There’s hope yet.
I’ve been watching the newspaper situation from afar, not really trying to worry about the impending doom for the industry I’ve spent $40,000 to be educated in (and I’m not even done yet.) Today, much to my surprise, I found two pieces of hope. Two large, substantial pieces of hope (packaged in doom wrapping paper, of course.)
I was googling a Buffalo official’s name. I found an election profile and continued to read it. But I was shut down. “No, no, you’re not reading this article for free,” the computer basically screamed. The East-Aurora Advertiser was having none of this free online news business. They wanted my credit card number, it’s expiration date and a years worth of news added to my bill. Since E. Aurora isn’t exactly my local news, I declined the offer. They declined my news. I hadn’t heard of many news organizations starting to charge, particularly local newspapers.
“We understand the special role that you as newspapers play in your communities” the Town News Web site reads. “We understand how the Internet is changing media consumption. And we’re using that knowledge to help newspapers “own the Internet” in their markets by providing easy-to-use content management systems and revenue generating tools.”
Town News owns smaller newspapers. And they’re keeping them alive!
Hope No. 2: The Post-Standard.
This article caught my eye as I was getting my free news, this morning. The Post-Standard, my favorite newspaper (and my summer internship), is making changes. While the changes depress me, it will be better. Smaller newspapers, smaller costs.
I sit down every morning during breaks and read the news. I’ve realized not a lot of unique reporting is being done in dailies. Also realizing this is the P-S, cutting back on some of these things. They’re formatting all news together, creating one big section instead of two smaller sections. The Madison section recently turned in to a Local section, covering multiple counties. That section is now converging with the front section. While I will miss the extensive coverage of my own county, I know that this is necessary for the big stories to still be covered in newspaper fashion. That is, in an extensive, accurate way. TV stations are quick and dirty. Newspapers take their time.
The best glimmer of hope came from this excerpt:
“So changes are coming, but our commitment to covering local news is unwavering. It is the reason why The Post-Standard is the best-read Sunday newspaper in America and one of the top 10 best-read daily newspapers.
While other media are losing readers or market share, The Post-Standard is gaining readers. The most recent numbers from Scarborough Research showed that both the daily and Sunday newspapers gained 1 percent over the last 12 months. When you look at our audience over an entire week, both in print and online, we reach 81 percent of all adults in the market.”
Amongst all the doom, little pieces of doom-appearing hope is starting to shine through. Maybe, just maybe, newspapers will still exist by the time I graduate!
