Would you miss newspapers if they stopped publishing?
I might be sorry for starting this topic in the Talk of the Day. But we’ll see. I predict I will get a lot of people ranting about the “liberal bias” in the media. I’m hopeful that regardless of how you feel about the Post-Dispatch, you might appreciate the role newspapers try to play in our democracy and respond from that point of view.
But, as you have heard, the news out of the newspaper industry hasn’t been great lately.
- The Chicago Tribune’s parent Tribune Co. filed for bankruptcy protection.
- The New York Times Company is borrowing about a quarter billion bucks against its new Manhattan building.
- The Detroit newspapers — The Free-Press and the News — might cut home delivery most days.
- The Christian Science Monitor has announced it will stop printing a print newspaper, just as the Capital Times in Madison, Wisc., has.
And those are just some of the relatively recent developments. My colleague, Erica Smith, has documented the loss of jobs at news organizations on her blog, Paper Cuts.
Now, if you’re here, reading this blog, it tells me that you care about news. Otherwise, you’d be wasting your time doing something else from your office computer right now. So is news important to you? Would you miss the newspaper if it stopped publishing?
Kurt is the director of social media for the Post-Dispatch, where he has worked since August 2002. He's been a journalist since 1982, covering municipal government, courts, education and two hurricanes as a reporter before becoming an editor. 
Seems everyone has a favorite newspaper. That’s not the subject.
I prefer reading the news without having to log, click, and squint.
Keep the daily newspapers. My morning coffee taste better when it’s resting on the sports page.
If newspapers were worth the paper they were printed on, I would miss them. These days, however, the paper is more about editorials, and editorializing the news. (Sorry Kurt, but you asked for it). Take the PD, for example. If it would report objectively, then would increase their audience. I don’t get the paper every day because I absolutely cannot stand the lazy, left wing reporting that goes on inside it.
If newspapers completely went away, it would be sad, but perhaps that is progress. Online news is more environmentally friendly anyway, and the focus really should be on more socially conscious means of distributing information. Imagine all the fuel that is wasted by newspaper delivery trucks and those printing presses. If we lose the PD to save our planet, then so be it.
Back when USA Today was 50 cents, I bought one almost everyday. After going up to 75 cents, I purchased only on Mondays and Fridays. Now that they are a dollar, I have stopped buying. The price keeps going up while the quality goes down.
The only role today’s media plays in Democracy is perpetuating the myth that there is one.
The media doesn’t have a liberal bias it has a government/corporate bias. It feeds the masses misinformation to keep them controlled and dumbed down. Why do you think the Pentagon is set to declare war on “The Net”? Because it knows it can no longer use the media to feed the masses misinformation and get them onboard with their programs. The media wouldn’t be at death’s door if it had done it’s job. The mainstream media only provides “junk food” for the mind. It’s of no relevance or newsworthiness. Most local media runs corporate advertisements disguised as news stories. Very little of what comes out of the MSM is value and is now what is called “infotainment”. When almost 70% of the American Public questioned the validity of the US Government’s 9/11 conspiracy theory, the media rose to the occasion and told everyone of how kerosene melts steel and steel and glass buildings fall neatly down in to their own footprint because of 9/11 boogeymen who could pilot sophisticated airliners after just a few lessons and do manuevers 30 year veterans can’t even do. Yet you can soak your own BBQ pit with kerosene, light and it will only create black smoke w/o the BBQ pit melting down in to it’s own footprint. The MSM is full of propanganda and answers to corporate globalists not the consumer. Because of this the “unwashed masses” have turned away enmasse and are never coming back. The MSM is at the same juncture the US Automakers were in the 1970’s thru the Mid 80’s - turning out inferior junk but still feeling that they deserve every dime. Now that the masses have choices the MSM is FURIOUS and wants the government to “TURN OFF THE INTERNET!!!, CONTROL THE MESSAGE!!” It’s too late and people can now get the truth w/o the corporate mindcontrol. The cat’s out of the bag and there’s nothing the corporate media can do about it. So - Media, take your junk and stuff it!
Actually, what is missing in most conglomerately held newspapers is the idiosyncratic spark and flare that folks find online. I will gladly read or listen to media with which I disagree (I’ve been known to fill the car with Rush and Hannity and OReilly on long drives, just for sheer entertainment value.) I don’t agree with those folks 80% of the time, but they are part of the world, and ignored at our peril.
While unbiased reporting (or at least reporting both sides of the story) is the sign of a good reporter, newspapers themselves have almost always taken a stance. No one could have called Pulitzer, or Hearst, or Mencken unbiased…they took a stand and stuck with it. Sometimes, these positions were taken to an extreme: the newspaper in Linn, MO is called the Unterrified Democrat. That in Quincy is the Whig, and there haven’t been Whigs around in a coon’s age.
If you take a look at some of the few remaining small hometown newspapers (try the Current Wave out of Eminence, or the Current Local from Van Buren) you will see there still are publishers and editors out there not hiding behind the gray walls of corporate media. Now, those are NEWSPAPERS!
I would sorely miss those small town newsies if they go under…maybe the bigtown newspapers, who have bent over backwards to be bland and uncontroversial should take a clue from them.
Another interesting thing…many people are decrying the death of the objective reporter and the rise of opinion. Well, what are they doing here? Expressing their opinion, of course!
Yes, but more importantly: would the ideal of democracy — which people here in the United States supposedly hold so dear in their hearts — suffer if newspapers stopped publishing? Undeniably. Then, we might not only have cracks at this country’s seams, as we do right now, but fissures. Democracy — or even a facade of democracy — can only exist via an informed public.
I look forward to reading the St. Louis Post on line every morning. I can hardly wait for my local newspaper to be delivered in the afternoon. So yes, I would miss published newspapers terribly. Thank you.
If you’re an older, stay at home type of person who has no technological ability or interest, you will probably prefer the paper itself. Me, I do not subscribe but I read STLtoday.com, USAToday.com and all of the rest. I can get a better grasp of local and world news faster and more accurately than just reading the physical paper. Also, I get news updates on my phone that is current and not yesterdays news. Further, with satellite radio, I listen to Fox News, CNN among others while driving. Interesting thou, I seem to remember advertisers more on the internet than those in the paper! Dillards ad location on stltoday at the Home Page location, front right center, is a killer spot for example.
My hubby and I debate about cancelling the newspaper because we just don’t seem to enjoy sitting down and reading it like we used to. Me for totally dumb reasons, but I hate the cheap paper it is printed on. I get so frustrated trying to fold back a page while it is creasing every which way but where it should. Everytime they “change” something for the better, I hate it. If something big is going down, I tend to head for the internet or MSNBC for coverage anyway so I just don’t seem to need the paper as much. I truly feel that I am purchasing the newspaper for the Everyday section only and that just isn’t worth the price anymore.