Another One Bites the Dust

The tally mark of unfortunates continues to lengthen. This time being one of the few facets of life that we took for granted, knowing that it was safe to take for granted. The economic downturn has yet again struck, sffecting the media outlet market along with everything else. Just over a month ago, Rocky Mountain News published its last publication in late Feburary. The Denver based publications' fairly new absense leaves only one news publications in all of Denver that is home to nearly 555,000 folks.

Staff members were told byRocky Mountain News Chief Executive Owner Rich Boehne that the Rocky was the victim of a terrible economy and an upheaval in the newspaper industry.

ENOUGH ALREADY!

Not I see why there is an internal war going on in the world of journalism. There are those who claim to be hard nosed journalist who are only concerned with NEWS. And in this corner there are those who are frowned upon by those journalist who could give a sh!# about Barack and his bailout plans because they're more concerned about Brittney's mental meltdown or how Branjolina's status. My only question is where is the motivation? The Drive? or the Will Power to suceed? Sure the economy makes for an uphill battle to move forward, but there are those who WILL, and simply those who won't. Creativity is the best tool to have in this business and its lacking, many publications beat the dead horse of the failing economy until, the horse eventually beat them. News has become predictable, how can an element be predictable when it's almost never known what the subject of a story will be the next day?

I do not fault the economy, nor do I fault the new age of technology that reigns upon us, I fault complacency in the workforce. I look around my weekly Monday 8am JMC 201: Media Writing lecture and I silently applaud. I applaud myself for fighting through the sleep, I applaud my classmates for there is not a significant dropoff in attendance each week. I applaud my professor and TA's alike for their devotion and motivation on molding the next generation to save a sinking ship.

When I was a child, my mother used to tell me, if at first you don't suceed, learn from your shortcomings and conqour. At that time I was far too young to understand but now, when the situation has presented itself, here I am, facing the so-called inevitable collapse of the journalist world. Still an intended Journalism and Mass Communications major, with aspirations of prospering in the field. I know I alone can't save print journalism, but the mindset I have, instilled in those nation, and worldwide that still believe that print journalism can restablish itself as one of life's givens.

The Decay of the Printed Word

Video killed the radio star. Internet like wise, is killing the newspaper, and most of the traditional medias for news and entertainment. We can see it already beginning to happen. The only question I can think of is, does a newspaper bother printing the story about them going out of business?
I would hope for the sake of common sense they would simply post such information on their website. While newspaper companies like the Philadelphia inquirer and the Detroit Journal are now dealing with extreme debt, sympathy seems to be undeserved. The financial lose of these newspapers is a direct result from failing to change with the times and the nature of the times. In a historic recession, what can be obtained for free does not make a profitable product.
And now there is a 4 newspapers who have filed for chapter 11. Circumstantially, chapter 11's success rate is estimated to be around 10%. This means we have bankruptcy protection that works worse than our last president. Given the state of the economy and rapid evolution of how our society gets information, these companies will soon be filing for chapter 13. Or going out of business completely.
It seems like the internet is Wal-Mart and local newspapers are "ma and pa" shops. Why will people pay extra when they can get everything they need from one place? It seems that even the whole art of journalism may be being abandoned. A grim thought for the 50,000 employed in the field and thousands of students trying to emerge in to the field.
While the future of this is impossible to tell, as we are still dealing with the slow downhill-decay, there is exciting possibilities for a new-era of news media. It seems that these companies will continue to suffer loses until one comes up with a genius marketing idea to make money in the vast and mostly free world of the web, allowing the others to follow. Although, there is another factor here that is a driving force in this phenomenon. What news do people really want to hear about? Once people in every nation begin blogging or twittering(if that obnoxious fad lasts), this would mean the end of the need for reporters. It seems investigative reporting is the only kind that people will still yearn for.
Regardless of what becomes of the demand, there is a downsizing coming. While this is a lose of an old traditional staple in American cities, it is not tragic. It is simply what happens when people try to exploit a basic need of society. There are hundreds of newspapers in any given urban city, ranging from small bohemian papers to mainstream papers. Here in Milwaukee, I see dozens of papers all focused slightly on a different topic, and I do not pick up any one of them. Even the ones that appeal to my interest. This is because I can find what I'm looking for, or just browse, much faster and more effectively on the internet. Everyone knows this, so why are there still so many papers? The answer is because, as it has been for over a century, newspapers are not made to serve the public, but to fulfill our own desire to be what we are taught "journalist" and "editors" are suppose to be. People want to be journalist and writers, the only problem is that society doesn't really have much a need for them anymore.

Newspapers Dissolve Into The Internet Storm

The picture here depicts a great metaphor for the state of print newspapers today. The tornado would be the internet, picking up every print edition of the newspaper as it continues it's path. The internet is now the new medium for providing news. First some small print papers folded, but now large cities such as Seattle and Detroit are losing some of their prominent newspapers in favor of online editions.

