East Iowa Herald: Are newspapers really dying? We need to hear from you. Are newspapers really dying? We need to hear from you. ================================================================================ Herald Editorial on 11/20/2009 19:34:00 The press is silent in the small Iowa town. The newspaper, a 153-year local tradition, is now being assembled and printed in a city nearly 100 miles away. Some employees reported, anonymously out of fear of losing seemingly already tenuous jobs, they found out their building could be sold by reading an article written by a company executive from her office in that far away city and printed (far away) in their own newspaper. Not so long ago, papers, like the one in that small town, were not-so-jokingly considered a license to print money. They were highly profitable and relatively easy. Few small town papers required large staffs as there was little in the way of expensive investigative journalism. A handful of local stories along with a heaping helping of press releases appeared as dollar bills to those in corporate accounting offices - and to the corporate executives. Today, not so much. Certainly newspapers are facing challenges never before faced. The news cycle has gone from morning coffee with the daily paper and a dinner-time half-hour with Walter Cronkite to a 24-7 crush of stories and non-stories, sometimes, often perhaps, ad-nauseam. Free Websites have taken the place of printed classifieds and other advertising. Since 1990, more than 10,000 journalists have lost their jobs. Newspaper companies cite declining revenue for the mass layoffs. Some have filed for bankruptcy, virtually all have cried poverty. First, it was the Internet’s fault. Now it is the Internet’s and the recession’s fault. There is no shortage of news sources these days - the Web and cable news provide a steady feed to serve even the most addicted news-junkies. By the time a newspaper is printed and delivered, the news inside is old - everyone already knows what happened - and they knew the instant it happened via Twitter feeds, SMS text on Blackberries and iPhones, or simply from having their computers or televisions on. How can a newspaper possibly compete with that? It seems the large corporations may have a justification, after all. No one cares anymore about the “dead tree media.” Or do they? Perhaps the real problem is that it is difficult for a company in Des Moines, or Virginia, or Chicago to understand or even care about a few thousand people in rural place the most people simply fly over. Perhaps the real problem is that when all of those journalists were laid off the ability of the newspaper to create stories that were theirs and theirs alone became nearly impossible. Sure, newspapers will always get jumped by Websites and cable television on breaking news - but CNN knows nothing about the life and impact of a community icon - nor about his recently passed-away wife. Those in the corporate-owned big daily paper probably don't know about the lengths a few volunteers have gone to keep jobs in their small town, nor do they know about the personal struggles of some and the triumphs of others in a town few people in the city have ever heard of. This nation - along with most of the world - is in the midst of a serious recession. Corporate revenues are down almost across the board. People aren’t spending like they used to. If cars aren’t selling, car dealers cut back on their advertising. If homes aren’t selling, realtors cut back. Less advertising means less revenue. From a corporate standpoint, however - with a fiduciary responsibility to shareholders and a sense of near-entitlement for executive bonuses - less revenue does not equate to less money. If a corporate newspaper doesn’t earn as much revenue, then the money will come out of that newspaper’s figurative hide. Large corporations are not well suited to declines. Less revenue means expenses will be cut to ensure profit remains the same. Those cuts invariably start with people - a relatively expensive and malleable commodity from a large corporate perspective. One way or another, the stockholders will be pacified and the bonus will be paid. Layoffs ensue. The product is reduced. The profit remains, despite the cost. And then begins the viscous circle. With a reduced staff, the quantity and quality of original reporting declines. Thus fewer people read the newspaper. With fewer people reading, the advertisers either bolt for greener pastures or expect to pay less for the reduced value of their advertising dollars. Thus, revenues decline further and more cuts are made and fewer people read and fewer advertisers want to waste their money. And so it goes today. Perhaps it isn’t so much that newspapers are heading towards extinction as it is the corporate model of newspaper ownership is fundamentally flawed. Perhaps it is that big companies simply can’t understand the what it means to live in Victor - or even Des Moines (or Marengo or Ladora or Chicago or Minneapolis). Perhaps the truth is that large corporations are simply unable to roll with the punches that the economic cycles deliver - a newspaper isn’t a standard product that rolls off a factory production line, after all. A community newspaper is an ever-changing entity that reflects on the community itself. Sometimes that reflection is attractive, other times less so - but through good times and bad, it is, if done properly, the tangible face of the community itself. It is the collective work of both those who dedicate themselves to the betterment of the community and those who commit themselves to the ill of the community. Cutting back isn’t the answer - clearly, few newspapers have ever cut themselves to prosperity. Perhaps the answer lies in making an investment in the product produced with local journalism CNN or the big papers just can’t match - along with an investment in the community served. That, of course, is no small thing. Producing the news is a very expensive proposition. But the hope would be that an honest investment in a community would pay off. Or maybe the pundits are correct. Perhaps the “dead tree media” is truly hurtling painfully towards extinction. Right now there are many people in Victor working hard to make it possible for the community to have a hometown newspaper. There are businesses - most that have little need for advertising - willing to make their own investment towards making a newspaper a reality again. Considering the state of the economy, that not only says a great deal about their generosity, it says even more about their commitment to their own community and to their neighbors. It is decision time and we at the Herald need to hear from you. Are newspapers merely dinosaurs fading off into oblivion? Can and will a small town like Victor support a newspaper? Would you find value in having a locally-owned newspaper? Today, most pundits call it a dying industry. Clearly, that seems to be the case - but is it really the true picture? Have the readers bailed on the newspapers - or, have the newspapers simply failed the readers? Would a small town newspaper provide you and the community with something of value? Do you think a newspaper would be good for Victor and the region? Please comment here - or email us by clicking here. We always want to hear from you. This time, we need to hear from you.