“Hi, I’m Art Buchwald, and I just died,” the late columnist boomed from a video posted last Thursday on the Times web site, just minutes after his death was announced….
In the four-part segment, the Pulitzer Prize-winning writer and humorist discusses his life (and death) with Times reporter Tim Weiner, in an interview conducted last July from his home on Martha’s Vineyard, off the coast of Massachusetts.
There is much that I love about the Buchwald interview:
First, there’s the interview itself, and the idea of Art announcing his own death. It’s both weird and poignant to have a man announce his own demise, especially with deadpan humor (sorry).
But it’s also funny, because you sense that Buchwald himself wasn’t taking his death too seriously. Death seems simply… well, part of life, full of unknowns and without guarantees. And Buchwald, in his style, takes it as it comes.
Second, there’s the interview itself–from a business angle. The Buchwald interview is the first in a series of video obituaries the newspaper will run on its Web site. The Times isn’t releasing any names, but it says that at least 10 other interviews with well-known figures (including a former president) have been filmed and edited. It has plans to conduct a handful each month.
(Some potential interviewees have declined to be interviewed. In other words: if you have a bad cough and the NY Times calls, you might not want to answer the phone.)
Newspapers have been struggling to crack the code on how best to integrate the Web into their business, both from an advertising and an editorial perspective. And at the start of 2007, the struggle continues, as established media try to both deliver the news and engage their audiences in a whole different way than they traditionally have.
The NY Times’s “Last Word” series is a stunning example of a media giant embracing the new tools at hand to produce content that’s compelling, interesting, and drives people to its home page.
Sure, it’s the NY Times, which clearly has a luxury of resources not available to smaller entities. But even smaller publications, on a far less grand scale, can use the Last Word as a shot of inspiration. Like the Times, they might also grasp that there is much more they can be doing to engage their own audiences via online video, podcasts, or other social media tools.
Quoting David Von Drehle in The Washington Post: “For most people, dying is a milestone. For Buchwald, it was fresh material.”
In the case of newspapers, it might be a case of life imitating death.
Thanks Ann,
I enjoyed reading Buchwald back in the 70s and 80s. His death has brought me back in touch with him.
One thing that’s pretty cool about having the decendent use the new tools to write and produce his/her own epitaph is that it gives him a lot more control in determining how he’ll be remembered, that is, not being at the total mercy of the newpaper’s obituarist.
Hi Ann,
Interesting post. For those of us who have appreciated Art Buchwald’s observations and humor for decades, it seems somehow fitting to see that he chose to write his own epitaph in this manner.
However, I prefer to think of the way he chose to live out his final days, knowing that he was dying. Art chose to do all the things that were important and meaningful to him, once he knew he had precious few weeks and months left. I think that the most classy, moving statement of all. And a lesson for all of us. We never know how many days we’ve been given, so let’s try to live them all to the fullest.
Imagine the re-runs…….Hi, I’m Art Buckwald, I’m still dead…….do you think we will still call them re-runs in the future, or just old content?
Umm! Anyone know where I can borrow a video camera? That’s right, I’m the lone American who doesn’t own one.)
I can see it now: A year after my death a viral video appears on all your computers, featuring me come back to haunt you all one more time.
To your point about the “Last Word” video series.. YES, that is very powerful and a very cool way for the NYT to use new media to reach more people. Sometimes it is the face/voice that draws people into a story much more than the words flat on a screen or page. Before words came about, humans communicated via speech/face/gestures, rght – and, so many stories today are all the richer in that format (since it can be refreshing compared to written word).
Anyway – I engage a lot more with the NY Times because of those little video clips they have on their home page. I may read a business or style section article, for instance, but am left wanting to know a little more about the people involved – so the video clip draws me right back in.
Art was so ahead of his time!
Hi Ann -
Nice observations. Smaller newspapers in particular face some challenges in profitably mastering the online space – and there are no clear solutions available to everyone. Those who have a leg up enjoy massive capital, as you observed, or human capital that borders on celebrity.
Syndication has homogenized our national news content, and ubiquitous and instantaneous communications have shortened distances to the point that regional news is practically obsolete to most disinterested and/or impatient observers, who comprise a great deal of the population.
It’s a shame, too, because independent local news organizations are the gateways to informed self-government, without which we can dispense with the pretext of liberty. However, perhaps it’s time to say that, while the Utopian iconic journalistic ethos (you know, the one journalists typically brag about having as they claim bloggers lack them) is well suited to act as a watchdog on government, in practice, newspapers have become mouthpieces for partisan ideology, making the ease by which dissenting views could be entertained (via the Web) that much more important. Bloggers are partisan, too, but most often they are honest in how they represent themselves. Perhaps there’s something there that can be studied and put into practice by small market newspapers.
I am sympathetic to smaller newspapers — largely because I worked at several as this Internet medium was emerging, and I know how expensive it seems to really embrace the technology. At the same time, I have seen the consolidation and pack mentality reporting that has been occurring over the past decade, and I lament the absence of true independence in newsprint journalism.
Lewis on video: You’d HAVE to perfect the art of video commeting, posthumously (sp?). We’d miss you too much, otherwise.
: )
Cam: I come out of a newspaper background, too… both small and larger. Your points are valid. But I guess I’m suggesting that a path OUT of that downward spiral they’re experiencing — both in “pack mentality” reporting and in having their lunch eaten on so many levels — is to try to think creatively about how they might deliver content to their audiences that makes them again relevant? One of the things that is still true about smaller papers is that their ears are closest to the ground… so why not try and leverage that strength?
And yeah, video oral history may be too expensive and cumbersome (although I’m not totally sure that’s true). But what else? Podcasts with community leaders? Online debates? I’m not in the business anymore, but I imagine that those who are would have great ideas for what makes sense for re-engaging their audiences.
Ann,
Your points are 100% on target… My point is that convincing the smaller market papers to invest in the capability of the big players is a major hurdle. Regional papers are cost-cutters to the extreme. Also, choosing a specific tactic or technology that is easy enough to use that it will be used (and a proven winner) is also a big challenge. Perhaps they should give up on trying to do what USA Today and the NY Times do and instead concentrate on their strengths. That might mean aiming (settling?) on smaller markets, and my instinct tells me that they will resist that. However, I’d have to do some research on it. Given the trend of people to pay attention to national news at the expense of local, I’m not absolutely certain aiming small is a winnable strategy, either.
Blogging can (and should) play a role in their strategy — and their entry into this field could go a long way in shaping standards for the medium (the lack of which they make a point to decry), and the proper model might encourage profitability by tying payscale into blog success, such as through AdWords and such.
Damn. If they’d only listen to us… huh?!
By happenstance, I came by this article today:
http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=53883
Cam — Great article about blogs are new community resources! Loved this quote:
“In the age of info-wars, bloggers are the great democratizers. Blogs typically permit others to post responses. This insures that someone brighter, better informed or better connected will add, subtract or contradict a blogger’s claims. Think of it as Everyman’s peer reviewed journal. In addition to the formally published papers of the experts, blogsites add the speculative, the conceptual, even the intuitive, and then invite others to cross-pollinate with fresh insight. Good blogs are enormously fertile sources.”
Thanks.
Just another fad…yes it is “cool” that Art chose to opt out this way. Who wants to read, see, hear EVERYBODY who does this? I don’t, I have a life. Sort of like the pyramids… they are neat because just a few people had them. With so many channels and such bandwith available, they will be over exposed, create a glut, the novel-ness will quickly wear thin and who will care?
Will the state of death make these lives more interesting?
I think not.