The funny thing is how most people don't care. To the technology-savy younger crowd, it's the way of the future. Instead of having to pay $0.50 for a paper (or $1.75 on Sunday), you can access the same information for free online. The best part is that you can go directly to your favorite sections. Interactivity is also possible, as users can comment on stories with their 2 cents. Advertising is more easily avoided (unless it's a pop-up), and stories you'll want to read again later can be bookmarked.

Sounds great doesn't it? Not quite, because beyond the pros come the cons of removing print newspapers from circulation. The older generation could become out of touch with news. In fact, an entire community could be without local news as most people could turn to a more favorable news outlet (such as NYTimes.com or CNN.com instead of jsonline.com). This could ruin a sense of community some feel from keep up with local news. To what extent it could diminish though is uncertain. One thing that's certain is how newspapers switching to an online format loses jobs.

The Gannett Company is the largest newspaper publisher in the nation, and even it had to eliminate more than 8,300 jobs in 2007 and 2008 (about 22% of it's total employment). Unfortunately, it's the same story for many outlets across the nation. Even the Los Angeles' Times staff has been cut 50% in the past decade. The most recent employment cuts were in Seattle and Detroit. Ironic how all of the information can be found easily at NYTimes.com.

The hard news (print edition) to me is something that I don't think should be destroyed. I do understand the convenience of online news, as well as the money it saves. But what's better than having that front page showing your favorite baseball team winning the World Series? A lot of people keep certain editions of papers for various reasons, but it's nothing at all close to just bookmarking a page online. All the files on my computer could be deleted in the matter of 5 minutes. It would take a lot more to get rid of some sentimental newspapers I have saved over my lifespan. And to me, that's why the hard news will never fully go away. It will just sort of hide in the shadows, such as the home phone, the radio, and other media sources that have been pushed aside by it's new brother.

Websites Provide No Warmth

Is it a sign of our troubled times, or are newspapers just not offering enough to their readers? While dozens of newspapers, like the Ann Arbor News, are closing down shop, many are turning to online formats.

It amazes me, that the majority of those I've talked to about this, do not care.

There are few things in America that are as important to our citizens, as the newspaper. I hope the role papers have played in our society transfers over to the online medium, but I can not help feeling as if we are losing something important here.

This situation is grim. Thousands have lost their jobs. These aren't the numerous and nameless that I've been reading about in the auto industry. I never had dreams of growing up to work on a Detroit line pumping out Chevy's. These are print journalist. They no longer have jobs, or anyone willing to employ them. They were joe-shmoes, looking for a crack at the big times. I've changed my major three times. Lucky me- I decided to place my faith in an unshakable industry: Print Journalism.

These newspapers that are shutting down, are not just the po'dunk-town gazettes. Papers like the Seattle Post, and the Ann Arbor News have been around for almost two hundred years.

I can appreciate the numerous trees that will be conserved, without pulp newspapers. However, you should know by now, that we as humans, will find a way to squander those remaining trees on something else. Hell, after China buys all our debt following our "stimulus" loans, we will probably need the trees as some sort of bargaining chip. We won't have anything else to barter with- except for the mass of previously-owned camry's we could try to sell back to them.

Some papers are printing editions only a couple days a week, while most are switching entirely to the net. Once reliant on their advertisements and classified space, newspapers are feeling the Craigslist-crunch. Most local papers can not compete with the loss of the local ads, and it is a shame.

It is only a matter of time, before everything is caught in the "net," and the immediacy in which our news is provided will be old-hat. I would like very much to live long enough to see our country through the horror, that is reality television. However, I would like, even more, to see what will follow the Internet, when we grow tired of it boundless expanses.

Newspapers, The Endangered Species

It's amazing that the amount of news that happens in the world every day always just exactly fits the newspaper.

-Jerry Seinfeld

One of the most important things I did on November 5th was asking my dad if he could pick me up a copy of the Chicago Tribune. I wanted a keepsake from the election that I could hold in my hands. Not just the memories, or Youtube videos of results coming in, but something I could actually hand to my kids one day.

At the time, I didn’t realize the newspaper itself could be a relic.

I wanted the newspaper because it wasn’t a singular story. The front page, above the fold story isn't all that's there. Newspapers are collective. There are no links to different pages, just…regular old pages. Pages that you try to balance with your coffee on the couch on Sunday morning or read in bumper-to-bumper traffic on Monday. Some of us line our birdcages with it - really, try doing that with CNN.com!

What used to be part of everyone’s day now comes sandwiched between an inbox and gossip site of choice. No more inky fingers or kids figuring out what happens when you introduce Silly Putty to the Comics page. Now we’re supposed to comment underneath when we have something to say, “digg” the articles we like, and bookmark the ones that stand out.

With the economy in doom-and-gloom mode, we aren’t just choosing what to read anymore, we’re choosing how to read it. Why bother paying for a newspaper to be dropped off at your door before dawn every morning if you have to keep paying for internet service anyway? Why does the 50-year-old man need the Style section, anyway? He doesn’t. Does the stubborn Democrat want to read Ann Coulter’s weekly column? Not so much. Does my mother, who calls athletes “sports guys,” read the Sports page? Not a snowball’s chance in hell.

