Newspaper bashers' motives questioned

In a commentary at Editor & Publisher, Randy Siegel, president of Parade Publications, questions the motives of some prominent critics of newspapers, including some who we've liked to here. While a bit self-serving (Siegel is co-founder of the Newspaper Project), it still points out some blatant conflicts of interest. For example, the list of 10 newspapers most likely to fail soon run on Time magazine's site was written not by a Time staffer but one at a Wall Street company specializing in stock market tips, Siegel says. Another critic, he says, is building a cottage industry out of speeches, articles and books describing the impending doom of newspapers. As in the previous item, it's not to say the critics are wrong, but for new media to have any credibility, it had better start giving us some ability to determine whether writers have conflicts.