Quotable: Losing hold by holding on


“What’s long held back the newspaper industry and gotten it in the
current mess has been holding back online innovation that might impact
the legacy product (print). The kind of serious innovation that might
have avoided the turmoil we’re now seeing among newspapers (especially
larger metros like the Inquirer) could only take place with an attitude
of “Let’s completely forget about the print edition and just try to
build the best damn online service possible.”

“But the industry didn’t do that, for the most part, instead settling
for incremental innovation that wouldn’t upset things too much on the
legacy side. That’s exactly the thinking that’s in this Inquirer memo.”

— Steve Outing responding to a memo by the Philadelphia Inquirer’s managing editor about what content will be held for print.

Jeff Jarvis had a quick reaction as well to the memo.

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