“We are entering a golden age of journalism. I do think there has been horrible frictional costs, but ... I look at my backpack that is sitting here, and it contains more journalistic firepower than the entire newsroom that I walked into 30 to 40 years ago.” — David Carr
As something of a news junkie who binges on information, I’ve been concerned about the state of my local daily newspaper.
I’ve watched the size and scope of the Omaha World-Herald become more svelte the past few years. It’s a well-worn tale, a reality that has hit a number of dailies around the United States.
There was a time when subscriber revenue was “gravy” for newspapers. The real money was made off of advertising — in-column ads, classifieds, and automobile advertising.
My wife and I have degrees in journalism, and we own a marketing communications business. Along with the rest of our ilk, we’ve watched the seismic shifts in the industry the past decade with a sense of foreboding.
A few weeks ago I wrote a blog post about the Omaha World-Herald’s revamped paywall.
This week, the Omaha World-Herald announced it was cutting 43 employees, and making changes to the newspaper.
I have a friend who lost his job with this round of cuts. He found out when he arrived at work that morning — it hit him like a punch to the gut.
The public expresses concern about “quality journalism” in our society. They bemoan the rise of "fake news" as a scourge on the public good. Yet, as is often the case in these situations, little is being done by the citizenry to staunch the bleeding.
Nobody likes a train wreck, but everyone likes to watch a train wreck... if you get my gist.
My brother-in-law Sean Weide spent his adult life working in media. He died unexpectedly in 2017, but I had the opportunity to work for him in the mid 1990s, and we often talked about the state of media.
Sean's most recent jobs were in the role of press officer for professional cycling teams.
Sean would tell me how the media rooms at cycling events (generally multi-stage tours around the globe) were full of bloggers. As such, he often wondered aloud why Bridget and I were excluded from press events related to UNO Hockey (since we run a fan site for the hockey program called MavPuck.com).
Bloggers, YouTubers, SnapChatters, Instagrammers, Tweeters and Facebookers have been painted with labels like “new media," "alternative media,” or worse. The question you have to ask yourself is this: When will these people and platforms — which are often "adjuncts" to so-called accredited news organizations — become all that’s left to dole out information to the public?
You see it trending more that direction each year. News organizations try to maintain editorial legitimacy by keeping newsrooms and operations staffed and stocked — all while subscribers, ad sales, and print sizes continue to plummet.
It is not a sustainable model.
What will a world look like if “citizen journalists” rule the day? Are they already ruling the day?
I realize large organizations — especially those with an entrenched leadership structure — often change at a glacial pace.
Some will point to the fact that newspapers are designed as money-making ventures. They’ll cynically say that journalistic purity has never been the sole goal for these institutions. Rather, they’ll argue that editorial content is based (at least in part) on what attracts eyeballs, and greases the wheels with potential advertisers.
Some will go further and suggest that these institutions were too slow to figure out what appealed to younger demographics.
I don’t know what the future holds for the Omaha World-Herald — or other daily newspapers around the country.
Instituting the “more restrictive” paywall in January of this year — followed by significant layoffs in February — wasn’t an attractive look for the newspaper. It will bring into question the viability of print media in the Omaha-Council Bluffs metro area — an area that spans roughly 900,000 people.
Will the next decade see newsrooms whittled down even further — only to become paper-thin versions of their former selves?
Stay tuned...
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