‘Truly Bleak’

“In measuring the collapse of local news, there is arguably no more important metric than the number of local reporters. Though precise numbers are hard to come by, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports an astounding 57 percent decline in newspaper newsroom employees — from 71,640 to 30,820 — since 2004. 

“Depressingly, academic studies show that the local news collapse has likely led to lower voter turnout and bond ratings, and more corruption, waste, air pollution, and corporate crime. 

“It is a truly bleak picture.”

—Steve Waldman, president and co-founder of Report for America,“Our Local News Situation Is Even Worse Than We Think,” Columbia Journalism Review, Feb. 25, 2022. (Thanks to alert WORDster Tony Seton) Image: SF Chronicle managing editor Larry Fanning in healthier days, ~1950.

 

• Editorial Comment: Reporters are an endangered species. So is participatory democracy.

 

 

PeezPIX 

Gratuitous Self-Promotion: In light of Today's Depressing WORD, I will proudly promote the March issue of Senior News, Age & Ageism, for one last day. Circulating 10,000/month, all original writing/reporting (except for the crossword), Senior News is alive and well in Humboldt County. Check it out!

 

 

FREE! TODAY'S WORD ON JOURNALISM This free “service” is sent to rafts of subscribers worldwide more or less every weekday morning during WORD season. If you have recovered from whatever illness led you to subscribe and don’t want it anymore, send “unsubscribe” to ted.pease@gmail.com. Or if you want to afflict someone else, send me the email address and watch the fun begin. (Disclaimer: Don’t shoot the messenger. I just quote ’em, I don’t necessarily endorse ’em.)

 

“I don’t think writers are sacred, but words are. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.”—Tom Stoppard

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Edward C. Pease, Ph.D.
Professor & Department Head Emeritus
Department of Journalism & Communication
Utah State University
Today's WORD on Journalism