The McClatchy newspaper chain bankruptcy is another harbinger of all things sad for the newspaper business. Without robust newspaper journalism, what is to happen to the democracy?
McClatchy Symbolic
The newspaper chain, the nation’s second largest, publishes the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Sacramento Bee, Kansas City Star, Miami Herald and dozens of other newspapers across the country. Surely the newspaper chain had its best minds working on the issue of how to best compete in today’s Internet world.
But No
But when people don’t read print and get most of their information from television or online, how will newspapers generate the revenue they need to support costly newsrooms and printing/delivery systems?
They Can’t
I dealt with this issue while I was Director of Student Media at the University of Texas-Austin. When I went to work there, we were printing 30,000 copies of The Daily Texan per day for student consumption, while our student radio and television stations supplemented the newspaper. By the time I retired 15 years later, our circulation had dropped in half. While we had a great online presence, we could not generate nearly enough revenue there to make up for what we were losing in print.
The Country’s First Online Newspaper
In fact, The Texan was the first online newspaper in the United States. This was not because we were so innovative–but because a visually impaired IT supervisor wanted to put the content online so visually impaired students could read the newspaper by making it larger online. So that began about 1994. It did not take long before our students started designing a full-fledged online newspaper.
The Past 15 Years
During the past 15 years, one in five U.S. newspapers have shuttered and one-half the newspaper jobs have been lost. The small city where I live, San Marcos, Texas, has a five-day-a-week newspaper that gets by with a managing editor but no reporters and little news, though the tiny staff does its best. That newspaper is owned by a small family-owned chain.
Television News
I don’t want to detract from the good job television news does in general, but notice, if you will, how often the commentators refer to reporting from the major newspapers as they build their reports. In fact, if you recall, the Jeffrey Epstein prosecution was fueled primarily by solid reporting by a Miami Herald reporter. And we need reporting like that as that of the large dailies like the Los Angeles Times, New York Times and Washington Post.
As Newspapers Disappear
As newspapers disappear and newsrooms drop in size, something must take its place so the public can have the information needed to make solid decisions about elections, investments, schools, city council elections and other things they need to know.
Social Media Isn’t the Answer
Facebook and other social media isn’t the answer. While everyone with a computer can publish just like I’m doing here, these armchair journalists won’t fill the bill.
Lou Inglehart
The late Dr. Louis Inglehart of Ball State University had his own ideas of the ways local people could battle newspaper chain ownership. That was before today’s struggles. His idea was that local people buy shares in a newspaper, so that the newspaper was community owned. I loved the idea when he mentioned it 20 years ago or more. And it holds true today.