Writer Pete Hamill on Journalism Past, Present, and Future
This interview with journalist and novelist Pete Hamill appeared on Newslib because of the variety of things he says about the news industry in the past, present, and future, particularly this bit on newspaper archives:
“I’m so concerned with morgues and libraries of the newspapers. I know from writing historical novels, one of the great sources is bound volumes (of newspapers). They tell you all the detail that historians don’t. How much was a pair of shoes. What did a guy pay to go to the ballpark in 1934 during the Depression. How many people where there? The detail, you could find in the morgues, the bound volumes that have the advertising. At the very least there ought to be grant money somewhere to scan every page of it.”
Among other good thoughts are how everyone needs an editor, it’s important to pay writers, and covering the same subjects leads to burnout.
