Printed newspapers may be on their way to obsolescence with as much finality as Town Criers. In my home city of Denver, Rocky Mountain News, an institution in the Mile High City for 149 years, finally bit the dust in February.
According to The Denver Post, more than 30 newspapers are now for sale, and nobody is making offers, and for good reasons. Between 2006 and 2008, the nation’s newspapers lost $5 billion in advertising revenue. Debts are mounting, and many more cities may lose their daily newspapers before the end of this year.
Imagine Philadelphia without the Inquirer, one of the nation’s major newspapers dating back to the Civil War. Its owners, Philadelphia Newspapers LLC, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last month.
Part of the demise of newspapers can be blamed on significant loss of classified advertising sales to online sites such as Craigslist. But a greater threat to long-term viability is declining newspaper readership. Americans across all generations aren’t reading printed newspapers with nearly the same commitment as bygone years.
Over a two-year period, from 2006 to 2008, the proportion of consumers who read a printed daily newspaper fell from 34% to 25%. Falling print readership can be partly attributed to Generation Y (born between 1980 and 1995), with only 13% print readership and a broad failure to adopt the traditional medium. But Boomer print-only readership fell from 36% to 28% in the same two-year period.
According to Pew Research in a report released in February, not only has print newspaper readership declined because of migration online, overall readership of newspapers, both print and online, have declined significantly in two years of tracking. Readership has declined from 43% in 2006 to 39% in 2008. Although Boomers still read online and print newspapers more than younger generations, this generation’s overall readership percentage fell from 47% to 42% in just two years.
I can live without newspapers, I guess. But I’m going to rue the day when the nation’s top newspaper journalists have all started PR agencies in order to make a living. When we lose newspaper journalism, we lose one of this nation’s best sources for independent and thorough investigation of complex issues surrounding our lives. We lose journalistic investigations emanting from newspapers in small cities and towns, often where significant stories are closest to the bone. In 2008, 14,500 newspaper jobs ended with more layoffs guaranteed this year.
We lose the theater of a front page heralding 72 pt. type and proclaiming death of a great leader or election of another. Large typography online just won’t provide the same visceral impact. Printing a story from a desktop printer will not provide the same sense of history as do yellowing newspapers bearing momentous headlines, tucked away for successors.
As typical with most Boomers, the tapestry of my life can be threaded together with newspaper headlines: assassination of John F. Kennedy; Richard Nixon’s resignation following persistent investigation by Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein; explosion of the Challenger space shuttle; and the Persian Gulf War.
Certainly these stories could have been investigated and reported online, but will tomorrow’s news stories be crafted with as much journalistic investigation and hardcore reporting? What happens when we lose the medium that has most consistently uncovered the truth? Can we count on leaner online news organizations to hire great talent and nurture reporters with the same high standards for accuracy and truth?
The Fourth Estate appears to be morphing into The Fifth Estate, unabated. Tomorrow’s leading news stories may only be reported online by Yahoo, MSN and CNN. Tomorrow's headlines may only be presented as bits, not atoms.
Will we get the whole story? Will online news organizations investigate local implications of major stories? Will future generations have indelible records of great journalism?
I believe the obit for newspapers is waiting to be written. Just another transition for Boomers. There are good alternatives on the Internet if we cull the herd. Still, I would miss the feel of newspaper ink and the rumple of the paper as I read it.
Posted by: askcherlock | March 19, 2009 at 12:56 PM
No doubt that social media is taking over the business of the printed word. Many small town newspapers leave out most of the national and international news to accommodate local events, which is fine, but too narrow an interest. Our local paper has expanded to an online presence, but still concentrating on local interests.
I think we can still get the whole story online in blog type reports and then the word will be passed in one line tags on Twitter or 'likes',because like it or not, times are changing and even we Boomers are catching the social media train. I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing.
Posted by: Sue Choppers-Wife | March 11, 2009 at 08:22 AM