“Hell hath no fury like a reporter deleted,” writes Thomas Crampton, former reporter for the International Herald Tribune and The New York Times, in a scathing letter to the New York Times publisher today.
Apparently, when the NY Times online merged with IHT’s website, they redirected IHT to the nytimes.com global homepage, essentially removing IHT’s archives — and in a way “deleting” Crampton’s portfolio (from these specific sites) of stories he’s written over the years. In his own words:
On a personal level I am horrified that I can no longer see all my stories. The IHT logo on this blog used to link to a search of the IHT website for my articles. On a professional level, I am appalled that the NY Times would kill all the links back to the IHT website. Imagine the power of combining two sites with a Google rank of 9 instead of killing one.
If you’re in the business of news media, you’ve had an interesting week. Between The Boston Globe’s imminent threat of getting shut down, to the launch of the new Kindle, to the “Future of Journalism” Senate hearings, the tension between old media (read: traditional newspapers) and new media (online content) seems to be reaching a boiling point. In short, newspapers are afraid of getting cannibalized by the online industry due to fast-shifting business models and changing ways in which people are consuming news.
There’s much fodder for discussion in this debate (or futile fight against a fast-paced evolution), which I’ll discuss in a future post. But let’s focus on Crampton for a moment. The interesting thing here is that he built his career portfolio online, so he’s outraged that one day, it can just — poof — disappear.
One of the bi-products of moving news online (with pretty much everything else) is a reliance on our digital trail as a proof of history — and thus an inherent assignment of power to those who own the means to publishing that trail. This isn’t a necessarily bad thing; in fact, digital publishing makes it easier for us to store the same content in different places for safekeeping (the flip side of which, of course, is piracy). But it’s something to keep in mind as we continue to move forward.
[photo: Flickr/Mi azzardo a vivere°]
Tags: International Herald Tribune, kindle, New York Times, nytimes.com, The Boston Globe
I worry everyday that this said cloud will collide with another cloud and my data will be washed away in the storm.
Where will you store your important personal data in the future? How long will you be able to view your photos on Flickr before one of their servers dies? Will you be able to search and index your tweets down the road?
It’s scary to think about. Good post.
@Andrew
Yes, I live in fear of that too. The added twist of what happened to me at the NY Times is that they own the articles, so I am fully reliant on their policies and actions – unable to control or affect what happens.
Thomas – have you heard back from the NY Times on the matter?
Good stuff. Interesting to think about…
I did a show about the Changing Face of Journalism and another one about Media Archiving on my show No One’s Listening. They might interest you as it relates to your piece.
Changing Face of Journalism
http://www.nooneslistening.org/guide/show.php?id=13
Media Archives
http://www.nooneslistening.org/guide/show.php?id=17
Love
Irene Baratz
I print out and make photocopies of your blog. I keep some safely taped to my fridge and the rest I store in a water proof/fire proof safe. Additionally, I have a backup harddrive that I use to store copies of all your Twitters and Facebook status updates. I have a backup of that backup stored somewhere out of state. Your work will never be lost with me around.
Love
Iene Baratz
Thanks, Andrew and Irene “Baratz” (aka the lovely Irene McGee, host of Noone’s Listening).
@Irene: Looks like I can gain a whole new family member in the cloud! The cloud giveth, and the cloud taketh away.
[...] included Boing Boing, MyPhillyNetwork, Phiforfools, a site called “The NYTpicker” (They only writes about the NY Times) as well as TIME [...]
No, I have never heard back from the NY Times on this. I don’t know if they monitor social media.
I did, however, compile some other horror stories that people have told me subsequent to my first posting:
http://www.thomascrampton.com/media/why-do-publishers-nuke-themselves-online-an-opportunity/
going through the discussion, one cannot avoid the feeling that we are in danger of losing all the work and art we so painfully accumulated.
For sure civilization wil not be the same.
Or will it?
Only fifty years ago, we were careful to keep and store for ourselves what was important to us.
no collapsing corporation could take it away, and yet civilization flourished.
We transfered the trust of keeping and maintaing our data from ourselves to others, and the safekeeping of our stuff depended on the financial health of some company that we might not have even known the name of.
maybe it’s time to go back to the future.