The Paper News is Dead

Here's a poem I posted on my MySpace blog not too long ago, on a topic relating to media old and new, and journalism, one that seems to grow more and more relevant with each passing day.

The Paper News is Dead

Extra!  Extra!
Read all about it!
The paper news is dead!
Hold the presses now and forever!
Put them all to bed!

Say goodbye to ink stained fingers!
So long to the straphanger fold!
Say farewell to stands and hawkers!
See, the journal's got yellowed and old!

Time for the printers to close up shop!
Set the shutterbugs free to roam!
Send the hard drinking reporters to rehab!
Send the crusading editors home!

No more tabloids with their exploits!
No more news that's fit to print!
I won't see you in the funny pages!
Now the papers have taken the hint!

I won't find you on my doorstep
At the start of each fine day!
But I may see you in the movies
Or in museums, on display!

No more HEADLINES!
No more column inch!
No more continued on page eight!
No more classifieds!
No more want ads!
No more editions
Neither early nor late!

No more columnists!
No more editorials!
No more of the op-ed pages!
No more letters to the editor!
Now they belong to the ages!

The dateline has grown out of date!
The typesetting's heavy like lead
The press's depressed!
Too slow to keep up!
The black and white's no longer read!
Believe it when I said
The paper news is dead!