http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wium/local-wium-988013.mp3
Macomb, IL – Anyone who claims to know exactly how the future of news media will unfold has some big crystal balls.
Most of us, inside or outside journalism, figure it's somewhere between reporters forced to work for Rupert Murdoch or some other kingpin engaged in questionable practices worldwide on multiple media platforms, or writers replaced by adolescents blogging in their underwear in their folks' basements.
October 2-8 will be the 71st annual National Newspaper Week, a time to acknowledge newspapers as not only a "legacy" medium that still serves audiences and democracy, but the ink-and-paper industry hit harder by foolishness by its business management than new competitors.
True, the Internet is quicker and cheaper - for advertisers as well as content providers and consumers. And journalists should use all the tools we can. Web contents can be visual, searchable, engaging, interactive. For news, the Internet makes it easier to gather and deliver news, but its speed means some checks and balances are discarded, like verifying that something is true.
James O'Shea in the new book The Deal from Hell: How Moguls and Wall Street Plundered Great American Newspapers writes, "The conventional wisdom is that newspapers - ...the credible, edited information they deliver, and not just the paper and ink - fell into a death spiral because of forces unleashed by declining circulations and the migration of readers to the Internet. But [they] didn't.
"What is [hurting] a system that brings reliably edited news and information to readers' doorsteps every morning for less than the cost of a cup of coffee," continues the longtime reporter and editor of papers such as the Chicago Tribune and Los Angeles Times, "is the way that the people who run the industry have reacted. The lack of investment, the greed, incompetence, corruption, hypocrisy, and downright arrogance of people who put their interests ahead of the public's are responsible."
Some thoughtlessly dismiss newspapers as obsolete, failing to see that most of the news we get originates there. Sure, local TV news is a major source of how people get news - 25 million US viewers watch local evening TV news, according to the Project for Excellence in Journalism.
But that compares to about a 42 million weekday circulation of US newspapers.
(Plus, broadcast journalism has also suffered from losses in ads and audience, and has laid off people - in smaller newsrooms. Some dropped news or rebroadcast other stations' newscasts. And a study of 59 local news stations found that 90% of all TV news stories were crimes, accidents or scheduled events. As for radio: most commercial stations have ignored their obligation to provide news as part of operating in the public interest.)
As to the Web, the Society of Professional Journalists and other groups say 95 percent of all original journalism online is generated by newspapers.
Further, newspapers' web sites drew an average monthly audience of 110 million unique visitors in the second quarter this year, say ratings out this summer - more than 64% of all adult Internet users.
The "imminent demise" of print media has been predicted for decades because of radio, television, cable-TV, the Internet and Facebook, Twitter and who-knows-what (ever since). Newspapers still have 50 million customers each weekend, and 400 million sets of eyeballs purchase a newspaper every week.
Meanwhile, journalists' calling is unchanged: Tell folks something they didn't know a minute ago, and make people think, cheer, cry, laugh or take action. Whether with newsprint or HTML, cameras or microphones, journalists and communities alike ask, "What's happening?" "How are we affected?"
I've worked in newspapers and radio since the 1970s, and I favor some sort of a natural "blending" to play to the strengths of stories and media, drawing on the practice of all-news radio stations and traditional storytelling.
Here are six suggestions:
1. The audience wants stories, so hire/keep enough reporters to focus on special areas (basketball, government, schools), and let them do both short takes for online presentation and fuller versions for more leisurely consumption;
2. charge for online access but offer free online archives after a week;
3. invest in software and hardware to tailor material to tablets. Phones are too small; computers can be cumbersome;
4. sell ads based on advertisers appearing in BOTH print and web displays;
5. offer opportunities for online reader comments, but require names and subscriptions;
6. digital first - . the emphasis should be online (phones and email, too) and updated 24/7, like wire-service reporters have done for decades and sportswriters do while games are still played. However, once a day - say, at midnight - a "24-hour snapshot" is designed as the print-product summary of that day's news and features. Call it The Day.
It'd be valuable that day or any week beyond National Newspaper Week.
Bill Knight is a freelance writer who teaches at Western Illinois University. The opinions expressed are not necessarily those of WIU or Tri States Public Radio