Stop the Presses? Many Americans Wouldn't Care a Lot if Local Papers Folded

[billyoc]

As many newspapers struggle to stay economically viable, fewer than half of Americans (43%) say that losing their local newspaper would hurt civic life in their community "a lot." Even fewer (33%) say they would personally miss reading the local newspaper a lot if it were no longer available.

Not unexpectedly, those who get local news regularly from newspapers are much more likely than those who read them less often to see the potential shutdown of a local paper as a significant loss. More than half of regular newspaper readers (56%) say that if the local newspaper they read most often no longer published -- either in print or online -- it would hurt the civic life of the community a lot; an almost identical percentage (55%) says they would personally miss reading the paper a lot if it were no longer available.

The latest weekly News Interest Index, conducted March 6-9 by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, finds that the public is continuing to pay close attention to news about the economic crisis and President Obama's agenda. About a quarter (26%) say the unveiling of Obama's plan to set aside $630 billion toward overhauling the U.S. health care system was the story they followed most closely last week. Nearly one-in-five (18% each) say their top story was the rising unemployment rate or the major drops in the stock market.

The economic crisis continued to dominate news coverage as well. When the ongoing story lines are combined, crisis coverage accounted for 43% of the total newshole, according to a separate analysis by the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism (PEJ).

...

http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1147/newspapers-struggle-public-not-concerned

[ddeclue]

1. The Orlando Slantinel is a rag... there are only two good columns in it

Mike Thomas and Scott Maxwell. Outside of these two guys it's mostly just AP stories and local Chamber of Commerce approved propaganda.

It would actually HELP our community to get it out of the way and force people to rely on the weekly alternative Orlando Weekly which isn't in the pocket of the local Chamber of Commerce and which tells it like it is.

Doug D.

[depakid]

4. Ding, ding ding!

Credibility is a newspaper's stock in trade- and many around America are now close to being bankrupt.

That said- anyone who's ever researched papers from the past realizes this isn't some new phenomena.

[sybylla]

2. My small local Gannett paper is a joke

and so are it's affiliates in the region. I stopped buying the paper a decade ago when they started putting kids and kittens above the fold on a nearly daily basis when there are bigger issues to deal with in this world. I wouldn't miss it in the least. It's a newsletter; it's not a real paper.

[LiberalFighter]

6. The major companies need to have their holdings divested.

[sybylla]

9. That might do it. I'd definitely support that.

This paper was gobbled up about 15 years ago, about the time it stopped being a serious newspaper. They do zero investigative journalism. They parrot everything city hall, the courthouse and the capitol tell them (no matter which sleazy politician says it) so what's the point. I can find all the sleazy politican's press releases online. I don't need a local rag to spoon feed it to me all dressed up in a prom dress.

[Lost in CT]

3. My town has two weeklies for 26,000 people (also a monthly glossy mag)

the closet major city has 6 dailies and various weeklies and monthlies.

I get 2 papers at home (NYT and WSJ) plus both town weeklies. Pick up a paper when I take the train (I'm not going to name it due to the hate mail I will receive but it rhymes with most)

Get a news weekly (Economist) and a news monthly (Atlantic) and honestly most of it goes into the recycling unread...

[jwirr]

5. I am worried about the lose of investigative journalists when we lose

the newspapers and news magazines.

[pnutbutr]

7. I love my little local paper

It doesn't even have a website but a local citizen runs one that the paper has allowed him to post the articles on. I particularly enjoy the police briefs section with riveting tales such as a woman called the sheriff to report a man peeing on the side of the road. The sheriff arrived but nobody was there. Seriously though, it's a great little paper to keep me informed of local happenings and I would miss it if it ever went under.

[lyonn]

8. It would depend on the area

In Okla. City we have a newspaper that is strictly repub. I haven't read it in years. It's like listening to Fox news. Same goes for local radio and tv.

It's hard to imagine having a choice in papers. It does seem that some papers, NY Times, Boston Globe (?), etc. do provide a service. Public broadcasting is at least trying to inform from the middle. It will be interesting to see how people feel about their print news from States that are not controlled by repubs.

[LisaM]

10. I depend on our paper for a lot of local things

concerts, theatre listings, local sports, tide tables, extended weather forecasts. Ours also puts out a voter's guide before elections.

I would miss it a lot if it shuts down (one of ours, the Seattle PI, probably is shutting down). I blame media consolidation for this, but I also have a beef with people that suddenly stopped subscribing. I know people like this. They aren't very engaged in local stuff to begin with. They shop at big box stores. They are glued to their iPhones. I'm getting really tired of this.

I've invented a little old lady who's 80 years old. She has an old TV that has always gotten the local stations. She gets the PI delivered. She doesn't have a computer. She's on a fixed income. She rides the bus, but they've slashed service and moved her bus stop. Who's looking out for her? What's she going to do when her TV stops working? Who's going to explain it to her, or pick up a box to translate her signal? What's going to happen when she stops getting her paper? I see people like this as being utterly cut off from news and local events thanks to these changes. It's absurd. It's going to affect all of our lives in a very negative way.

[hamsterjill]

11. I'd love to see some competition

I live in a large Texas city and we have only one "real" local paper.

There used to be two several years ago, and I think having two helped keep the journalism factual, the stories interesting, and generally gave both sides of an issue better. In other words, competition for readers and subscriptions.

We do have a couple of minor publications, but they aren't large enough to be serious competition to the one big paper in town.

[jmowreader]

12. I wouldn't care if my local paper folded--quite the opposite, actually

There's about one thing in the whole paper that's worth reading, and you can find Pearls Before Swine online.

[1]

13. i don't think its so much about newspapers folding...

i have for a long time had a problem with newspapers printing a separate issue on paper for each and every subscriber to read and then trash.

once i discovered the internet that just seemed so wasteful.

the problem is that online news delivery has never found a viable model for charging for this information. so therefore news organizations cannot make any money and cannot afford to pay employees (journalists and others) to continue this valuable fourth estate enterprise.

if news folk cannot make money reporting the news then they drift away to other professions where they can. normal human behavior.

and we are left with what? bloggers? any asshole with an opinion and an internet connection? that is what passes for news reporting now?

so sad.


and that's the rest of the story...