Amid reports of war, economic meltdown, and political coalitions, the newspapers haven’t really covered the news of their own demise – except in their own trade journals and blogs.
Maybe that’s because not enough reporters and editors are still working. According to the blog Paper Cuts, at least 15,586 U.S. journalists lost their jobs in 2008, and another 210 have been laid off in the first week of 2009.
A Gallup poll in December found growing numbers of Americans were getting their news from cable news networks and the internet, and newspaper readership has declined from 44 percent to 40 percent. (Local TV news, though declining, is still Americans’ top source, at 51 percent.)
A Pew Research study confirmed the finding, saying that 40 percent get their national and international news from online sources, compared to 35 percent from newspapers.
U.S. media were shocked this week when the New York Times actually ran an ad on its front page. It may be too little too late: According to a column in The Atlantic Online, the NYT may be out of business by this May, at least as a hard-copy paper. An online version, maybe with a paper edition on Sunday, could be its only way out.
Here at home, the Canadian Association of Journalists warned this week that job cuts at papers are reaching “a tipping point where the decline in the quality of news content will lead to an industry death spiral of less content, smaller audiences, and yet more cuts.”
These cuts have been going on for some time, largely driven by the defection of advertisers to online media. According to a report last fall, Canadian internet users are supplementing their newspaper reading with web journalism, but evidently paying more attention to online ads than to those in the papers.
And in hard times, says another report, cash-strapped Canadians say they’ll cut their newspaper subscriptions after concerts and sports tickets, movies, and DVDs. Last item they’ll cut: their internet connections.
The financial impact has been heavy but volatile. For example, CanWest Global, on January 7, jumped 9 cents, to 89 cents a share. In the past year, CanWest shares have ranged from $7.90 to 34 cents.
The big media corporations, even CanWest, can probably survive on their TV and radio revenues, but millions of us will find the loss of the newspapers both painful and expensive. We’ll miss the morning ritual of reading the paper at breakfast. And spilling coffee on a laptop keyboard is a lot more costly than spilling it on the sports section
Crawford Kilian is a contributing editor of The Tyee.
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Glen Murtz
3 years ago
Die Faster....
"We’ll miss the morning ritual of reading the paper at breakfast. And spilling coffee on a laptop keyboard is a lot more costly than spilling it on the sports section."
True. But a greater concern will be in finding something to paper the bottom of bird cages, an especially appropriate use for the two metro dailies.
Though I suppose there's still the National Post.
NicS
3 years ago
Coming Soon "The Full Service Tyee Experience"
I cannot wait for the day when due to the failures of predigested newspapers, The Tyee will have become a full service internet news service.
Keep up the good work!
seth
3 years ago
good riddance
Mainstream papers and journalists sold out to neocon business interests years ago. Made them billions by electing tax cutting union busting fascist governments all across the country. Now the bunch are getting exactly what they deserve. Hopefully TV will be next.
Otis Krayola
3 years ago
All of the above.
I have to agree with what's already been said here - Vancouver's been without a real newspaper for years now. Time was, you could get the late edition of the Sun (when it published in the afternoon) and actually read a real news story - Who, What, When, How, Where, and, maybe Why - about something that happened today. Now, we're offered CanWest Global's spin on what happened yesterday and that passes for 'news'. I do worry about those who have to line their birdcages (as noted above) or wrap fish, but I don't mourn something I wouldn't buy - The Sun, The Province or the National Post.
Grumpy
3 years ago
My god!
The foundations of the Asper press are shaken - they printed a negative letter about SkyTrain! My God - is real news about to issue forth from CanWest Global?
Frank
3 years ago
Deserved
CanWest (and Lord Black) decided once upon a time to aim its appeal at a very right-wing segment of the population. They fired editors and columnists that wouldn't go along for the ride.
Much of the Left and even the centre quit buying their papers and now its doubtful the Izzy Asper empire will last even one generation.
CanWest is finding out its a lot easier to turn customers away (by doing things like hiring the premier's brother to pontificate on politics) than it is to get them back.
Good riddance.
anarcho
3 years ago
Too bad!
I started boycotting the ever-increasingly right-wing newspapers about 15 years ago. Glad to see others doing the same. May they all go as bankrupt as the ideology they espouse.
Van Isle
3 years ago
The definition of
The definition of 'success'is; delayed failure.
RossK
3 years ago
The Full Service Tyee...
NicS, above, said:
"I cannot wait for the day when due to the failures of predigested newspapers, The Tyee will have become a full service internet news service....."
You mean it's not now?
_____
However, with all due respect to Mr. Killian's reportage, I, for one, am not convinced that the big slide in the CanWest's stock price in the last year was wholly due to stagnation in the print sector side of of its business....
.
Jeffrey J.
3 years ago
Pride Goeth Before Fall
Great article Mr. Killian. And the comments above pretty well sums up what every critical thinking person knows in BC. Turning the public press into a monopoly voice of business is a really, really bad idea.
I can't recommend enough Marc Edge's two books, Pacific Press (story of Vancouver Sun prior to the Aspers) and Asper Nation. It is THE definitive research that sums up how a once great province has lost a vibrant news culture. CanWestGlobal (and Black Press) largests sin is being a monopoly (CanWest owns ALL of BC's daily newspapers; Black Press owns most of BC's weekly newspapers). If we had multiple voices in the public domain, their right wing, neocon, corporate views would still be diseminated, but read only by those who choose to do so. Now, there is no choice.
Mark Rieder
3 years ago
been there, done that
After 12 years as a print journalist, I finally gave it up and moved on. Glad I did. I have to say though, that accusing reporters of selling out and predigesting the news is somewhat unfair. Especially when working for a smaller publication, it is often impossible to get the 'truth' from those we interview. What we're left with is an incomplete picture of what is really going on. It doesn't matter if you write for the Washington Post or online news sources like the Tyee, few people know what's really behind the story. Any reporters who tell you they do are either lying or deluding themselves. It's a matter of getting your information from multiple sources, than and only then, you begin to see the big picture. Print journalism, whether your one of those people who think they are controlled by this or that special interest, still has a place in the grand scheme of things. They are less 'predigested' than broadcast news.