Date Added

Monday, March 23rd, 2009

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Journalism

We could never hope to have that.

About a year ago the wife and I were hanging out with a friend from college and her husband in Cleveland. She and the husband both work for a large paper there and as is always the case these days when journalists gather over soda, the discussion turned to the state of journalism.

It was a scary time then, and although the massacre that we’ve seen over the past weeks and months hadn’t started just yet, we all saw the writing on the wall.

“A generation ago, people became journalists with the intention of doing that for the rest of their lives,” she said. “We could never hope to have that.”

Today, we found out that another paper has succumb to the weight of declining subscriptions, shrinking advertising revenue and increased production costs. It’s official, the Ann Arbor News will cease production in July. A new product, AnnArbor.com will take its place with a seven day a week online product. Additionally, they will put out a print product on Thursday and Sunday in addition to a weekly TMC advertising supplement. Everyone who currently works there have been invited to apply for jobs at the new publication. How kind of them.

In addition, other Booth newspapers — the Flint Journal, Bay City Times and Saginaw News — are going to a thrice-weekly print format. All papers are laying off staff. The ones who get to keep their jobs will take a pay cut and see their benefits reduced.

I read an article the other day that equated what we are going through now to what buggy-makers must have felt like when the automobile was gaining popularity. Many buggy makers changed their business model and started producing parts for cars while others stubbornly resisted and eventually went out of business.

We’re seeing a monumental shift in the way people get their information. Broadcast seems — at least from where I’m sitting — to be doing much better. Granted, their advertising revenue is down and they’ve been forced to lower rates. That’s why we all know who Vince from ShamWow! is. There’s no way those guys would have been able to afford spots in prime time 10 years ago. But I digress.

It’s on us, who are still committed to journalism and are young enough to be agile in this changing world, to figure out what the next business model is going to be. How can we continue to do the job the public has entrusted us with — the fourth estate, as it were — and make it a viable business.

Nobody has figured it out yet. All we know is that putting the news on the Web costs a hell of a lot less than printing it. For one, you don’t have to pay all the pressmen and delivery people. You also don’t have to pay for paper and ink, which besides wages and benefits, is probably the biggest cost-savings.

There will be plenty of time to talk business, we should spend today being sad, mourning the loss of another institution. Say what you will about the viability of broadcast and online media versus print, where do you think television reporters and bloggers get their stories in the first place?

I don’t really know what else to say. It’s just a scary, scary time.