Fewer reporters is bad for the democracy
What would we do without reporters?
As a journalist, I worry less about the state of the newspaper industry and more about the state of American democracy – if newspapers continue their decline.
I know from covering city councils, legislatures, sewer boards, court hearings, and school board meetings, etc., that many such meetings wouldn’t be covered if not for newspaper reporters.
The often tedious duty of being watchdog over the three official branches of government – executive, legislative and judiciary – falls to the so-called 4th Estate. Reporters are the backbone of the 4th Estate, and almost all the very best reporters I’ve met in my near 40-year career have been newspaper or wire service reporters.
Since the founding of the republic, newspaper publishers have hired reporters and editors, amassed general circulation audiences, and charged advertisers to reach valuable audiences. Newspaper owners amassed fortunes, but most were wise enough to reinvest substantial portions of their advertising revenues back into their newsrooms. And the 4th Estate flourished – if not in friendship – alongside the formal branches of American government at the local, state and federal levels.
But that system is in danger today.
Newspaper circulation and advertising are falling. In 1935, when many households subscribed to two papers, newspaper advertising accounted for 45.2 percent of all U.S. advertising. By 2004, the share fell to 17 percent.
Actual print newspaper advertising dollars have declined sharply since 2000 – from $48 billion in all U.S. dailies – to just over $42 billion last year. Online advertising revenues – as counted by the Newspaper Association of America (NAA) – have not fully covered the print revenue losses.
So, inside the newspaper industry – ranging from the New York Times, Chicago Tribune and other powerhouses down to the smaller community newspapers across the nation – budget cuts are occurring. My friends at small dailies and weeklies openly wonder about long-term survivability.
The most recent report showed a 3.6 percent drop in newspaper circulation at the nation’s top 20 newspapers in the six-month period ending in March 2008. This is a long-standing downward spiral. A rule of thumb in the industry is that a newspaper employs one person in the newsroom for every 1,000 subscribers. Losing readers means losing reporters.
My sense is that newspaper newsroom reductions will continue, and that they may be irreversible. Many of the best and brightest potential young reporters will look beyond newspapers for careers.
I don’t know where real reporters will go for real jobs. The “blogosphere” is largely worthless. Broadcast journalism has never proven itself either wide or deep. I don’t see Google, Yahoo or Microsoft hiring reporters, and I wonder what they will do for news content after they’ve unwittingly helped kill off newspaper newsrooms. Where will radio and TV get the bulk of their news if they can’t “borrow” from newspapers?
Moving to the Internet has helped newspapers, many of which produce the No. 1 most-visited local Web sites. So far, however, online revenues have not grown fast enough to replace shrinking print advertising and circulation dollars. As newspaper companies’ stocks shrink, so do the number of reporters and editors.
And I wonder: Can an open, representative government and democracy work without watchdogs? Newspaper reporters long have filled that role – but now, perhaps, they are an endangered species.
Marc Wilson is CEO of TownNews.com and president of The Job Network. He was a reporter at three daily newspapers, five AP bureaus, and he was editor and publisher of a Montana weekly newspaper. Contact him at marcus@townnews.com