Opinion -
Mérida, Yucatán --
On May 31 I published this article: A "free press" in Mexico - but who's really paying the tab?. It only got about 100 reads, a very small number for MGRR. That's a shame, because it was and is a worthwhile piece . . . in my unbiased opinion.
Today an anonymous reader left a comment in response to that article which greatly moved me - perhaps "agitated" would be a more descriptive and accurate word. So I replied to his/her comment.
One of the nice things about having you own rag is that you can publish what you want. Nobody can fire you, cut your pay or demote you to traffic accident stories or the local police court docket. Nobody, even here in Mexico, can arrest you for writing. What you lack in a regular paycheck you gain in that which is priceless - freedom of expression.
The following is my exchange with the reader. And don't miss the Comments following this post, two of which were written by professionals with years of experience in journalism and publishing. One describes the state of the industry in Mexico - both Spanish and English journalism - as "pathetic."
2 comments:
Anonymous
June 27, 2012 12:02 PM
Too true, Mexico´s supposed "free press" just plain does not exist. The few that I´ve seen pop up here and there get shot down (sometimes literally) by the big guys. Sadly, the general community does not seem to even be aware of the situation. But, as seen by the YoSoy 132 movement, students are noticing and trying to do something about it.
Worsening the problem, local business men vie for ad space in the bigger papers, rather than supporting the community free press providers, helping in quickly putting the smaller papers out of business.
Mexico based "free press" in English unfortunately falls in the same bracket, either they paint glossy, happy stories to attract baby-boomers and advertisers hoping to do the same, or they tell the truth and die off. One can easily see the truth of this by checking out gringo papers in any of the major tourist locations or retirement hot-spots. Soft news is the name of the game, try reporting (like you Ed) with guts and truth and watch advertisers turn and run from your publication.
Generally, expats want the news, they want to know what´s going on in the community they have chosen to spend the rest of their life in. The sad truth though is that they are apparently not willing to support them financially and loyally. News for both expats and locals is not going to change until the community recognizes this and stops supporting and padding the pockets of the big guys.
Edward V. Byrne
June 27, 2012 1:50 PM
How I agree with you, my friend. Truly, you are preaching to the choir.
Here in Mérida, for example, if one writes a book review about a trivial self-published work not worth five minutes of anybody's attention, or a restaurant review describing some new Yucatecan dish, or a review of schools where you can study Spanish for the 50th time in your life, one may eventually pick up some commercial advertisers. And if one skillfully targets U.S. and Canadian expats with glowing real estate reviews and "life style change" enticements to this "wonderful, forever safe, City of Peace," he/she will likely reel in even more paid sponsors.
There are a few local advertising blogs and "news sites," as they call themselves, which make a nifty buck or two - almost exclusively off their fellow expats - by pursuing just such strategies. Because they got in on the ground floor years ago, they'll probably continue to enjoy a permanent monopoly on commercial advertising. And yet the "news" they peddle is not just "soft," as you put it so well. It's no news at all, measured by any legitimate definition of the term.
But yet something very interesting happens. Although I've been writing MGRR for less than 10 months and have no commercial sponsorship whatever, my readership - continuously reported for anyone to verify at the bottom of this page, and beyond my control to manipulate - is much larger than many news (or other) blogs of my size. Of course, most sites like mine refuse to disclose their traffic stats.
I write every story myself, based upon local and national Spanish sources. I don't steal others' stories and paste them into my own page, as do hundreds of "news" blogs in this country and elsewhere. (I could identify one particularly notorious offender which reports on Mexico's drug war using nothing but stolen content, including hundreds of legally copyrighted articles - but I don't want to give them free advertising here. A well known Mérida commercial blog recently recommended that website of cyber thieves to its expat customers, calling it a "great source" for Mexico-related hard news in English!)
My stats prove demonstrate that MGRR is where readers from all over the world increasingly come to get uniquely insightful news about Mexico, not available anywhere else. The U.S. is my #1 country of readership, followed by Mexico, Canada and Europe. Some MGRR readers in Mexico are non-English speakers who use Google Translator (in fact, I can see that in real time). But most are native English speakers. They're expats, in other words, who want to know what's really happening down here, rather than read someone's sugary spin of often very ugly events. Of course, they don't want to pay for it.
I'll continue to write, even though nobody gives me a dime to do so. People have a right to know and they deserve to know, because the news belongs to everybody. Meanwhile, those who wouldn't tell you the truth if you held a loaded gun to their heads will probably continue to reap the advertising revenues, simply because they moved into town first (and because they're willing to peddle fairly-tale stories to any and all takers, of which there will always be many).
I can't really blame them, though. A smart businessman/woman will realize that people invariably seek out hard, accurate, interesting news, wherever and however they can get it. That's where the advertising dollar ultimately is best invested.
Aug. 30 - A sign of the times, as another U.S. newspaper proves it can read the writing on the wall