Amanda’s hodge podge: The death watch of newspapers
In the land of the newspaper life as we once knew it is no more. Over the past couple week’s newspapers in the United States have stopped publishing, filed for bankruptcy, and one has even done the unthinkable by closing the presses and going strictly online.
On February 27, the Rocky Mountain News, said goodbye to Denver forever, just 55 days short of its 150th birthday, because owner E.W. Scripps Co. lost US $16 million last year and the company was unsuccessful in finding a buyer during grim economic times.
“Today the Rocky Mountain News, long the leading voice in Denver, becomes a victim of changing times in our industry and huge economic challenges,” Scripps CEO Rich Boehne said. (CTV.ca)
Also in late February, The Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The Inquirer is owned by Journal Register Co, which publishes 20 daily newspapers and 180 non-daily publications.
In a statement, Philadelphia Newspapers LLC blamed its filing on a “rare trifecta of a dramatic decline in revenue, the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression and a debt structure out of line with current economic realities.”
And just last week the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, a 146-year-old US newspaper, printed its final edition on Tuesday March, 17 before becoming the Us’ first strictly online publication.
Owner Hearst Corporation has failed in its attempts to find a buyer for the paper, put on sale in January. The decision to go solely online is the first such venture for a large US paper.
There will be an editorial staff of 20, compared to the previous 150. The remaining editorial staff will be expected to write, edit, take photos, and shoot video.
This venture will probably lead to a phenomenon and the end of print. It’s a sad, sad day for journalist types.
Today the Ann Arbor News in Michigan City also declared it will cease its operations in July after saying the newspaper’s “business model is not sustainable,” said publisher Laurel Champion in a statement this morning.
The paper will scale back to twice-weekly print frequency and move the bulk of its newsgathering operations online until July.
The term “More with Less” has become a dreaded but regular word in the industry that is killing everything journalism stands for. With less journalists cannot deliver the full package and in depth research to the public. Now the public gets a half fast effort and only half the story because of the pressures put on journalists, the lack of resources, and the dying industry. This literally means that journalists are expected to write their story while driving, video recording, voice recording, eating, video editing, finding their next assignment, interviewing, and sleeping all at once.
Everyone has known for years that the internet is killing newspapers, but now it’s killing journalistic integrity and the career form as well.
What do you guys think of the past-pace changes happening within the industry these days?
Do you prefer the print version over the screen version?
Lets us know.
To visit the Seattle Post-Intelligencer go to www.seattlepi.com.
For the latest updates got to http://www.newspaperdeathwatch.com/
