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Downward Spiral“Fewer people, you and I, are reading newspapers. Then there is ‘online.’ The Internet offers great potential and many pitfalls. For one thing, who edits the news you read? What references do you have on the truth and accuracy of what you learn from the Net?
“In an era of heavily biased television news programs, there is little reason to believe that the Internet, perhaps more intractable than TV, will provide balanced coverage of people and issues, local or global. For us folks trying to figure out what’s going on, the best idea is probably to read widely from different sources. But do we know how to do that, and do we have time for it? I’m skeptical.
“I’m pessimistic about any kind of sunny future for typical newspapers in Maine and elsewhere. In Portland, Augusta, Bath, Rockland, Waterville, Bangor, Belfast—good newspapers have lost their edge. It’s a downward spiral. There is less to read in the paper, so we read less.”
—Steve Cartwright, columnist, Bangor (Maine) Daily News, 2008 (Thanks to alert Kiwi WORDster David Pease)
Ted,
ReplyDeleteThis is hardly the first such “Word” you’ve sent out on the demise of print journalism and print newspapers. Before coming to Lindsey Wilson College I did training for the ad staff at the Riverside Press-Telegram. It was my return to newspapers after being away since about 1982. Needless to say, much had changed since my reporting days. But one thing was the same old beast—huge page composition, printing and distribution operations made the daily newspaper far more like a GM car plant than a purveyor of words and pictures. Seeing the all this machinery with fresh eyes left me pretty shaken, considering the influence of the web since my earlier newspaper days. I wondered then, in 2005, how such a 19th century mechanical and hot-metal hold-over could compete with instant electronic distribution of those same words to home and office computers. My wonderment continues.
Three years later and the situation has only gotten worse.
The best idea I’ve hard so far on salvaging the newspaper business is the idea that current newspapers and news services provide authoritative reporting and opinion to web outlets that want to be a cut above the personal-gratification binges of your average blog. Sort of keep the good stuff and get rid of the machine shop mechanicals. I don’t recall seeing too much lately on that possibility as reporters and editors wring their hands about the demise of the world as they have known it.
Best regards from Kentucky,
Dan
For reasons that were beyond me (and surely many in the audience, too), I was one of three panelists in Salt Lake last week for a traveling National Press Club event modestly titled, "Free Expression, the First Amendment and the Future of Journalism" (see http://newshounds1.blogspot.com/2008/11/bloviation.html). The other two panelists were the news director of the dominant NBC afffiliate, and the ME of the SLTribune. They didn't really have a lot to say about the first two topics, aside from approving of them, but seemed bullish on the web.
ReplyDeleteI don't disagree that the Web is the future and already is an awesome (in the traditional AND modern senses) tool and resource. But for me, the issues of community and "electronic shut-ins" in the information age and credible info vs. "I heard somewhere" remain.
Newspapers may fold or go digital-only, like the Christian Science Monitor, or they may become more elite niche products for old farts who want to read the paper in the bathroom, tagging alone with their more powerful and immediate online offspring.
Ted
Newspapers are approaching financial ruin much more quickly than irrelevance. Perhaps publishers should spend more time reworking the business model rather than just blaming the industry's woes on an outdated product.
ReplyDeleteI think the digital age makes for an even more profound printed paper. Research still shows that newspaper readers value ads and inserts as much as the news. In a world with pop-up blockers, DVRs and subscription radio, no other medium can make that claim.
What newspapers do need to do on the product side is stop wasting newsprint with highly perishable stuff that people get real-time online. Allocate your precious few reporters who survive outsourcing and "right-sizing" to finding compelling local stories, the stuff people can't find online. Let the interns earn their strips by covering the low-profile breaking stuff and then plop it on the Web.
And stop giving away that valuable content to online aggregators. If the content really is valuable, make people pay for it.
I have lived in and worked with reporters in Maine. Here's a state which, until very recently had more than 250 school districts and no public health infrastructure. It's got half the size and population of Utah and may actually be more homogeneous than the Beehive State. There are several "cities" in Maine that claim prominence and the newspapers in Bangor, Portland and Lewiston are all pretty good but need to focus on what newspapers do best -- local news and features. Downward spiral? All of Maine is in a downward spiral and has been for years. Is there a downward spiral for all newspapers? I suspect that newspapers are more reflective of us as a society than any other medium. There's a permanence to the newspaper that doesn't apply as much to radio, television or the net. You can't line your bird cages or pack your dishes with any of that electronic stuff and I think newspapers have a monopoly on obits and wedding announcements. What's missing is creativity both in editorial content and the business model because too many newspaper people are either afraid or unwilling to express. Maybe a little financial desperation will help the industry expand its comfort zone.
ReplyDeleteAnd that's why I enjoy my job as a journalist, where I can always get first hand resources of a story. And I try my best to work conscientiously--and to be responsible to my audience and myself.
ReplyDelete--Mao
I dont want my daily newspaper just for local news - that's what those small suburban (neighbourhood here) weeklies are for....
ReplyDeleteI dont want my daily newspaper for 'lifestyle' stuff - I can get that on the web, TV and cable. I dont want much 'human interest' stuff - I can get that in the weeklies, on TV and on the local gossip grapevine, and I dont care for the sports pages either! What's cable for, if not for sports "news" telecasting????
I want accurate, comprehensive, reliable, sourced international (true international - not just US-centred), national and some local hard news coverage - the local stuff being news that cant wait until next week and has pertinence to my entire city...
I want multiple viewpoints and analysis and I want all of that in one place, so I dont have to spend hours perusing several dozen bookmarked web sites to get a fractured overview...
I want my hard news in a paper product that I can come back to at various times in the day....
Call me a dinosaur, but I havent seen anything yet on radio, television or the web, that can give me all that....