Media Criticism

James O’Shea was fired this weekend by the Tribune Company over a budget dispute at the Los Angeles Times. This bit of information should not be news to anyone who has read Yahoo headlines, the Associated Press accounts or any other online newspaper in the last 24 hours. The reason why O’Shea’s dismissal from the head position at the Times is more telling than the headlines would indicate.

It is true that O’Shea could have saved his job if he had adhered quietly to the budget requirements set out by the Tribune Company’s budget mongers. It is also true that O’Shea is the third editor in three years to have left the newspaper in some capacity due to the budget. The problem with O’Shea and other editors leaving the major newspaper in one of the biggest media markets in North America is that it portends the demise of the daily newspaper.

This isn’t a eulogy for dailies by any means. There will always be a place for the Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post and other dailies in the hands of a select minority. The problem for earnest journalists like O’Shea is that the Internet’s ability to create eyewitness accounts of situations without the filter of the discerning journalist means that budget problems will only get worse. If a company like the Tribune Company with all of its resources cannot turn the Times around, imagine what community publishers won’t be able to do as the Internet cuts out larger chunks of their audiences.

I think that James O’Shea will land on his feet someplace with a stable, if smaller, budget while the Tribune Company will find a veteran editor looking for a pay raise for the top spot. While both sides will end up fine in the near future, media consumers will need to choose between low-budget Internet sites and high-budget (read: expensive) newspapers that may be outdated by the time they sit down for a quick read. We are in the middle of a difficult situation in the media but it looks like O’Shea’s firing won’t be an anomaly as publishers look for editors willing to sacrifice journalistic integrity for a tight budget.