? Mountains of words have been written about what the nation is enduring, but no mainstream coverage says the Constitution has been told repeatedly to drop dead. Many, many trees get covered, but never the mention of a forest afire.

^{Nov. 6, 2025}

Ms. Sweeney, we weren’t expecting you here

The American Eagle ad campaign featuring Sydney Sweeney and her “good jeans” encountered some pushback on social media, which was then elevated by commentary on the MSNBC site. That might have been the end of it. But our news ecosystem, with financial goals that mirror those of a carnival barker, is not designed for that. Enter Fox News.

^{Aug. 5, 2025}

Wanted (needed): a new model for news

What if the problem with the news business is the news itself? For all the hand-wringing and lamentations, the unavoidable truth is that many people have stopped buying news products. Half of all newspaper subscribers have vanished in the past 15 years.

^{Sept. 14, 2021}

What if the press delivered the news people actually need?

Despite the recent election-driven revenue gains for the largest organizations, the landscape facing the news media remains perilous. Saddled with a teetering business model, a skeptical public and a hostile president, the press is groping for a clear path to the future.

^{Feb. 17, 2017}