Birth Pangs, Death Throes... and Ghosts!
Change Is Inevitable
Local news coverage is going through significant birth pangs. I’ve intended to write about this for some time now, but every time I start, I come across something newsworthy that merits incorporation into my thinking… and into my column. So, this ramble comes with a disclaimer, “This is an emerging story and will be updated as information becomes available.”
The term “birth pangs” indicates my view – more than just a hope – that something new indeed is being born, although from my perch, it’s not yet clear what the “new-new thing” will be. A dozen or more examples are likely to be birthed, multiple workable models. It’s also fair to note that a birth-pangs approach is vastly preferable to a death-throes approach, a term that (admittedly) may well apply to more moribund local news providers.
A factoid encountered recently, quoting: “The rate of newspaper losses in the U.S. ticked upward in 2023 to two-and-a-half a week… Since 2005, the country has lost almost a third of its newspapers. Survivors include 4,792 weeklies, often the sole source of news and information in their communities. North and South Dakota, Iowa, and Minnesota lost the most newspapers per capita between 2005 and 2023.” (from “The State of Local News Project,” November 16, 2023, Northwestern University, Medill School of Journalism)
If Iowa’s mention didn’t rattle your thinking a bit, you might not be paying attention.
An additional point worth mentioning, quoting the same source: “Job cuts at dailies have given rise to ‘ghost newspapers,’ so-named because the product is a shadow of what it used to be.” Sound familiar? Three points I’ll add here. It’s not only dailies where cuts have been made. Many a weekly paper that eight years ago employed five people now have a payroll of two. Furthermore, if you think the most talented people are staying, you’re obviously an optimist. Finally, let’s not blame the (indirect) victims; people employed in local news are doing the best they can, often with scarce and shrinking resources.
Communities are different and require vastly different news sources. Nevertheless, all communities and models share common challenges. First, it’s a major puzzle to figure out how to generate adequate financial returns on an investment of talent and energy. In most cases I’m familiar with – admittedly, a relatively small number – standing behind a valuable local news source is a committed person/family/group having resolved that local news is vitally important. Accordingly, they’re willing to withstand less than sterling compensation to support this conviction. We should all be grateful.
Second, yes, qualities like fairness, accuracy, speed, and thoroughness matter, but does the public care enough to cover additional costs required for these valuable (essential?) characteristics? Simply stated, is “pretty good” sufficient when it comes to things like fairness and accuracy?
Third, the list of diverse talents required to maintain dependable local coverage is long, especially for understaffed entities: writing, editing, sales, photography, layout, production, operations, etc. Remember, coverage does not take vacations and must meet deadlines, all the while evaluating what’s important for informed citizens to know and understand.
So, how to wrap this up on an upbeat note? My attempt: Digital outlets have emerged to fill some voids. The Iowa Writers’ Collaborative is one example; this column and I are part of this effort. Also, there are numerous public policy proposals at the federal level to help rebuild local news. Some may result in support before it’s too late. Furthermore, examples abound of civic-minded philanthropists stepping up with high-impact donations, hopeful of sustaining societal returns. Hooray, when this actually happens.
Finally, if there’s a common theme to successful coverage, it’s encompassed in the word “local”. Invariably, thriving models are owned locally and are remarkably sensitive to their communities: listening, building relationships, responsive to readers, subscribers, and advertisers. If this blend were easy to achieve, trendlines might be in the opposite direction.
And what can WE all do about it? At a minimum, we can subscribe, or renew our subscription, to a local news provider. (And perhaps gift subscriptions for others who might be interested.) I’ll share more about this topic in 2024. Thanks for reading.
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I’m pleased to be part of the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative. My colleagues:
Just catching up on Substacks--
Mount Ayr [Iowa] Record-News and Cook [Minnesota] News-Herald, both small-town weeklies still plugging along with local staff and apparently still quite vital. The publisher/editor in Cook delivers small stacks to retail outlets himself but subscribers, both local and distant (like me) get them in the mail; Record-News subscribers also dependent on the USPS. We have homes on Lake Vermilion in MN and also near Redding, IA and the publications are read cover-to-cover with great interest. Record-News recently survived its second ownership change since we started subscribing three decades ago and the News-Herald guy is the Northwoods equivalent of Art Cullen but at the other end of the political spectrum--not sure what will happen when he is gone but hope there is an interest from someone.
Thank you for this Substack