Boise News

Column: Media

McClatchy Reports Good News for Boise

By Jill Kuraitis, 1-28-10

The Associated Press is reporting good financial news for McClatchy Co., owner of the Idaho Statesman and 29 other daily papers.

Lenders have agreed to refinance McClatchy’s debt and the company’s cost-cutting measures led to a 2009 fourth-quarter profit.

McClatchy stock went up 11 percent today.

While it’s still not good news for the many journalists and staffers laid off in the past 18 months, it’s a glimmer of possibility for the Idaho Statesman to survive and, hopefully, thrive.

What format that paper ultimately takes is unsure, but a capitol city needs a newspaper.

The Statesman’s ups and downs have included three different owners in the space of a decade or so, a major redesign that has morphed into something simpler, big layoffs, and new printing arrangements.

And, like all “media outlets” (there has to be a better phrase than that, and all suggestions are welcome) citizens and lawmakers are periodically furious with the paper and make that clear. But if nobody is ever angry at a newspaper, it’s not a good sign for the paper’s independence.

Boise needs a fully-staffed and intense reporting and investigating newspaper – one profitable enough to pay the very best journalists and remain strongly uninfluenced by outside sources.

In a time when there is limitless unreliable information available on the internet – a situation bound to get worse – independent, professional, impartial news sources like traditional newspapers are more important than ever. Whether or not there is actual paper involved isn’t.

At NewWest.Net, we offer a different kind of reporting, analysis, and commentary, and have never considered the Idaho Statesman a competitor. We think the traditional media, new media, and other formats for news are an important mix.

A capitol city needs a newspaper. We should hope this glimmer of good news for the Idaho Statesman continues.

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