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Andrew Cline has been editorial page editor of the New Hampshire Union Leader since October of 2001. His writing has appeared in more than 100 newspapers and magazines, including The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and National Review.Kathleen Parker: Saving the news
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By KATHLEEN PARKER
Friday, Nov. 6, 2009
Each time another report surfaces about the decline of newspapers, I feel like a death row inmate counting the warden's footsteps.
The latest echo of doom arrived a few days ago: U.S. newspaper circulation dropped 10 percent from April through September, compared to the same period last year. The largest decrease recorded thus far, the decline was attributed to the usual -- advertising and readership lost to the Web. Ad revenues, which constitute newspapers' main source of income, have dropped $20 billion from three years ago. Even so, most newspapers remain profitable and circulation is astoundingly good, all things considered.
That's the delightful view of Alex Jones -- fourth-generation member of a newspaper-owning family, Pulitzer Prize-winning media critic and now author of "Losing the News." In his book, Jones, who also heads Harvard University's Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy, manages to combine a dispassionate look at the news business with a page-turning story of traditional journalism's highs and lows.
For Americans concerned about the fate of news, he breathes oxygen into the collapsing organ of the Fourth Estate. For inmates waiting their turn at the guillotine, he is the governor's midnight call of reprieve.
There is hope amid so much change.
Despite all we know about the damaging convergence of a devastating recession, 24/7 news technology and shifting demographics, Jones' coffee cup is half full. The story isn't that newspapers are dying, he says. The story is that, even though people can get the same content online for free, they're ponying up to buy newspapers that are more expensive than ever.
"People in astonishing numbers are saying, 'OK, I'll do it'," he said in a telephone interview.
The answer to why could be inertia, habit or the sports section, in some cases. In others, Jones suggests a citizenship decision. Americans are becoming increasingly aware that newspapers do most of the heavy lifting when it comes to reporting and bearing witness. When the newsroom goes dark, who or what will light the way?
A native of Greeneville, Tenn., Jones grew up in The Ink Age. His father is still publisher of The Greeneville Sun (circulation 15,000), where his two brothers and brother-in-law also work. His memories of those heady days when townspeople gathered in front of the newspaper offices to hear election results are suffused with nostalgia.
But Jones' perspective isn't primarily that of a wistful romantic. He's also a businessman and a citizen who believes in the profoundly important connection between quality news and a successful democracy.
His nightmare scenario is that current trends eventually could produce "a yawning disparity in accurate knowledge just as there is in wealth," he wrote in the book. "We could be heading for a well-informed class at the top and a broad populace awash in opinion, spin and propaganda."
Traditional news organizations, especially newspapers, provide what Jones calls the "iron core" of information. Some new media, including online and nonprofits, produce some news and investigative journalism, but traditional media produce the bulk. The reason is because journalism is expensive. Thus far, only traditional media have the money and institutional wherewithal to withstand boycotts or to fight First Amendment battles. Unknown is how some of the newer journalism entities will respond when, inevitably, they are challenged.
Jones doesn't shy away from charges that the media are biased, but insists that "the media" are not monolithic. Reporters and editors are human and make mistakes, but they also are bound by standards. Accountability matters. Jones, meanwhile, stakes great faith in Americans' ability to distinguish between entertainment centered around public issues and traditional journalism.
He predicts that newspapers will develop new business models and survive. And though every news organization will have alternate methods of delivery, including the Web, each entity should remain true to its "authentic self."
Web culture -- fast, irreverent, crude and subjective -- is one kind of creature. Traditional media are different and should stick to what they historically have done best. Crucial to survival will be a renewed commitment to community, to corporate citizenship and to social responsibility, and above all, to quality.
As Jones tells it, Arthur Gelb, former managing editor of The New York Times, used to shout: "Good stories!" when he read about some new experiment to boost newspaper circulation. "It is all about good stories!"
The story of newspapers is a good one, compellingly told by one of its leading characters. Reading it, you will want to buy a paper.
Kathleen Parker will be in Manchester on Thursday evening to speak at the Nackey S. Loeb School First Amendment Honors. Click here for details and tickets.
