Spiderman 1 by Peter David Read Free Book Online Page A

which was what he produced now. "Don't overestimate yourself, Nor man. The day-to-day workings of OsCorp aren't exactly the kind of banner headlines that leave readers begging for

    more."
    "Is what readers are begging for of particular concern to

    you these days, Jonah?"
    Jameson growled this time. Osborn was starting to won der if the man wasn't part wolf. "Readership in general is what concerns me. That's what my meeting was about, if you really want to know—"
    "No, I don't especially."
    But it was too late. Jonah was off on a rant. "Blasted ac countants, telling me that the newspaper lost a million last year, and will lose another million this year, and very likely another million next year. You know what I told them?"
    "That at this rate, you'd have to shut the paper down in about thirty years?"
    Jameson blinked in surprise. "How did you know?"
    "Because I saw Citizen Kane, Jonah. You lifted the line from a sixty-year-old movie."
    "I did?" Jonah frowned, and then his eyes went wide. "Son of a gun, I did. Damned good movie, too, if you ask me."
    "I didn't ask you, but yes, it was."
    Truth to tell, Osborn enjoyed these rare verbal fencing matches that he indulged in with Jameson. But J.J.J. didn't seem in the mood to appreciate it all that much this particu lar day. "Know what's killing our circulation, Norman? Would you like me to tell you?"
    "Could I stop you?" said Osborn hopefully, attempting to get back to his newspaper.
    "Our readership is dying out, that's what," Jonah said, as if Osborn hadn't spoken. Osborn sighed and put the paper flat in his lap. Jonah continued, "Older readers, who grew up reading newspapers and fully realize and appreciate the depth of news coverage that only a paper can provide, are dying out. And these new kids ... they get stuff off televi sion or the Web ... when they express any interest in learn ing about the world around them, that is. They aren't going to plunk down fifty cents to read intelligent, in-depth report ing when they can get facile news in small, easy-to-digest, bite-sized bytes."
    "Now that's a doomsday attitude to have, Jonah."
    "It's realistic." Jonah sounded uncharacteristically self- pitying, even morbid, as he said, "I wonder . . . when the dinosaurs were sinking into pits, their days of glory at an end ... I wonder if they made the same kind of howls of frustration that old-time, ink-under-the-fingernails newsmen make as our medium goes straight down the tubes."
    "You're being much too hard on yourself, Jonah. And you're forgetting something."
    "Oh, yeah?" Jonah shifted the cigar from one side of his mouth to the other without using his hands. He just rolled it over from left to right, smooth as pudding. "And what might that be?"
    "All you need is one big story. Just one. Something to fire the attention of New Yorkers. If it's a big enough story, people will seek out information on it anywhere they can get it."

    "You may be right," said Jonah. "The question is, what sort of story would be big enough?"
    "I don't know, Jonah. I'm just a dumb scientist, not a media genius, like you. It's the oldest commandment of showbiz: Give the people what they want."
    "What the people want are short, punchy stories with no depth. Black and white, good guys and bad guys, heroes and villains."
    "So what's the problem with that?" asked Osborn. J. Jonah Jameson laughed contemptuously, settling back into his chair with the air of someone who was very much in his element, both physically and philosophically. "And here I thought, Norman, that you were a man after my own heart. Don't you know? There are no heroes. Not anymore. If you want greatness, and great men, crack a history book and look at the founding fathers. There were great men. Men of conviction. Men willing to put themselves on the line. They put their names to the Declaration of Independence, know ing that they were signing their death warrants. But they did it because they believed in something. That's gone
    now.You know