Please bear with me -- I’m trying something here I’ve always wanted to do, and I think I might just pull it off.
I’m going to connect the battle to sustain journalism to woodworking.
Journalism and woodworking go hand in hand with me. I began woodworking as a hobby more than 30 years ago with the coaching of a veteran columnist I worked with in Florida, the late Texan Don Boyett, as gentlemanly a journalist as I’ve met. I was hooked immediately, and have found zen in the craft for many years.
I’m too busy these days to do woodworking as much as I like, but I still read a good bit about it, and for the better part of two decades, the guy whose woodworking writing I have prized above all others is Chris Schwarz, who lives outside Cincinnati. He’s profound. He’s funny. He’s a fabulous researcher into the old ways or working wood, with hand tools. His best known book is “The Anarchist’s Tool Chest,”and if you think it’s about things you need to overthrow a government, you are way, way off.
Chris recently published a piece on his blog about The Shop of the Crafters, an Arts and Crafts furniture company in Cincinnati in the early part of the last century. He reprinted an essay from a company publication that I think sums up the philosophy that we need to consider as we seek a path toward sustainable journalism.
To understand it, know that the guys in Cincinnati were pretty pragmatic, compared to other Arts and Crafts companies. Some of the lines in the essay make that clear.
Don’t get it into your head that the Shop of the Crafters is in the business for “the joy of the work. “
We’re just as money mean as some, yet not as mean as others.We make a grade of furniture for people who want the real thing at a moderate price.
Think about the over-arching theme. We are a business. We provide a product – a big set of products, actually – that have value.
The way we used to get paid for our products, advertising, has been in decline for a few decades, and we have worked to build other streams of revenue. We’ve been partly successful, but we are not there yet.
A lot of people consume our products. Millions. They show how much they like them by coming back day after day to our many platforms. They send me notes to thank us for the work we do.
In the future, near and far, I feel sure we will be seeking payment for products we provide, as we have been doing with our sports Subtext accounts, where our expert writers share their thoughts a few times a day.
When that day comes, I hope you will recognize how much value you get from our products and agree they are worth the price. We will need your support to continue what we do at cleveland.com.
Oh, and we do fully embrace one other line in the essay:
If any purchaser, past or present, has any suggestions on how our production can be made better, we want to know them.
So send any ideas for improvement my way at cquinn@cleveland.com or through my Subtext account, in which you can text me directly and hear from me once or twice a day about what we are thinking about in the newsroom. Subscribe for free by texting me at 216-868-4802.
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March 15, 2020 at 01:17AM
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Just as money mean as some, yet not as mean as others - Letter from the Editor - cleveland.com
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