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YOUR COMMENTS
The problem with "Newspapers" are twofold. First, they are literally yesterdays news. Everytime I read the UL I get the feeling of Deja Vu.
Second, the newpapers are not news they are opinions. All politcally based. Even the local rags like the Hippo, Bedford Bulletin and Journal, have their own biased agendas. Just print the news! And I really don't care that baby pandas in china are on the back page eating bamboo
- Goldie, Bedford
Times change. The newspaper industry should be thankful for the long run it's had. Today's other news sources are more convenient and the news they offer is pretty much real time. At best, newspapers give you a synopsis of yesterday's events. That was fine years ago. But in today's world, it's like waiting for election results to come by Pony Express. Newspapers revolutionized the news industry when they came on the scene. The internet and 24 hour tv news stations came along and revolutionized it again. It's time for the newspaper industry to recognize that it is no longer a viable enterprise.
- Brian, Farmington
i cancelled my subscription to the UL when I saw first-hand that the paper betrays the public trust by manufacturing news by story placement, selective quotes, and photo selection. to whom much is entrusted, much is expected and the ul betrayed our trust. it had noting to do with the net.
- Becca, Bedford
The fourth estate abdicated their responsibility to inform the American public in an unbiased way many years ago. In doing so, they signed their own death warrant. I say good riddance.
- Ron, Manchester
Really? To find the truth go to a blog? It must be true if it is on the internet? Heaven help us. PT Barnum would have LOVED the internet.
- Steve B, Derry
Here is a simple fact. The news isn’t what it was 10 years ago. Most reputable news outlets printed or broadcasted "worthy news" or let’s just say "factual news" That just doesn’t happen any more. Most news now a days is opinion bases. And we all know how opinions are based.
Yea you can get news from your phone, TV, internet. But how much of it is worth really reading?
I’m so done reading news papers that just want to dump on a particular person or group. I don’t need to see it in print to know its there. But because we live in a world where there are multiple news shows on the same channel that run the same news piece bores the hell out of me. Pretty soon the 6:00 news with be the thing of the past as well.
- Ryan, Manchester
Newpapers are hard copies of yesterday's wire feeds. I can get the same feeds, up to the minute, on my phone.
Newspapers like the NYT are failing because they hate American values, American soldiers, and American ideas. Nobody wants to read that.
Other news sources are doing just fine...and if I want the real news, I read blogs. They actually do investigative reporting, the "media" just prints feeds.
This is evolution.
- Mike R., Bedford
We could be heading for a well-informed class at the top and a broad populace awash in opinion, spin and propaganda."
We are already there.
That is why most elected a glorified Fry Cook as President.
Geez.
As soon as old media collapses with their agendas, lazy and juvenile journalists and blue blood, head in the sand publishers, the better off we all will be.
While I am sorry for some I know who work in the biz, I personally cannot wait. You get what you deserve.
Shoddy work reaps limited benefits.
- Bill, Concord
Newspapers are a basic ingredient of this democracy and they have been since its inception. If the newspaper industry dies this nation, as it is now, won't be far behind. As far as the internet and real news? Well, a blind man could see the flood of misinformation that exists there. I too get much of my news from the internet but it's a lot harder to get to the point than it is in a good newspaper. Luckily, my area has New England's best small town daily in the Bangor Daily News. And after giving up on daily newspapers until I moved here, I can now have new hope for this important and necessary 'industry'.
- Tom, Dover-Foxcroft, Me.
Here in the Dover area we are witnessing the demise of Foster's Daily Democrat, and none to soon. Years of poor reporting due to a corporation known for poor pay and benefits, coupled with the owners using the paper to advance their own realestate holdings in the downtown area have accelerated their decline. I am sure this is the same song being played across of much of middle America. In the end it is not the readers that have changed, but the ineptitude of those charged with maintaining the Fourth Estate that will be responsible for their own extinction.
- Patrice Meserve, Dover
Maybe 50 years ago newspapers such as the NYT and Washington Post were NEWSpapers. That is no longer true. And, it's no 'human mistake'. It's deliberate deception and it's the major reason people who wish to be informed of real news, and not fed a line of propaganda, flock to the internet.
- Leo, Canterbury
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