More Editorial Cuts, and More and More

Will Newspapers Deliver News Anymore?

By Robert Struckman, 10-03-08

Newspapers cuts this week have begun to seriously call into question the continued ability of newspapers to deliver news.

Yesterday the independently owned Spokesman-Review announced plans to cut 27 more newsroom jobs, almost one-quarter of its editorial staff while newsprint prices continue to soar and profits, industry-wide, keep plummeting.

Earlier this week Lee Enterprises flagship paper, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, cut 18 more jobs, including its primary cops reporter. Over the past few months, the newsroom has been practically gutted by Lee, which remains one of the few profitable newspaper companies.

It’s gotten ridiculous, tracking the number of editorial job cuts at newspapers across the country. Erica Smith, who writes the blog Paper Cuts, has the closest thing to a definitive list. She counts more than 11,000 newsroom jobs eliminated so far in 2008.

Journalists, industry analysts and others agree a seismic shift is underway in the news industry. The underlying components of the newspaper industry no longer seem to provide their parent companies with surefire profits. It’s not that profits aren’t there. Lee Enteprises, which owns all of Montana’s major newspapers except the Gannett Co.-owned Great Falls Tribune, has consistently made money, even this year, and continues to pay dividends to stockholders. Others appear shaky, and some papers have closed. Others seem to be on the brink. But even in the most ruthlessly profitable corporations like Lee, profits are sinking like never before, because ad revenues keep going to the Web and key costs, including newsprint and fuel, have relentlessly risen. The Newspaper Association of America predicts profits will continue to drop.

The newspaper industry has always had its ups and downs. Some aspects of the present situation seem tied to that old cyclical pattern. When the economy slows, ad revenues plunge. Newspapers trim staff. The economy recovers, and strong profits return.

That basic stability has meant that throughout the past century and more, newspapers have held the central place in American news. Most journalists work for dailies. Daily editors, photographers and reporters churn out news on virtually everything. It’s not a perfect system. It’s expensive. And the content, and other aspects, are certainly worth critiquing. But in a hard-bitten, sometimes cynical profession, I’ve many times been amazed at the passion journalists have to tell stories. That underlying passion—and the sheer amount of news and journalists—explain why newsrooms are where regular young people become journalists who can critically cover our institutions and communities.

In the near future, that may no longer be the case. As newspapers continue to hemorrhage money, editorial positions have been cut dramatically, possibly fundamentally changing newsrooms. Newspapers seem to be at the verge of losing their core proficiency: gathering and disseminating news.

It’s worth noting that during World War II, when many newspapers virtually shut down, the New York Times poured resources into coverage. Media historians say that’s when the paper went from being one of many major national dailies to being THE national paper to watch for everything important. In the 1950s, 60s and 70s, huge newspapers ceased publication. Not the Times.

What do I mean by that? The news companies that stop producing news to retain profits may trim themselves into irrelevance. I don’t think that has happened. But it might.

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