Tony Snow: "Newspapers Are a Niche Market"

Hi, readers. I braved the suffocating humidity, pastel hues and abundant old people of Boca Raton to bring you insights from the American Magazine Conference. Or perhaps I should call it the American Magabrand Conference. That's the buzzword hereabouts this year, thanks to the efforts of the conference chairman, Men's Health magabrander-in-chief David Zinczenko. More on that later.

But first, highlights from Sunday evening's Q&A Tony Snow. The former White House speaker and Fox News talking head played it pretty cautious, but did offer a few observations worth repeating.

On his health: "I've got a small handful of tumors. They're not getting bigger. If they stay where they are I'll die at a ripe old age and that's what I'm looking forward to doing."

On what surprised him about working at the White House: "No. 1 was how much fun it was. Believe it or not, being press secretary was a blast -- the most fun I've ever had."

On the Bush Administration's decision-making process: "You don't see it but there's a process where everything gets discussed, and there are some raging arguments.... It's not the case that something is always handed in a neat little bundle to the leader of the free world. He's gotta make some choices....When people look back at this White House, they're gonna find its one that had a lot of intellectual vigor."

On the newspaper business: "The newspapers have to realize that they are a niche market and the one thing they can do better than anyone else is analysis. As a guy who spent the majority of his career in print media and loves writing, it scares me that newspapers are in the state they're in."

On the effects of the 24-hour-news cycle on journalism: "There are structural problems right now that make it very difficult to cover the White House the way it should be covered....People are trying to keep up with the electronic media. So what happens is you end up thinking, what can I do quickly and what can I do that people are going to watch? ....If you're doing it in real time, you can get real stupid."

On David Sanger of The New York Times: "I call him 'Secretary of State Sanger' because he's got a certain confidence in his views.:

On his alma mater, Fox News: "There's perceived bias on the part of Fox because they don't treat conservatives as knuckle-dragging morons....I think the rap on Fox having a bias is an unfair one. My sense is rather than grousing with a winning formula, people ought to learn from them."

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