Future of newspapers is murky

By KAREN PARKER | County Line Editor

One thing I have learned over the years is that if you are going to be self-employed, it’s a definite plus to have an ego the size of Texas. Mine, I think, is more the size of Rhode Island, or possibly Mount Tabor. Self-promotion does not come easily to me, which is my excuse for failing to acknowledge National Newspaper Week (Oct. 4–10).

Come to think about it, I don’t recall seeing a mention of it in any other local paper either. We newspaper folks are a strange lot. We always seem to have the ambition to throw out salutes to everything from 4-H to National Restaurant Month. If there were a National 10-Penny-Nail Week or a National Manhole Cover Month, we wouldno doubt be on board for those as well.

But we are largely silent on our own value to the community and to the health of democracy. We are the whipping boy for every politician and elected official who cheerfully heaps blame us for everything from global warming to the 2015 shortage of pumpkins. Yes, we did conspire with Charlie Brown to foil your annual Jack-O-Lantern carving experience.

To paraphrase Mark Twain, our death has been greatly exaggerated. Newspapers were supposed to die with the advent of radio, and then withthe arrival of television. Nothing of the sort happened. And then came the Internet, and reams of eulogies for newspapers have been spoken and written about the death of newspapers.

Anyone who anticipated that newspapers would give one great last gasp and tumble over like a deer shot through the heart is probably disappointed. Death is not coming easily. Newspapers have withstood an onslaught of slumping subscriptions, declining ad revenue and a chronic case of floundering about, trying to find a place in the land of new media.

Nearly all of them have plunged into the competition by launching their own websites, only to discover that that the going price for advertising is far below what they commanded for print. Instead of going directly to newspapers, companies turn to outfits like Google, which can deliver a targeted audience of, for example, 18- to 30-year-olds in the market for umbrellas or underwear or unicorns. When and if Google does pass those ads off to newspapers, they receive only a small percentage of the ad’s cost, and Google keeps the lion’s share.

Businesses also turned to Facebook for what they thought was free advertising. As it turned out, Facebook is also into the advertising game, and companies wishing to reach an extended audience will pay Facebook or forget it.

Classified advertising, once a goldmine for daily newspapers, has been whittled down to nothing due to Internet services such as Craigslist.

Weekly newspapers, which rely on the U.S. Postal Service and not counter sales, have been battered by slow or no delivery. Some outraged subscribers have opted for the paper’s e-edition, but many have simply dropped their subscription in frustration.

Meanwhile, the drumbeat of consolidation pounds onward. Earlier this year, the employee-owned Milwaukee Journal Sentinel merged with Cincinnati-based E.W. Scripps Company. The ink was barely dry on that arrangement when earlier this month the publication was flipped and sold to Gannett Company.

The local ownership of Wisconsin’s flagship daily, nationally hailed for superior investigative journalism, is now in the hands of the Virginia-based owner of USA Today. The company also happens to own most of the daily papers in the Fox Valley area.

Gannett was willing to pay far above market value for Journal Media, and shareholders just could not resist a deal. In a world where newspapers kowtow to the market and not the readers, should anyone be surprised?

Recently I heard a media critic asked if he considered Gannett to be leaning left or right politically. Neither, he said. The company is just about making money. Its business model is to own so many newspapers that it can approach national advertisers and compete on the same level for sales with network television and companies such as Google, he said. If your local newspaper begins to like a few local puff pieces wrapped around a version of USA Today, well, too bad.

The future for newspapers is murky. With fewer and fewer editorial voices, can they continue the long tradition of ferreting out the truth and being a government watchdog? Will lousy legislation slip by us and become law with no one the wiser until it is too late? Will they be no more informative than the bulletin board at the convenience store or your Aunt Martha’s Facebook posting? Will we look back at the vibrant, noisy, nosy, questioning newspaper of the past with the same sentimental attachment we now reserve for milk in glass bottles and doctors who made house calls?

Many years ago, I predicted that the Wisconsin Newspaper Association’s annual convention, which once filled the ballroom of the Pfister Hotel in Milwaukee, would be reduced to meeting in a broom closet.

As individual newspaper ownership continues to dwindle in the state, that may not be far off.

Comments are closed.

  • It will be a seemingly endless campaign season

    March 14th, 2024
    by

    By KAREN PARKER County Line Publisher Emerita I would imagine if Eric Hovde has secured any demographic in his campaign […]


    A vibrant press is essential to democracy

    March 11th, 2024
    by

    By KAREN PARKER | County Line Publisher Emerita Sadly, there was no obituary in the paper for the Vernon Focus. […]


    America’s bent toward fascism

    February 26th, 2024
    by

    Imagine living in a country where the simple act of gathering together to lay flowers after the death of a prominent person could result in a two-week jail sentence.


    In 2024, remember that politics were ugly 100 years ago, too

    February 5th, 2024
    by

    Good grief! We are barely into the new year, and I am ready to go back to 2023 or leap ahead to 2025. Are we really in for an entire year of presidential election babble?


    Looking back on our 40th year, 1983–2023 (part two)

    November 30th, 2023
    by

    By KAREN PARKER County Line Publisher Emerita Forty years is a long time. Sadly, it’s long enough for most of […]


  • Looking back on our 40th year, 1983–2023

    November 27th, 2023
    by

    By KAREN PARKER | County Line Publisher Emerita Certainly one of the things that has changed a lot over 40 […]


    Private insurers insert profit-over-patient mentality into Medicare

    November 9th, 2023
    by

    By KAREN PARKER | County Line Publisher Emerita I met Dave Zweifel many years ago, at a Wisconsin Newspaper Association […]


    Does the Parents’ Rights Act ensure any new rights?

    October 12th, 2023
    by

    By KAREN PARKER County Line Publisher Emerita It has been a curious sight last week watching the House of Representatives […]


    Medicare Advantage reflects power insurance companies have over Congress

    September 28th, 2023
    by

    By KAREN PARKER County Line Publisher Emerita If you ever had any doubt about the power insurance companies have over […]


    Celebrating Wildcat’s 75th: The Lord brothers are two intriguing figures from Ontario’s history

    September 15th, 2023
    by

    Of all the colorful and eccentric characters in local history few are as intriguing as two brothers, Ed and Charles Lord. 


    Recalling the flood of 2018

    August 31st, 2023
    by

    If there is anything good about a flood, it does force a major house cleaning. This week marks five years since the flood of 2018 that swept through Ontario, built up steam, and continued on its way to the Wisconsin and the Mississippi, leaving behind a forever-changed landscape in the towns along the Kickapoo River.


  • Archives