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Newspaper recollections

By now you know that the past two decades have seen a precipitous decline in the newspaper industry. Some papers have disappeared altogether. Others limp along as ghost versions lacking the personnel that made the paper what it was.

The paper trail leads back to private investment firms that have taken a scorched-earth policy when it comes to newsrooms, cleaning out the store, and leaving nothing to sell.

Even fanciers of the printed page, those stalwarts looking for a paper with their morning coffee and willing to accept a reduced product at an absurd price, have been thwarted. In many cases, the paper can’t be delivered even if you’re willing to pay for it, circulation departments having been dismantled by hedge-fund hatchet squads. (Check out the interview with Margo Susca, author of Hedged https://www.buzzsprout.com/1950812/episodes/14254943

That’s technology, some might say. The newspaper couldn’t keep up with the 24-7 news cycle. So where’s the local digital news? Where was the orderly transition from print to online that would have provided stories we used to peruse in print? Like the New York Times provides on its website.

“The notion that all we citizens need to do is sit back and relax and let the free market and digital technologies work their magic is increasingly unconvincing.” Media guru Bob McChesney said that in 2011 in Will the Last Reporter Turn Out the Lights, the book he edited with Victor Pickard.

McChesney, now professor emeritus at the University of Illinois, was one of the first to recognize what the collapse of journalism means—not simply to displaced reporters but for the public.

“As goes journalism, so will go American democracy,” McChesney told an audience at Bradley University in 2011.

We mustn’t lapse into nostalgia when examining the newspaper’s role. They weren’t perfect or all that insightful, in some cases. Papers varied from place to place, some better than others. But their presence could always be counted on to provide a forum. If you had a problem, you could call the newspaper.

Today, McChesney has a national plan but there’s a hefty price tag. Since a dysfunctional Congress that’s not even clear on the meaning of democracy or accepting the notion of public mandates at the polls isn’t likely to solve the problem, we better stay alert.

McChesney interview: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1950812/episodes/11770494

stevetarter

2 responses to “Newspaper recollections”

  1. John Sensenbaugh Avatar
    John Sensenbaugh

    It is interesting to me that Mr. McChesney recognized back in 2011 the peril that American journalism was facing, and how prescient he turns out to be that with journalism’s decline, so would begin the decline of democracy. I assume, Steve, you were in that 2011 B.U. audience where he spoke. Do you remember him saying that? If so, what were you thinking? Had you ever contemplated the cliff that local homegrown journalism was going to fall over? I don’t think it ever entered my mind back then that I wouldn’t have a dependable local paper to walk outside and retrieve to “catch up” on the news. For me, that was always the local politics and our “beat reporter” who would tell us what happened at a city council meeting or read the police blotter and see if anyone I knew was arrested with a DUI. Of course, like some many other things in life, you don’t know what you had until it’s lost.

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    1. stevetarter Avatar
      stevetarter

      McChesney was the prophet. I saw it going down–the Journal Star was probably typical of the GateHouse (now Gannett) papers at the time. After 2007, you saw staff slip away steadily in the 2010s. You just never knew when the erosion would stop. I think most of us who were used to a paper always being there never thought the end could come so soon. I would think about where it was going when I walked out of the building the back way to my car. You went from the old (that building was built in the 50s) wooden floor, scarred and scratched over the years from the printing activity to the newer extension (they built in 2006 to accommodate a new press). You figured–they invested millions in a big press, surely they plan to keep it busy. But things–finances–change, decisions made far away from Peoria. By 2019 when I left the paper (through a buyout which I was surprised was even offered) it was a skeleton crew in a big old newsroom that 10 years earlier had bustled with activity.

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