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Join TSPR for a weekly conversation about media issues. News Director Rich Egger and expert panelists discuss what’s in the news about the news business.

Fewer newspapers making political endorsements

It’s quite possible you saw few – if any – newspaper endorsements during the recently completed election campaign.

The Associated Press reported that these endorsements were once a key part of the political season and an important role for newspapers, but now they are fading away.

AP said a recent announcement that newspapers controlled by the Alden Global Capital hedge fund would no longer endorse candidates for president, governor, and U.S. Senate is the latest indicator of the trend.

In many cases, endorsements have become victim to both the news industry's troubles and the era's bitter politics. After many newspapers advised against voting for Donald Trump as president in 2016 — and he won anyway — many news organizations wonder if it's worth alienating readers when they're hard enough to come by.

Shop Talk is a weekly panel discussion about journalism issues.  This week’s program featured Will Buss, who teaches in the Department of Broadcasting and Journalism at Western Illinois University and advises the student editors at the Western Courier, the students at student radio station The Dog, and the WIU chapter of the National Association of Black Journalists; Rajvee Subramanian, who teaches in the Department of Broadcasting and Journalism at Western Illinois University; and TSPR News Director Rich Egger.

Rich is TSPR's News Director.