The shrinking newspaper industry – the dark ages

There is, to some of us, something sensual about the feel and smell of a fresh newspaper; the printery can be every bit as evocative as the bakery. Even transferred to the web a quality newspaper can still be evocative, but shifting with technology isn’t stemming a flowing tide and demise of quality journalism.

While media groups are searching for the silver bullet, the Knut to stem a determined flow, they invariably choose the wrong approach. Cost cutting, cosmetic make-overs, telemarketing and discounting are not cutting the mustard.

Increasingly former competitors are now pooling stories, increasingly local papers are buying in outside news to keep the dwindling ads apart. This is where the relevance content begins – content must be relevant to readers to hold interest. Sounds DOH!, but newspaper accountants don’t understand the concept.

My first editors/chief of staff’s insisted on two things – local names, and pics local of locals. Okay, that was regional, but even the metros and nationals need a nod to broad local to hold reader interest. That is why we are assured there was one of our nationals on board a plane wreck in Bulgaria.

I regularly take one of two hard copy newspapers, the Sydney Morning Herald or the Australian; both broadsheets and only one owned by Murdoch. I guess they represent the serious right and soft left Aussie print. I only ever take Saturday papers because I can find all the news I need online; it’s the analysis I’m looking for.

I’m not concerned with pop culture, yet I’m with those who are. As newspapers seek to reduce costs they are making an unforgivable mistake: The shades of opinion are being buried, the relevance to individual readers is being rejected. Regardless of core interests, readers are still looking for either affirmation of information. ‘Newspaper lite’ doesn’t meet reader expectation or needs.

Now I don’t deny my concern with the shrinking news media holds an extra dimension for a professional writer. As much as I love the tech revolution, everyone is a writer and skill or discipline become lost in the quest for the dollar. No tears for we old journos, but lots of tears for quality reporting and commentary.

Fortunately history teaches us that ‘everything old is new again’; all this will pass and the desire for the broad spread of news will return. For now though it does feel like the dark ages of real reporting, as my old editors would have it.