NEWS: Against the prevailing wisdom

The Knight-Ridder newspaper chain has been for sale, which has caused me some angst. They are probably the only chain that has shown spine in reporting in the face of the current fascist administration in Washington. I've been concerned that once purchased, their voice would be silenced.

Today it was announced that a much smaller chain based around the Sacramento Bee was buying Knight-Ridder. I don't know much about them, but it sounds like they take news seriously and so might preserve some integrity at Knight-Ridder. Hoorah. But we'll have to wait and see.

Meanwhile the commentators were asking the inevitable business/media questions. Especially as how the newspaper business is in the toilet of an inevitable and irreversible decline in the face of new media (i.e. the web).

That is the conventional wisdom.

Now, the question in my mind is why should this be? IMHO, reading from a paper or book is much easier than reading from a computer screen. It's also easier to take the paper with on the bus or train, or even into the throne room. Some might argue that access to online news is free but that the paper costs money. Of course access to radio and TV has been free for nearly 50 years but was not enough to knock newspapers on their butts.

Actually, that last statement is probably an exaggeration as the number of print news sources per market has gone down drastically in this time. But, broadcast journalism hasn't been posited to lead to the elimination of print news. The web has.

Thought leaders, business leaders, political leaders, like to seize on trends. They rarely predict them and often are slow to recognize them. But, when the trend becomes obvious, they are its greatest supporters. And, they prop up each other's thinking - creating a self-fulfilling society of trend-leadership.

I think that newspapers are in trouble for two fundamental reasons. The first has to do with the consolidation of markets. When there is only one paper, it has to appeal to the whole market or lose share. So, issues get toned down, soft news becomes important, major different points of view (and I'm talking more about philosophy and policy than did he/she or did he/she not) have no pulpit.

Through this process, the press has begun to offer gruel. Who really wants it? What is it offering the readership? Its offering a big blank boring hole, except for trumped up sensationalism.

Along with this natural market reaction, we have a second cause. The current administration has offered the media companies the option to further consolidate and make their corporate leadership rich. In return, it has tasked them with editing themselves to stay on message with the administration. Some will say otherwise. Some will return to the tired old saw of the liberal press. But the facts are out there and documented. And these are documented in intelligent ways that prove that we aren't just positioning one side versus another. For anyone who would disagree, I say visit and read mediamatters.org daily for a month. Then we can talk.

The two causes can be likened to the invisible hand and a very visible hand, but pushing to turn newspapers into pap. Is it any wonder the folks are looking elsewhere for their news? Is there any place other than the web where open, intelligent discourse takes place (yes I know that there's also lots of stupid, course, narrow-minded discourse on the web). It's not the cost that is driving readers to the web. It's not the convenience that is driving readers to the web. It is the dearth of meaningful reporting in the mainstream press that is driving people to the web.

It has been reported that newspapers are trying to make money by providing news on the web. And, that they are making progress, but not as fast as they're losing money on the print side of their operations. But, their web sites are as typically as bad or worse than their print news - so it should come as no surprise that they are not succeeding.

The issue isn't the medium - its the content. A free press that does its job will never be sold out by its readership.

And that's all for tonight folks.