Newspapers are going out of business. As the pandemic unfolds, it’s believed that 80 percent of US newspapers will shut their news rooms. Prior to the pandemic, papers were already in free fall. The pandemic promises to place the final nails in the coffin.
As the US began to require stay at home regulations in March, newspaper advertising began to fail. Due to the upstart of craigslist and similar websites offering free advertising in the past several years, papers were already on the ropes and losing ad revenue, especially in classified listings. But news “deserts” were already a thing—geographic locations with no newspaper at all— long before the coronavirus appeared. According to the University of North Carolina School of Journalism and Media, in the past 15 years, one out of five US newspapers has either disappeared or become a ghost of themselves.
I worked for a small town weekly in northern California years ago, The Chico News & Review. Unfortunately it stopped printing six weeks ago after 45 years. That 80 percent death rate just got personal. Thankfully, it still has an online presence. With crowd sourcing and a new subscription request from the publisher, I’m hoping it can hang in there.
In a recent podcast of On the Media, commentator Brooke Gladstone delved into the dearth of papers. She spoke with Rachel Dissell, former reporter for Cleveland’s Plain Dealer, which has been publishing since 1842. In 2000, it employed 350 reporters; today, just 14. Dissell, who’d been with the paper since 2002, gave up her position two months ago so another reporter could have a job. Recently, after 80 years of union membership, Plain Dealer journalists lost their backing with the Newspaper Guild and the unit will dissolve May 17.
But smaller communities suffer the lack of reliable journalism most, according to UNC’s 2018 study. Almost 200 of the 3,143 counties in the US don’t have a newspaper at all, and the southern US suffers more than other regions. Stats show that people who live in emerging news deserts are generally, poorer, older, and less educated than other Americans. They’re overlooked because low-income areas tend to not purchase subscriptions to news services.
The lack of newspapers oftentimes means people in a vicinity that lacks media coverage have no idea what’s happening in their community—from city council coverage to local school board information or even elections. Local papers produce more local content for their communities than TV, radio and online outlets combined.
Will newspapers be one of the many industries that bite the dust due to the virus, along with retail shops, small restaurants, and mom and pop services? Only time will tell, but the forecast looks stormy.
