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by Stephen Enzweiler
November 6, 2009
Each morning I shuffle down to the end of my drive in slippers and robe, coffee cup in hand, and I bend down to retrieve a little bit of the world wrapped up in a celophane cocoon. I shuffle back in. Sit down. I open it and read it. Pour over it. Savor it. Ahhhh...
It is something I have done for years, a ritual I cannot shake. But I'll be frank: I’m a writer and I like sitting down and taking time to get my news and such from a good old fashioned newspaper. TV doesn't excite me anymore, because all the loudmouths on TV have turned the news into little more than a jaunticed exercise in drama and hype. And radio anymore gets all its news from the TV stations. Nothing seems to be able to compare with the convenience and cost savings of a good old fashioned newspaper.
But did I call newspapers old fashioned? Well, there is a kind of virtue in taking time read it, to carefully scrutinize it, and to form your own opinion of it. There is grace in the tactile feel of the paper, the smell of the ink, the flavor of the writing, and being able to tuck it under your arm, stuff it in a pocket, not worry about it, and go back to it later and revisit it as you might an old friend.
Newspaper have other advantages as well. You can drop it - it doesn't break. You can get it wet - it doesn't short out and cost you $500 for a new one. It doesn't need a switch to make it work; it doesn't need batteries, and you don't have to upgrade it every three months with a new version that costs you several more hundred bucks. It doesn't even need batteries (gasp!), goes virtually anywhere (bigger gasp!!), delivers news and information instantly, and cost me only 75 cents.
But despite all those advantages, this old American standard is in danger of going extinct. Along the way, I’ve discovered that my morning newspaper has been shrinking - and shrinking badly. Not only has it been shrinking in its dimensions, it has been shrinking in content and in the quality of its content.
I pulled out an old paper I saved from when the Cincinnati Reds won the World Series in 1977, and that paper dwarfed the one I read this morning. Another paper my father saved from 1945 dwarfed the paper from 1977. Soon, newspapers will be the size of postage stamps and we'll all need microscopes to read them.
The old gray mare ain’t what she used to be. She ain’t even the old gray mare anymore.
It’s no surprise that internet and other information-based technologies are largely responsible for the decline of the printed newspaper. Most papers that still survive have done so by changing their business models to conform to the demand for the more instantaneous and convenient online and downloadable news and advertising opportunities.
A decade ago, just one-in-fifty Americans (2%) got the news with some regularity from what was then a brand new source the internet. According to a Pew Research news consumption study, 31% of Americans got their news online in 2006.
While the audience for online news is large, it is not particularly concentrated. Today, on average, slightly more than 40 percent of Americans still read the daily newspaper. That figure declined by only 18% since 1990, and readership has remained relatively steady in the last few years. Pew Research also found that there are surprisingly fewer people overall reading online newspapers - only 6% in 2006, with only 4% who read both printed and online editions.
So, is there hope for my lowly newspaper? While growth on online news readership has continued to slow considerably since 2000, it is the young demographic (those under 30) who are becoming less likely today to go online for their news. While it was novel in its delivery a decade ago, online news coverage has slowly evolved to become little more than a supplemental source of information, valued most for its headlines and convenience of accessing specific information, not a detailed, in-depth reporting source.
Young audiences are increasingly turning to television as a main news source (CNN, FOX, and MSNBC, etc.) with online sources to fill in the gaps . To this demographic, convenience wins out.
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But the numbers ultimately speak for themselves. The proliferation of online media and the internet have changed Americans’ news habits very little. Since Al Gore invented the internet (sic), online news audiences only grew a little over 20% in the 1990's and since 2000 they have grown only 8%. That growth has begun to slow even further.
Does this spell survival for the lowly printed newspaper? Well, sort of. The bottom line is that the printed newspaper isn’t going away anytime soon for two big reasons.
First, there has been a fundamental rethinking of the business models of newspaper organizations. When advertisers left the printed page in favor of the bigger online markets, editors were forced to rethink their delivery strategies to readers. They've had to embrace online media for the obvious revenue generating opportunities they present. Many have successfully made the leap; my hometown morning paper is one. But others who hesitated are now fossilizing in the mud of the past. Darwin was right. He was even right when it came to newspapers.
The second reason was that editors began to realize that "local" was more marketable and profitable than "national" or "international." Both metro and small town papers have gone to more local content, and that's paid dividends with increased circulation and more ad placement to local markets.
In the movie "Amadeus," Mozart lauds the virtue of mediocrity in the imperial court: "Let's face it," he says, "Who wouldn't rather talk with his hairdresser than to Hercules?" (insert Mozartian laugh here.) But he's right, in a sense. Who wouldn't rather read about their neighbors and friends and the kids down the street than listen ad nauseum to run-on international news and political commentary (which isn't news at all) over international diplomacy, war, or the state of the ? Yawn...
As the stomach turns, so too does the business of delivering the news continue to evolve. The day of the big metropolitan newspaper with armies of roving reporters and photographers is long gone. In its place is a small, lean editorial staff that takes up little space, and which solicits news stories, articles, photos, and commentary from the general public within the local community rather than rely on an army of paid reporters. With phrases like, “send us your stories” and “get printed” in the margins, many small town papers have no trouble getting a steady stream of stories, news, photographs, and information that is used to fill the column inches they still have. They know that the local community will always buy and read news about themselves every time.
I suppose it's not such great news for people like me who have to make their living from writing. I still remember with a degree of sentimentality what it was like working in a bustling newsroom of a city paper filled with people. Today, that newsroom has emptied, filled only with the shadows of a time long gone.
Regardless, one thing you learn as you grow up around the writing business: there will always be people who want it in their hands and not on a flashy screen with fear-mongering news anchors in your face; few things in life are ever so important that you have to know it instantly anyway. If the world comes to an end, I'll turn on the TV and watch it live. Otherwise, I'll grab a newspaper and read about it as much as I want. The newspaper still has everything anybody really needs to know anyway.
So, tomorrow morning I will again shuffle down to the end of my drive and pick up that celophan-wrapped little beauty that waits for me there. No batteries, no switches, no electronics, no hassle - just some ink and some paper with all the news and commentary I need for a cost of about 75 cents. I'll go in and sit at the breakfast table and read it as much as I want over a nice hot cup of coffee as the rising sun streams in the window. Pour over it. Savor it. Ahhhh...
Posted: 6 November 2009
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Stephen Enzweiler is a writer and Contributing Editor for Y'all Magazine, the Magazine of Southern People, headquartered in historic Oxford, Mississippi. Contact him at: steve@yall.com
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