Even as economic bombshells pummel the newspaper industry’s landscape, I’m gaining confidence in our future. You might say I have a Charlie Crist-like optimism.
I’d understand if you think that’s Pollyannaish. Another 175 jobs – 40 in the newsroom – were lost just this week at the Miami Herald. That’s more than 20,000 lost jobs in my industry in the past two years.
The Rocky Mountain News shut down last month, and the Tucson Citizen, Arizona’s oldest newspaper, will close by the end of next week if a buyer cannot be found. The Citizen is owned by Gannett Co. Inc., parent of the Tallahassee Democrat.
The Tribune Co. has filed for bankruptcy, as have the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Philadelphia Daily News and Philly.com and the Journal Register Co.
Many companies, Gannett included, have had mandatory furloughs or salary reductions or both.
I could go on and on and on and, unfortunately, on.
The Democrat has fared better than most newspapers, largely holding onto our strong readership base, even vastly expanding it when Tallahassee.com is added in. But a combination of the worse economy of my lifetime and a disconnect between online-audience growth and advertising revenue is taking a big toll.
So what’s the basis for my cheery outlook?
Most importantly, newspapers are still doing good journalism and many understand that though we can’t be all things to all people anymore, we can and must be one thing: a watchdog on government and its officials.
We can’t – and we won’t – back away from that. Not now. Not ever. If we were to go away or ignore this vital role, our basic system of governace in this country could fail, too. No other medium, not even the Internet, is prepared to step in and fill that void.
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