Because of this long-coming trend, newspaper subscriptions have been dropping steadily for years. Add in that whole “Hey, where‘d the money go?“ issue and it’s obvious why newspapers from Seattle to Boston are sinking. Alec Baldwin informs me that even The New York Times, basically THE iconic newspaper, isn’t selling out by mid-morning like it used to. In a bid for more ad revenue, it’s previously “pure” front page actually just ran its first ad. (He still has a soft spot for it, though.)

Obviously, I get it. I bookmark, I comment - I don’t “digg;” maybe I’m just not that hip. But as a newspaperless nation, we’d be missing something. The Sunday ads, the 50-year anniversary announcements, even Parade Magazine. Middle class jobs at newspapers would be replaced with lower paying jobs in the tech sector. Nobody would know their own local news anymore. I can count on one hand how many times I've gone to my own city's website. Politicians certainly wouldn't be held accountable. People already get to choose their news from the left or right, which is, let's be honest, making us all a little crazy. Journalism - of the Carl Bernstein variety, not the Glenn Beck kind - is…well, if you know that Glenn Beck is nuts, you know exactly what’s happening there. Sadly.

I don’t have a solution to this problem. What I do have is respect for the old and fascination with the new. That’s as good a place as any to start.

Nikki Leibhan

Writing a news story about struggling newspapers seems pretty odd to me. Usually, it is the newspapers writing stories about other struggling industries, but not this time. I can't seem to wrap my mind around the idea of newspapers cutting costs and employment like the East Valley Tribune in Phoenix is doing.

CNNMoney.com says in January, East Valley converted from seven-day paid newspapers to a four times a week free paper and expanded web presence. The paper cut about 40% of their employees, too. Detroit free press and Detroit News are also cutting down on deliveries to only three days a week.

I know that the internet is becoming a big part of our lives, as much as we like that idea or not. I didn't think that the newspaper industry would fail to keep up with the technological change either. I did not consider that the two would have to compete.

I read a blog created about two years ago, that asked if newspapers are going to die soon. The author stated that consultant Vin Crosbie predicts that the newspaper industry will undergo serious changes or will face the "chopping block". Someone who commented on this blog stated that this whole process is like "television being the death of radio, or the cell phone being the death of home phones. Sure there will be a definite shift in the medium, but each medium has its benefits and serves different purposes." I think he is right.

I hope that the print newspapers pull through on this. I agree with the comment relating to the blog. People are scared that tradition will be lost by these new (and to some people mysterious) changes.

-Katelyn Fogle

entering a true digital age

On March 16th, Hearst announced that the Seattle Post-Intelligencer would be closing down their print edition, but would continue to publish their online version at seattlepi.com. Towards the end of the print edition, there were under 1 million people accessing hard copies and around 4 million accessing the internet version every week. With a staff of over 150 people, it was condensed to just 20 with the transition. Along with this closing and many others, this seems to be just the beginning of how our technology is taking over yet another aspect of our lives. I feel that there are an equal amount of positives and negatives to newspapers going completely digital.
Positives of newspapers going digital include production costs being cheaper, information is easier and quicker to access, information can be stored and saved in an endless amount of sources, information is free to access (if you don't include having to pay for the internet access), information is easier to preserve and store, and information on the internet can pull more readers in. Negatives of newspapers going digital include jobs being cut and lost, losing the aspect of easy portability of a newspaper, less credibility is established, and other companies suffering because readers aren't buying hard copies of newspapers and don't view their advertisements.
The distribution of news and entertainment has been going on for hundreds of years and the ways in which this information is accessed by people has been changing over these years in all societies. In the last century, the paper along with its print and distribution has been the dominant way in which we access information that we want and need to know. I feel that the way that newspapers run is a great way to get information to people, but not the only way.
As human beings, we are constantly questioning everything and trying to change things to meet our ever changing world. Just like we build machines to produce products for us instead of having to assemble them by hand, we have developed a different way to access news worthy information. I feel that converting to online newspapers is just simply a change that our society is facing. With the quick advancement of computers and technology, something like this was bound to happen eventually. If we create a product that allows us to store vast amount of writing and information and then create something in which people can access an endless amount of any and all information, then something like the conversion of newspapers from print to digital shouldn't be a shock.
I feel that converting newspapers to the internet is a good idea because of the endless amount of things that can be stored and accessed online. By creating websites and putting our news stories on them, we will have them forever, granted that the internet doesn't completely fail and we lose everything. On the other hand, it could be a bad idea in the aspect that technology is taking over more and more aspects of our every day lives. By creating yet another thing for technology to dominant over, are we relying too much on our technology? In addition, to the extent that local newspapers have to cut staff to meet the digital demands, the quality of indepth reporting won't be the same. Also, less sources of news will develop, which in turn will mean that there will be less entities controling the news.
I feel that whether or not newspapers eventually go completely under and everything turns to the internet has its pros and cons, but based on how our world is advancing and how much we rely on technology, it won't effect us in a bad way. Many people don't like or are afraid of change, so although there are negatives to going digital, I think that the fear isn't all about the negatives, but simply it is about change.