Will online media report the obituary of newspapers?
It seems that while newspapers are worried about online media killing them, the reality is they are killing themselves and online media will be reporting about it.
There was a flurry of news breaking in Michigan last week about newspapers — but not in the newspapers.
Booth Newspapers apparently is consolidating copy desk and several other functions from newspapers across the state at the Grand Rapids Press. They also are offering buyouts and cutting staff at newspapers statewide. A day later, a few other daily newspapers in the state owned by the Journal Register Company were put up for sale and now Gannett is supposedly cutting 10 percent of local news jobs in early December.
There’s been plenty of blogging and tweeting about this but very little news reported in the newspapers — even though it’s happening within their own walls.
For some online reporting on the subject, check out blog posts at Paper Tiger No More, Michigan Liberal and 5Ws. You also can track the story and information leaking out anonymously from reporters and other newsroom staff here on Twitter.
Article Tags: Booth Newspapers | citizen journalists | Gannett | Journal Regsiter | layoffs | newspapers | online media
Filed under: MicroBlogging, News article, blogging, mainstream media
I just found out about Paper Cuts, a blog map that Erica Smith, a graphic designer at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, has been using to keep track of newspaper layoffs and cuts across the country.
Rupert Murdoch seems to believe that although papers won’t be landing on your doorstep, and they will exist in some shape.
(http://news.cnet.com/8301-10787_3-10098194-60.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20)
I believe this to be true.
Consolidation, behavior, lack of ads dollars and other factors have laid conditions to create the transition of the print medium.
I think people are just trying to hang on to their jobs, remain competitive or figure out how to survive in the brave new world of the Internets where timetable, content generation and choice rests completely in the hands of the consumer.
I spout off b/c newspapers, as with any other company, would not go around touting their own degradation anymore than AIG or Lehman brothers.
In the end, newspapers and all media are a business, so I don’t see them casting doubt in their audience and sponsors by reporting their own departure, leave that to the competition.
Thanks for the comment Mary. Good points to consider.
As to the idea of newspapers not talking about their own problems…doesn’t it become a credibility issue if the public sees the newspaper as hiding something? Sure, that makes it a double standard because other companies aren’t expected to publicize their problems. But journalists have relied for years on applying double standards to those they cover — so in the end, what goes around comes around.
Great paper puns above (cuts, tiger). But where oh where is “Paper Losses?” Great book too.
Is the MSM “papering over” these developments?
Another good blog report about the newspaper industry and what its CEOs are up to: http://tinyurl.com/6s7k3b