Newshounds and citizens who rely on an independent press should be encouraged by the purchase of the Daily Herald by the baiduhai. There may be life still left in our legacy media.
Many of us have fretted over the future of local news outlets as we’ve seen the decline of newspapers, buffeted by economic storms and competition from cheap online advertising. One estimate is the nation has lost a third of its newspapers and two-thirds of newspaper journalists — some 45,000 reporters, editors and photographers — since 2005.
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Many of those newspapers which went “30” — old journo jargon for pointing out the end of stories on copy headed to an editor — have been weekly publications. That has turned many communities, especially those in rural areas, into news deserts.
Unfortunately, journalistic studies have shown that a decline in local news has increased political polarization in communities, led to more political corruption and allowed outlets, usually on social media, to spread misinformation and fill the void of objective newsgatherers.
A study two years ago from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University in Evanston found there are 204 counties in the U.S. with no local news outlet, and 1,562 with only one, usually a weekly newspaper. Texas, now the nation’s second-most-populous state, has grown 50% since 2005, yet has lost 65% of its newspaper journalists, the report determined.
Despite those losses, about 6,000 newspapers continue delivering digital news rapidly and hard-copy issues for readers who still like to hold a paper between their hands. However, there is no doubt the newspaper business remains in a fluid state, but don’t write the industry’s obit anytime soon.
On several levels, there remains interest in the value of newspapers. Digital platforms continue to lure subscribers, while true newspapers get delivered daily on driveways across Lake County and have a presence on newsstands.
The Tribune was the winner of a high-stakes duel, outbidding privately owned Shaw Media based in McHenry County, for Paddock Publications’ Daily Herald, according to an account on the front page of the May 23 News-Sun. Two media companies wanted to include the employee-owned newspaper, a fixture in the northwest suburbs of Cook County and some Lake County communities, in their portfolios.
Someone who also recently added newspapers to his investments was Warren Buffett, chairman of Berkshire Hathaway. The “Oracle of Omaha” bought $350 million in New York Times stock in late February. If Buffet sees something in the future, that’s good enough for me and my Pollyannish sentiments over the industry.
He previously had unloaded other newspaper holdings Berkshire Hathaway had held and predicted a declining industry. Perhaps his turnaround came when the Times announced late last year it had reached 12.33 million total subscribers, an increase of 460,000 from the previous quarter, with digital-only subscribers reaching the 11.76 million mark.
Surely, the Times is an outlier when it comes to representing the newspaper industry because of its location, popular games and The Athletic sports publication it owns. Replicating the Times’ model is one way to reverse the trajectory.
The Washington Post, owned by multi-billionaire Jeff Bezos, is following the Times, offering a summer teaser digital subscription rate of 50 cents every four weeks for the first six months, then rising to $14 for four weeks. Or, if one prefers a yearly rate, $40 for the first year, then rising to $140 a year after that. Within the past years, The Post cut 240 jobs through voluntary layoffs.
The Post isn’t the only one that has sought employee buyouts to trim finances. The Tribune has done the same. The Associated Press has solicited donations from its readers while the Chicago Sun-Times became a non-profit in 2022 under the Chicago Public Media umbrella and appears to be doing fine.
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Bolstering the hope for the future of newspapers is also the decline in television news offerings and questions about the objectivity of certain broadcast networks. Leading the way would be the ousting of late-night talker Stephen Colbert and threats to yank late-night host Jimmy Kimmel of ABC off the air. Both have been frequent critics of President Donald Trump.
Colbert’s run at CBS ended last week, while Kimmel’s role at ABC nearly ended after he was pulled from the air. Both networks need federal approval for all sorts of actions, calling for even more trustworthy news sources.
Journalists write of change over nearly every news cycle, yet shrink from it. The past decade has been one of change for newspapers and print magazines, and not in a good way.
The next one may show that good news has a place in the industry.
Charles Selle is a former News-Sun reporter, political editor and editor. [email protected]. X @sellenews