Pew: Newspaper closures won’t hurt

The latest Pew Research poll should send shivers down the spine of anyone in the print industry.

As many newspapers struggle to stay economically viable, fewer than half of Americans (43%) say that losing their local newspaper would hurt civic life in their community “a lot.” Even fewer (33%) say they would personally miss reading the local newspaper a lot if it were no longer available.

Not unexpectedly, those who get local news regularly from newspapers are much more likely than those who read them less often to see the potential shutdown of a local paper as a significant loss. More than half of regular newspaper readers (56%) say that if the local newspaper they read most often no longer published — either in print or online — it would hurt the civic life of the community a lot; an almost identical percentage (55%) says they would personally miss reading the paper a lot if it were no longer available.

Media coverage of its own demise has registered. It still hasn’t made a difference with most. The reasons are numerous. Taps is being played, but no one cares.

With media coverage of newspaper company bankruptcy filings, threats to close papers, actual shut downs and continuing job cuts, the public is aware of the industry’s financial problems. More than half (53%) say they have heard “a lot” about the problems facing newspapers, while 31% say they have heard “a little.” Only 15% say they have heard nothing at all.When it comes to local news, more people say they get that news from local television stations than any other source. About two-thirds (68%) say they regularly get local news from television reports or television station websites, 48% say they regularly get news from local newspapers in print or online, 34% say they get local news regularly from radio and 31% say they get their local news, more generally, from the internet.

Newspapers have long struggled to attract younger readers. A recent analysis of newspaper readership by Pew Research found that just 27% of Generation Y — those born in 1977 or later — read a newspaper the previous day. That compares with 55% of those in the Silent or Greatest Generations, born prior to 1946.

The apathy toward newspapers is explainable. For one, the medium is dying. Why wait for tomorrow morning, when you can go online and get more of it now. Why sit down with a paper when you can turn on the TV and sit down with dinner.

The bias question isn’t as prevalent in these polls, but conservatives have abandoned papers for years with little to no effort from papers to balance local editorial opinion or to stamp out editorializing in stories from wire services. It’s not hard to detect the biased narrative or false premise in a national or local story and people won’t have their intelligence insulted. If your starting off, lets say in the Midwest, and the base you are trying to reach, 50-percent of them are already predisposed into thinking your biased, apathetic at the best toward their views and a waste of money,  those are impossible odds to overcome. Conservatives have left in droves with no effort to get them back.

Most papers were spoiled by monopolies. The last 30 years, the majority of markets were single-paper only. Prior to the 70s, most major cities had at least two major daily newspapers. When one swallowed the other, they became monopolies in their region and were able to dictate to readers and advertisers on their terms. Once that money dried up, you were dealing with a management and structure that was incapable of adjusting to the pressing needs of the moment. Nothing makes it harder to earn hard money then getting used to easy money.

Papers have had over 10 years to build toward the inevitable – the online model. Instead of finding or inventing a way to survive online, something no paper has successfully managed at this point, they grasped to the print model. For one, it was easier. Two, it was what they knew how to do. Three, it didn’t take as much effort as inventing an entirely new way of making revenue. It has turned out to be a major mistake.

Despite the bias – perceived, existing or otherwise – papers are valuable assets that need to be replaced. Do newspapers deserve to die? There are a lot of reasons to say yes. But someone has to watchdog government, have the skills to maneuver the bureaucracy, the paper work and the endless barriers, to cultivate the sources and to do the legwork. That takes time and money.

According to that poll, most are going to local TV news for that. Don’t ask what percentage of those stories were lifted from the local paper.

What the newspaper industry needs is a large does of ingenuity – and quick.

Share on Facebook