By playing to print’s singular capability to illuminate complex and subtle subjects, publishers can strengthen the competitive stance of the products that generate the vast majority of their revenues.
And that would be a good thing, too, because print cannot possibly match the speed, drama and timeliness that CNN or Twitter can bring to any breaking story.
Unfortunately for newspapers, too many editors and reporters feel their front pages have to match the evening news, instead of setting the agenda for the day on which they appear.
This anachronistic thinking leads to stale and unimaginative front pages that tend to reinforce the growing public perception that newspapers are stale and unimaginative products.
I’m not entirely sure what the connection is between going to press earlier and having a more reflective, rather than reactive, Front Page. But if that is what it takes, I’d endorse the move. Perhaps it is that the journalism becomes more serious when all the journalists are working together during the heat of the formal workday, treating the job as a team occupation rather than a lone-wolf exercise, which is the way it often feels in the much more sparsely populated newsroom closer to midnight.