On October 1, 2012, four newspapers owned by Advance Publications, “The Birmingham News”, the Mobile “Press-Register”, “The Huntsville Times” and the New Orleans major newspaper, “The Times-Picayune”, all moved to a three-day publication schedule. This move, along with similar cutbacks and reductions in other newspapers nationwide (usually caused by a serious drop in advertising revenue) led many to predict the imminent demise of the daily newspaper.
That prediction seems to have been somewhat premature, though it’s true many are still struggling. The respected “Washington Post” was recently sold, and the venerable “Boston Globe” has encountered problems. So have many more of the larger newspapers. But some have successfully adjusted to decreased revenue by cutting staff, reducing other expenses, and upping subscription prices. And many smaller papers have hung in there, and survived.
Our local newspaper, “Florida TODAY”, recently did a thorough revamp, including changing the B section to a reduced version, usually six or eight pages, of “USA TODAY”. Parent company Gannett did the same with 34 more local papers they own. Counting the mini-versions along with the much larger stand-alone, “USA TODAY” now claims a daily circulation of nearly 3.3 million, the largest of any US newspaper. And hopefully, adding the “USA TODAY” segment at no extra charge will help these smaller papers “live long and prosper”.
The A section of “Florida TODAY” changed to emphasize local news, including business activities, social affairs, and the comics. Sports still has its own section, and includes national and international coverage along with local news. The “USA TODAY” section provides national and world news, including financial and entertainment segments.
“Florida TODAY” began life as just “TODAY”, before Gannett President Allan Neuharth , who started this new paper as the local publisher and rode its success to the top spot in Gannett, decided to also create the first general interest national newspaper. He and his team modeled “USA TODAY” on “TODAY”, and then added “Florida” to the local title for greater differentiation.
The fact that my local paper seems back on equilibrium is encouraging. “Florida TODAY” isn't a large paper, serving primarily our county of over half a million, with substantial sales in the smaller county south of us. It now costs close to a dollar a day for the print version, home delivered. A digital version, read on your Kindle, other tablet or smart phone, costs much less.
In an era in which anyone can go on-line and claim to be dispensing 'news', I think the old standards of verification from several sources, and/or confirmation by direct contact, have taken a severe hit. We need the discipline and rigor of professional reporters if the ‘news’ is to have any real value. We can get personal opinion (as opposed to a reporting of reasonably well established facts) from the innumerable commentators on television.
Otherwise we're riding the Shockwave, while Standing On Zanzibar. And the Winter Of Our Discontent grows colder.
Photo credit: Patrice Green
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