Dying Mercury News

We've been reading and lamenting about the death of traditional newspapers for awhile now, a major blow when people began to realize the power of RSS and Craigs List entered the game.

For those of us in Silicon Valley, we've been slowly watching the death of two "media" institutions that have been the backbone for news in northern California for as long as I can remember.

It gets personal when not only do you watch an entire industry crumble before your eyes, but people's lives as well -- those who have served at these papers for a decade or more and before that, another paper elsewhere in the country. Now what?

Change with the times of course, but that's easier said than done for those who are used to a network of seasoned writers who have been professionally trained in "journalism school," or by mentors they deem the media greats of their time.

While traditional media outlets crash around us, the new media folks are off "having conversations," traditional journalists are either blogging for blog and social networks, writing white papers, or editing journals. Others are moving into product management, marketing and PR positions inside companies and at larger agencies who can use their skillset.

I still remember my early PR years when I worked at traditional agencies in New England. We'd trek out west, rent a car and head over to Ridder Drive to see Dan Gillmor and Mike Langberg and whoever else was around in the early to mid-nineties.

Lately, I have watched countless people -- many of them friends -- leave the Chronicle and the Merc News, most recently Dean Takahashi and Mike Bazeley. Bazeley now blogs over at Media Grunt, where he wrote about the inevitable and sad demise of the paper.  He referred to it as its obituary.

The piece is melancholy, wistful and full of history from his 11 year stint.  He feels that there's no recovery from the next round of layoffs, where they will continue to "get rid of union representation so they can bring salaries and benefits down to the substandard wages they are paying at their non-union papers."

Innovation has been gone for awhile now, coverage is no longer substantive, morale is so low that its no wonder anyone is left and more than one gathering has lamented on the loss of something that really held its own in a competitive market. For technology innovation, we looked to the SJ Merc News FROM BOSTON in its heyday.

Not anymore and not in a long time. Mike points out that the paper has been "rudderless" for some time, with the last executive who tried to communicate a real vision for the newsroom being David Yarnold. Whatever happened to him?

The biggest problem has been and continues to be that the 'old guard' is not willing to embrace the 'new guard' and the online world in a way that will accelerate readership growth and interest from existing and potential advertisers.