People act like closing newspapers is some kind of new development that signals the end of an epoch. Let's face it; newspaper closings are anything but new. Sort of like climate change. People act like the world just started getting warmer in the past couple of years. If that were true, we'd have been able to hike to Siberia until 2001 and the fruited plain would be the frozen tundra. I won't debate its occurrence; I will, however point to the fact that things have been heating up since the cave man, if anthropology is still a believable science. The question is, why didn't those cavemen put out their fires and stop polluting the atmosphere and creating holes in the ozone layer? Maybe a little global warming was good for them. They could always adapt to less animal fur and a little warmer climate. After all, they were really cold. It was, after all, the ice age.
The point is this: newspapers going under is nothing new. When one stops to consider the papers who are closing their doors, most are in dual markets. Whether the Seattle PI or The Rocky Mountain News, papers closing their doors is part of a natural cycle of business. I have to wonder why people (particularly those in media-surprise) act as though this is some sort of recent cataclysmic event. If you look at just one company, E.W. Scripps (full disclosure-a company for which I still hold the greatest respect and one in which I was mutually invested for 20 years), and consider the closings in recent years, the closing of The Rocky may seem less like catastrophe and more like a cycle of natural events. The Rocky isn't the first closing. There seems to be far more emotion with it-likely because of the sweat and tears of those who toiled to make it a really great paper, but everyone seems to forget all the other great Scripps papers who were part of the flow. No one seems to be crying for The El Paso Herald-Post, who closed its doors in the October of 1997. Or what about the Birmingham Post-Herald, who stopped publishing in December of 2005? The Albuquerque Tribune in February of 2008? The Cincinnati Post in December of 2007? All publications of the E.W. Scripps Company. This is not indictment of Scripps. They held on as long as they could--some would argue too long.
The common thread of all the closings is that they all suffered from being on the wrong end of a shootout. Someone had to win; someone had to lose. In every case, there just wasn't enough readership for two papers in the same town anymore.
People also aren't considerate of a historical perspective. At the turn of the 20th century, most towns had as many as six-- sometimes eight newspapers in each major city. If graphically depicted since 1860, one could see that newspapers, in sheer numbers have been contracting over a long period of time. Forget circulation.
Just as the newspapers didn't start losing circulation or closing, consolidating, or starting JOAs in the past 2 years, the process of adaptation will likely take time too. Newspapers will evolve, likely into something more active, more enlightened, free of the encumbrances of onerous labor agreements and the overhead of press facilities. They will be fleeter and they will be more likely to be local in nature and less dependent on wire services. In short, they'll write what people want to read. But it will take a new set of players; the old guard will have to die away. The whole "Circle of Life" thing.
To say there is nothing new with newspapers closing around the country is accurate. The difference is that the editorial staffs are not quitting. Just the contrary. They're getting up, dusting themselves off and creating the new model. It's likely that the short term will demand that they wear multiple hats-maybe have to hold down two jobs. They'll scrape and fight. They'll protect each penny as though it is essential to paying the next power bill; it just might be. In short, they'll be doing what entrepreneurs do. They'll be doing what Newspaper Next and all the newspapers who were a part of it wanted to do but couldn't. They'll be entrepreneurs.
If I am correct, there will be investments from financiers who are willing to bet on the entrepreneurial spirit of the new breed.
Climate change happens. I often wonder if the best way to counter it is to spend less time trying to put glaciers back together and expend more energy on adaptation in order to survive. Godspeed to the Denver Times staff. I'm proud to support that great group of entrepreneurs with my subscription!
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