Most recently, Eggers and McSweeney's have produced a one-off newspaper they're calling the San Francisco Panorama. The 320-page broadsheet hired big names like Stephen King as well as local laid-off reporters to construct an elegant rethinking of the modern newspaper, from the front page to the book review pull-out. The project's publisher says he wants to create an homage to newspapers and hopes to provide the ailing industry with ideas on how to reinvent themselves for print survival in the 21st century. Will Dave Eggers save journalism? Probably not. But his effort had handed critics an opportunity to restate their case. Below, the latest hate as well as a taste of the classics, plus a bit of dissent.
- Fun But No Savior The Economist loves the final product but sees little hope in it rescuing, say, the Baltimore Sun. "The fact that this is a one-off, $16 newspaper means it doesn't offer real tips for financial sustainability. Yet it is a beautifully produced work of print journalism, delivered in McSweeney's idiosyncratic voice"
- Not Saving Anything Gawker's Hamilton Nolan scoffs, "The whole thing sounds great. Except, of course, this six-month long niche literary project has absolutely nothing to do with newspapers or with the continued viability of print, which is dying as a mass medium, naturally, due to its obvious limitations."
- Egger's Twee Literature Gawker's Ryan Tate describes Eggers as "lord of twee literature." Also on Gawker, Richard Rushfield writes, "after spending years teaching writing to children, Dave Eggers appears to be suffering from Stockholm Syndrome and believes that grown-ups should write like six year olds rather than for them."
- The Case For Eggers Politics Daily's Alex Wagner pleads, "can we get some love for author and McSweeney's publisher Dave Eggers? Firstly, the guy is seriously committed to educational reform -- setting up his 826 tutoring centers in cities across the country. More importantly, perhaps, he's putting out some of the most compelling contemporary writing on victims of injustice (both domestically and internationally) through titles like 'What Is the What,' 'Zeitoun" and his 'Voice of Witness' oral history series. But beyond being worthy endeavors, they're actually really good stories."
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