E-Media Tidbits

NewYorkTimes.com "Hi. I'm Art Buchwald and I just died." Thus, the famed humorist introduces a pre-recorded New York Times "Last Word" video self-obituary.

Laughing and crying through reading two extensive obit packages today, I wondered: Why have so many newspapers abandoned obits? It is, I truly believe, one of the many reasons the U.S. newspaper industry is in such terrible shape.

First we have no space for "chicken dinner news." Then we relegate "people stories" to 400 words. Finally we turn obituaries from important and cherished articles into a "revenue opportunity." And publishers wonder why circulation is in a downward (death?) spiral?

I'd planned to read the last column by Art Buchwald, a humorist who was occasionally weak but often a great satirist. But I got waylaid by the obits and tributes to editor Mike Levine. I'd never met (or even heard of) Levine, I came to admire him tremendously after reading not only his obit, but the package of stories and comments published by the Middletown, N.Y., Times Herald-Record.

Who could not be moved by the remarkably well-written article about Levine's funeral? (But they left off the byline! How could they, on such a great piece?) Or the sports department's take on his life? (Sure, it was somewhat trite and cliché-riddled, but it still works.) Or the column about Mike, columnist Barry Lewis and Izzy's Knishes?. You could learn from that one. I did. And I used to eat Izzy's knishes with my brother, so I e-mailed him the article, too. (Ah, the joys of online news!)

Finally, after reading a few more Levine tributes, I moved on to Buchwald.

David von Drehle of the Washington Post wrote a masterful, brilliantly crafted essay about Buchwald. "For most people, dying is a milestone. For Buchwald, it was fresh material." Now there's a line that deserves a Pulitzer (along with the rest of the column). There were great obits, too, like this and this.

Of course, there was Buchwald's final column. And the piece he wrote after he went into hospice, where he talked so frankly about dying -- "So far things are going my way. I am known in the hospice as The Man Who Wouldn't Die. How long they allow me to stay here is another problem. I don't know where I'd go now, or if people would still want to see me if I weren't in a hospice. But in case you're wondering, I'm having a swell time -- the best time of my life."

I even got to read his daughter's chat online, reminiscing about her father.

I spent maybe an hour reading it all, remembering two individuals -- one I'd heard of, and read; and one who came to life through the obits and memorials in his paper. Also, I saw seven pictures of Mike Levine, aging him from a young man to a guy about my age, who died too young.

Again it made me consider: What the hell are newspapers thinking when they eliminate obituaries and stop writing about the characters in their communities -- and instead they merely run paid death notices written (perhaps lovingly, but certainly self-servingly) only about people whose families can afford to pay to have them memorialized in the local paper?