Since the initial mention of “COVID-19” about two years ago, supply chain difficulties appear to have been the dominant topic of conversation for all those involved in transferring freight from one location to another.
The supply chain crisis has been front and center for those in the media who cover the freight sector — including, of course, us here at FreightWaves — for just as long, with stories swiftly springing up warning of potential disruptions.
However, the general public — and, by extension, the mainstream media — have only recently become aware of supply chain issues. What was once a part of business reporting that was overlooked or ignored is now making front-page news on a daily basis. The world’s leading news organizations are now fully aware of the problem and have rushed in with both feet.
Consider the following excerpts from The New York Times’ recent coverage:
The podcast “The Great Supply Chain Disruption” will be released on October 15th.
Michael Gonchar’s lesson plan “Trade Troubles: Learning About the Global Supply Chain and Why It’s Broken” was released on October 21.
Peter Goodman’s article “How the Supply Chain Broke, and Why It Won’t Be Fixed Anytime Soon” was published on October 22.
The supply chain has become a watercooler issue at a time when many workplaces are still closed and more individuals are working remotely.
It’s been a welcome-to-the-party mentality for journalists who have been writing and reporting about the crisis since the original COVID disruption, to see major media sources finally ramp up coverage. It reminded best-selling author and New York Times technology reporter Mike Isaac of a prior stay at All Things D, an online newspaper dedicated to covering the computing business that debuted in 2007.
“I’d have the same reaction a lot of the time,” Isaac stated during his keynote speech at FreightWaves’ F3 Virtual Experience on Thursday. “Oh, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, welcome to what we’ve been writing about for the previous three months.”
Isaac has gained a greater understanding of why larger media publications may be slower to react to potentially significant changes than smaller, B2B-type media outlets focused entirely on the business since joining the Times in 2014.
“On the other hand, there’s a fine line between being too in-depth for a large audience who want more generalist coverage and being completely late to something that’s already a huge phenomenon,” he said.
“I would say that you’re probably more correct in this case,” Isaac added, “that supply chain concerns have been a world issue for the past year or longer… because of how messed up everything is owing to the epidemic.” “Let alone how my friend can’t get a washer and dryer delivered to his house right now, even in my field, with chip shortages and how that’s affecting automobile output, video cards, and all sorts of things.”
“I believe the outlets must strike a balance — and they don’t always do it right.”
“I’m not going to criticize my workplace.” But I believe that once we understood we were involved in something, we were like, ‘OK, we’ve got to come in big-time.'”
Isaac was a prodigy when it came to booking writing. He wrote “Super Pumped: The Battle for Uber,” which became a blockbuster in 2020.
This year, he’s been on the front lines of the unfolding narrative of Facebook being accused of disseminating misleading information, among other things, and just how accountable it should be — even as it has rebranded itself as Meta.
