Otterblog

A question put to me on Sunday morning: Why with all the important stuff going on in the world, would you choose to run a story on how people talk in Walkertown?

Part of what makes a newspaper front page is the mix of news, the serious and sober, the enlightening and entertaining. And the Walkertown piece was just a fun read that gave us a chance to explore a lot of issues: class, Southern identity in a changing region, politics, and regional dialects. And apart from the sheer entertainment value, there are two competing messages that we can draw from. Sometimes how we talk determines how people treat us, for better or for worse, and that we would be all better off by listening to what people said rather than how they said it.

On an unrelated note, I will also tell the uninitiated that

Mickey’s Country Kitchen, where we did a lot of our interviews, is a great place to stop in and get a meal if you are in W’town. You won’t leave hungry.

Our pop music writer, Ed Bumgardner, wrote a fascinating dissection of Rolling Stone

magazine today in relish. Ed has forgotten more about music than most of us know, and his insights into what ails RS are a reflection and refraction on life, culture, baby boomers and the publishing business.

The occasion for all this analysis is Rolling Stone’s 1,000th issue, which is a milestone and a chance to see how far it’s come and what’s been lost and found on the journey. It’s also a case study in how difficult it is to remain fresh and relevant for nearly 40 years. The earlier editions—before all the hippies became tech-bazillionaires etc,—was much funnier, more savage and biting. Now, it’s all more manicured. A safe, vaguely counter-cultural theme park. More life style than a way of life.

Ed explains it better than I do.

What Rolling Stone has done is follow its audience and embraced the contradictions (and advertising opportunities) of modern life, our “Rain forest-saving, Hip-Hop-loving, SUV-driving, Whole Foods-snacking, don’t take away my oil but don’t go to war” world. You can’t blame them for that from a business standpoint. If they had remained on the outside, they would most probably be going the way of Betamax.

It’s the dance of all publishers, particularly in the news business. How do you balance what people ought to know with what they want to know? A daily question and conversation. In a perfect world, those two knowledge bins converge. In the real world, the best is overlap and a hope that the innate curiosity we possess pushes readers from the familiar to the unknown.