The Internet's indiscriminate promise to give everyone's voice a channel is forcing traditional media to try whatever it can to keep the paychecks flowing. But one octogenarian veteran of dead-trees-media says she's had her fill.
Liz Smith tells the New York Times in an article today that the approach she has taken toward gossip over three decades probably wouldn't land her a job in the current kidney-punching environment of modern blogs. Her editor, Col Allan, agreed, the Times reported: "It's rare for a successful columnist not to have a mean streak and she doesn't have a mean streak... These days it would be difficult to carve out a position for yourself without that, partly because people look for it."
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Smith lamented to the Times that there are "so many places to get the down and dirty, I don't even try ... With the whole world writing gossip, where is the place for the professional gossip?" She also said that she reads six newspapers a day but leaves the blogs behind. "I only have a few years left to live, and I don't have time for them," she said. "Besides, I don't believe them."
The 82-year-old Smith made such a name for herself over the years that she's the gossip-of-choice for many stars, making Smith privy to Nicole Kidman's eating habits and Lauren Bacall's latest dip into public life with her memoirs, the Times reported. But Allan and others note that her lack of "edge" makes her less preferable to young readers than "interchangeable mass market magazines and faceless blogs." MSNBC gossip Jeannette Walls added that Smith's decision "not to exist on schadenfreude" is something that would not get her very far in 2005.
The Times also interviewed Ann Gerhart, who co-wrote The Reliable Source column at The Washington Post from 1995 to 1999: "The Internet and blogs have returned gossip to its earliest human roots -- the kind of gossip that the priests told you was a venal sin," said Ms. Gerhart. "You can make it up. You can speculate wildly. You can accuse people of the most taboo practices, all in this sort of merry way."
Smith's lead item in her column today falls short in the dirt quotient, since one tidbit seems to be based entirely on the TV listings -- "FLASH! Today and tomorrow on Oprah, you can catch two of the most gossiped-about women in the world -- Priscilla Presley and daughter Lisa Marie! Both talk candidly about Elvis, Michael, their careers, their loves." This could have gone to press in 1985 as well as 2005, but she managed to slip in one reference to the 21st century in the next sentence: "If you can't get to a TV in mid-afternoon, this is one for your TiVo." Not too shabby for an 82-year-old.
The Day the Music Died?
While Smith readies herself for embalming in newsprint, Clear Channel is trying to shake a little sand out of its shoes by podcasting clips from its radio shows, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.
"Clear Channel's podcasting initiative will begin by May. The company will allow listeners to download programming such as comedy skits by popular morning show hosts. But music programming, which involves complicated licensing and royalty issues, won't be included in the podcasts. Podcasting in general is focused mostly on talk-radio formats."
The company also is kicking off a weekly concert series called "Stripped" that will feature live, free online shows by musicians such as Rob Thomas from the band Matchbox 20, as well as John Legend, Jesse McCartney and Gavin DeGraw. (Note that National Public Radio beat Clear Channel here with last weekend's live Internet broadcast of a concert by the band Interpol at DC's 9:30 Club) "The artists will perform free to promote their albums, Clear Channel said. Where appropriate, local radio stations will be encouraged to promote the online concert on the air and on their Web sites, it said," the Journal reported.
Clear Channel Internet chief Evan Harrison said the effort is designed to "create a stronger relationship with the listener and the advertiser." But what about the music? Oh right, that's not what this is about.
