The state of newspaper (as I see it)
If you haven’t read Ken Leinart’s column about the state of newspapers, I urge you to do so before you read this one.
There is no way I could put it any better than what he wrote about newspapers in general and The Courier News in particular.
All I can do is say “Amen.”
It’s time somebody from the newspaper industry stood up for newspapers. It gripes me to no end when I have people say things like, “Newspapers are dying.”
Really?
Where did you hear that? Television? Radio? The Internet? Someone with an ax to grind because they didn’t like something in the paper?
If newspapers were to disappear — and they will not but I’ll touch on that in a bit — who would benefit?
Television, radio, and the Internet — that’s who. The competition for advertising dollars is tough and if those forms of media can convince people newspapers are finished they will happily line up to take the money you would normally spend on print advertising.
Oh, and that person with the ax to grind? They will still have an ax to grind because that’s who they are and all they ever will be. They will simply find another outlet for sharing their particular brand of misery.
Just remember this: I grew up hearing the United States would convert to the Metric System by 1980, yet Americans still manage to buy milk and gas by the gallon. Americans still measure distance in miles, yards, and feet - not kilometers, meters, and centimeters.
Newspapers aren’t going away — at least not local, community newspapers. The papers that are struggling right now are mostly larger metro/regional papers who tried to become the New York Times or the Washington Post when all they needed to be was the newspaper of the town they call home.
That being said, the industry is changing. Technology and streamlined budgets have forced change.
No newspaper has the staff it had 20, 30, or especially 40 years ago. I can say the same thing for virtually every other industry and business as well.
Do you think Ford, GM, IBM, or even AT&T have the same number of employees they had in 1977 or 1987 or offer the same benefits?
Closer to home, how many people work in the plants at Oak Ridge with the same benefits compared to what they did in the above referenced time frame?
Times change. Business models change. Technologies change.
It isn’t realistic for other industries to experience such changes and expect newspapers to remain the same.
Don’t get me wrong.
The focus and duty of newspapers has not changed.
Like it or not, we are the guardians of the First Amendment and it is our job to question and report.
The job of a newspaper is not entertainment; it’s enlightenment.
It is not our job to make everyone happy.
I wish everyone could work at a community newspaper for one year.
Walk a mile in our shoes and give me your perspective. I daresay you would gain an appreciation and would be more understanding of what we deal with every day.
There would be a great deal less number of complaints about how we got it wrong. You see, when one has to be able to defend a newspaper article in court, one must be supported by verifiable facts — regardless of what someone said in the grocery store parking lot, rumors and opinions will not stand up in a court of law.
Contrary to what has become popular opinion, that’s the standard we follow. If it cannot be verified, then we cannot print it. It’s simple.
Do you have any idea of how many times the average journalist is lied to in a given day?
We have the task of sifting through the — let’s be nice and call it spin — trying to find the truth and it’s often our integrity that is called into question.
It isn’t easy and for our efforts we’re called vultures and much worse.
Print journalists are tasked with writing the first draft of history and it’s a daunting responsibility for those of us who have dedicated much of their lives to the business.
Do bad journalists exist and have there been bad people who have worked in the newspaper business?
Yes, without question but I can say the same thing about any profession you can name.
Again, we’re all humans and most of us are trying to do the best we can with what we have, regardless of what we do for a living.
The long and short of it is this: The Courier News has been around for 131 years, staffed by flawed human beings intent on serving a community of flawed individuals.
It’s been a good partnership and it will continue to be so.
We’re not dying.
We’re adapting.