What is proper closure for a podcast, a TV show, a newspaper?
From the Publisher's Desk
Proper Closure
By Darren Johnson
Journal & Press
Tonight is high school graduation at Greenwich High School. They moved it to the gym because of potential bad weather. But it should still be a nice event, where students get a capstone on their K-12 careers.
Graduating high school itself isn’t that big of a deal academically anymore, but for sure all of these years of schooling were meaningful to these students, even just based on the duration of the experience. Some had a great time, for others it was a mixed bag. But it’s clearly done now, and we have a ceremony to put a ribbon on that closure.
Recently, I ended a three-year teaching contract with a local college. Knowing it was coming to an end this past spring did add a certain poignance to the experience, and we did a little party with my students at the end. Being able to say goodbye to people I’ve been with for years really helped me process the experience, and to now look back at it fondly.
Previously, I’d done similar stints at colleges that were more precariously run, including the now-defunct College of Saint Rose. Most of the displaced faculty from there I’ve spoken to since the school shuttered have unresolved feelings about their experience there, and felt that they had more to give, and were frustrated by the circumstances that limited them — permanently. Not finishing something properly — especially due to no fault of your own — has spiritual ramifications.
I recently was asked on the Q&A site Quora what was the worst TV casting choice of all time.
My pick was this one — replacing Charlie Sheen with Ashton Kutcher on “Two and a Half Men.”
Not that Kutcher is a bad actor. It was just the wrong choice for a show that had been tremendously popular — and profitable.
Kutcher’s character was bland and lifeless, whereas Charlie Sheen was … Charlie Sheen.
I watched a few episodes with Kutcher and gave up at the time, and figured the show didn’t exist much longer after that. I decided to move on.
But people on Quora corrected me — while “Two and a Half Men” did become an awful show, they all agree — it did go on for four more years with Kutcher!
How is this possible? I thought.
But then I thought about the idea of “audience.” There is a certain percentage of people who will stick with something to the end, just to see how it ends.
So if the show just kept, say, 30 percent of its peak audience, perhaps that was enough to pay everyone still. Other shows lingered for years after their peak, as well. “The Walking Dead” comes to mind, or Fonzie jumping the shark.
Some great shows don’t get proper closure — for example, “Firefly,” a really well-done science fiction series that only lasted one season — and fans to this day still grumble online. The Fox show simply was cut at the end of that sole season, where the characters were all still alive and vibrant, and they did not come back. The show did not have proper closure. Eventually, a “Firefly”-based movie had to be made.
Marc Maron recently announcing the end of his “WTF” Podcast after 16 years made me think about my projects. He said that some people — especially older people around his (and my) age — keep doing things just because they can.
I’m a big podcast fan and early adopter. “WTF” is in my queue, and the announcement made me realize the passing of time, and that maybe I’m one of those people who likes to see how things end, because the other podcasters I listen to are also OG from about 16 years ago. I keep listening even though these shows have lost a step and are in the decline phase of a business.
One podcast I listen to no longer gets decent guests, if any, and the podcaster puts her bloviating husband on to fill air time. Another, the podcaster seems to be losing his memory a bit and reaches into the depths of his mind to recall basic pop culture facts, often getting them wrong. A former comedy podcast has gone the political route and the comedy is now mostly “punching down.”
Maron is actually doing his audience a favor. He knows many have left him over the years, but many stay on, and they may never leave — unless allowed to.
Maron has given us our time back, the time we would have devoted to his show twice a week, if he didn’t end it for us.
We can move on. Thank you, Marc.
As a newspaper person, I have seen many guys (they are always guys) 10 or 20 years older than me, still pulling up to the printing plant to pick up their niche publications, even though some of these pubs are now down to the minimal amount of pages the printer will allow. The whole print run can fit in a Nissan Sentra.
I’d be pretty un-self-aware to not think about closure in these trying times for newspapers, when so many are calling it quits.
Is “proper closure” becoming some “zombie” paper, that just exists for the legal ad and obituary revenue, publishing press releases and pretending they are “news,” and not much else?
Is it merely putting a notice on the front page that “this is the last issue,” and then liquidating through bankruptcy, the regional press association sending out such a death notice with a frowning emoji in their weekly e-newsletter? (And what are these press associations doing, anyway? They certainly aren’t helping us.)
As for me, I’m not done yet, and don’t want to be in the decline phase of a newspaper business.
The way I see it is, let the other newspapers fail, and then we’ll take their place on local racks.
While we may no longer be needed as a local paper — people learn about things like tonight’s graduation ceremony via the Internet now — we can keep working on being wanted as not just a local paper, but as a regional paper, for those people who still like to read quality publications.
So, not less, but more. More real stories, more racks, more locations. I’ve noticed Fort Edward, for example, is now a news desert. The Journal & Press family historically owned the Fort Edward Advertiser newspaper, which they let fade away. Again, it never got proper closure. But maybe The Advertiser can get a second chance.
If we’re not moving forward, we may as well quit — so let’s keep moving forward.
I think, for The Journal & Press, the job’s not done yet, and won’t be for years.
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More tomorrow!