Summary Of David Halberstam's 'The Powers That Be'

The Powers That Be by David Halberstam takes a look back at the history of the news media industry. The stories in the book, first written in 1979, talks about how traditional companies like Time, CBS, and the New York Times were small startup companies. In their early days, they were very similar to the new form of media taking the world by storm, Buzzfeed. There is so much to knowledge to learn when it comes to this new form of news media and yet the way they startup is similar to those before them. It will take perseverance, luck, and learning from the past while taking steps in the future. But Buzzfeed has great potential to join the elite and big name new medias of this new era. First, let us take a look back at Time magazine during …show more content…
The editors put these listings on the front page and this ensured that the industry needed to purchase Times and advertise with them. But they also became No. 1 because they did lower their editorial values and goal for a short-term profit. As the war progressed, newspapers were rationed. With less room, both papers had to choose what to exclude from them. The Trib made the choice to put more ads and less news, while Times cut ads to keep full coverage. The Times faced a lot of heat and threats from its ad companies but they didn’t change their format. After the war, Times had more subscribers, ad revenue, and, by countless measures, became the world’s leading newspaper. Buzzfeed took this and have remained true to their readers while building a better …show more content…
What really changed the layout of Buzzfeed from a lists type media to a top contender in news media coverage was this story. The main question that came to the mind’s in the media is if Buzzfeed should have even published this story. Paulino said that when bigger news companies, like CNN makes a note to it but doesn’t give detail as to what’s in it, how could the audience know what’s happening in their government. She said this was so detrimental to the country and its democracy that its’ people need to see what everyone in government was doing. She said was important for Buzzfeed to have with its readers is their level of transparency. They put faith in their readers intelligence and that they understand the context it gives. This interview shows how much Buzzfeed is repeating CBS and NY Times history, in the sense of accepting new tech advancement and staying true to its editorial values. Paulino talks about how the news provided by Facebook and Google and other outreach social media is that it helps expand Buzzfeed’s audience from the constant sharing of its diversity of articles. She says how readers appreciates Buzzfeed’s readiness and willingness to tackle problems head on. Most times the CEO of Buzzfeed will be the first to personally respond to any issues that are thrown at Buzzfeed, just like the big media companies before