I didn't expect to get whirled into the vortex of journalistic change when I joined the Peoria Journal Star 10 years ago. Newspapers have always been there. They've been been part of our culture: "Extra, extra, read all about it" and that kid pitching the newspaper off the porch from his bike. How many movies used that spinning headline to scream info to the viewer?
But now newspapers seem to be fighting for their lives. All the news that's fit to print doesn't seem to fit anymore. It's that print part. We're getting news from other sources. The Internet throws up a world of papers that not only reach your porch but come free of charge. Cable TV news channels, meanwhile, prattle on endlessly about the issues of the day while offering 24-7 coverage of the latest catastrophe.
That's tough competition in a world where a lot of people aren't exactly reading fanatics. Oh, they're reading but it's "your precious e-mails," as the freaky innkeeper on the Verizon commercial says, or text messages or bits and pieces along the way on a computer screen.
Newspapers suddenly find themselves in the same boat as AM radio: old technology that's sinking as younger consumers find other options. So the question becomes: Do you start bailing or try to build another boat?
By the looks of things, the newspaper industry is doing both-on the fly. One of the ironies involved in this struggle is as the Internet opens up this universe of possibilities: Video, additional pictures, sidebar stories, reader responses, links to related Web sites, etc., there are fewer people in the newsroom to do it.
Maybe you heard: newspapers are cutting back-on the size of the publication, on pages, on news content and, of course, on staff. A whole new business model is forming, one that doesn't involve foreign correspondents or veteran newshawks.
Now we need to make a differentiation here between big-city and small-town papers because while the metro scene is suffering, the smaller publications serving rural America continue to thrive. That's an important distinction because it points out that newspapers that can be clipped, written on and otherwise manhandled before being recycled still have a place in our world.
The question is just what the newspaper's place? In the case of a paper like the Chicago Tribune, one of the many big-city dailies struggling with debt, that paper's place is no longer on the porch of a reader in Peoria 160 miles from the Windy City. The paper recently discontinued downstate home delivery despite the fact that the few readers they had were willing to pay for it. As a long-suffering Chicago Cubs fan, I need to get the news first-hand on the team's trials and tribulations. The Tribune has some pretty good news articles, too, although I'm not too wild about their flashy redesign-doesn't seem to be as much to read anymore.
When the Tribune discontinued the home delivery, they politely informed me that I could still read the paper online. I knew that already. But it's not the same. I can find the same six or seven Cub stories that run during the season and read them individually, even finding reader comments that I didn't get before. But the reading experience isn't as free. With the paper in front of me, I scan willfully, using those 100 billion neurons or whatever it is in the human brain to determine what interests me.
It allows writers and advertisers to do their best to reach out and grab me: That's the democracy of communication. The fact that this package still comes in an old ink-on-paper package doesn't really matter. It just works.
As a 59-year-old, lifelong newspaper reader (chiefly sports as a kid growing up in Boston), I know I'm not the "choice" audience that the newspaper wants to reach-those 25-to-54 year-olds that carry so much weight in our economy. But I also know I'm not alone. Reading a paper online is not the same as having the paper in your hands.
There I've said it. At the risk of being labeled a Luddite or dinosaur or whatever anti-tech term you choose to use, the fact is that a paper is easier to read when I can spread it out, fold it and bunch it up than the sterile version that arrives online. I won't waste time extolling the virtues of the Internet because that's done better elsewhere. The fact is that the World Wide Web is a blessing. There's a tremendous amount of information at everyone's fingertips and it keeps getting refined.
But Internet success doesn't mean that the newspaper becomes obsolete. It does mean that the newspaper has to change, an awareness that the industry is already working on. A conference at the University of Missouri in September celebrated the journalism school's 100th year but also addressed the many challenges facing the newspaper industry.
A New York-based outfit is now doing investigative pieces on an as-needed basis. Journalists are paid by the job. It's part of that new business model, I mentioned. We heard about some of those Internet-only papers. They're struggling because of a lack of ad revenue. We learned that a Kansas paper basically reworked the Yellow Pages for its customers, providing an online model that other papers might follow. I've got one word for you, prospective newspaper person, and it's not plastics. It's databases.
There was a whole lot more but you get the idea. The focus was on using the Internet, blending the old with the new, reaching new audiences, new partners: All good information.
Yet I think there's a need for another conference sometime-preferably soon-that would see the need to add value to our paper product. My contribution is to emphasize the six Cs: consumer news, computer stuff, communication coverage, cartography, coupons and comics.
The local paper has to benefit the consumer with local listings, tips, warnings and ideas. Readers obviously can play a huge part in this and, of course, this feature is one that also be exploited online. Computer stuff doesn't mean mind-clouding articles about the intricacies of electronics but Internet coverage and more consumer help in everyday language.
Communications is coverage of the media and that includes telephony, cellular and otherwise. Don't forget that TV and radio are also going through the mixmaster these days and the newspaper needs to be there to cover it.
Cartography is map-making, local maps with cartoony views of the area. Whether you're defining farming areas around a small town or riverfront vacancies, here's a role for the newspaper to play in addition to good old visitor's guides. Let's face it, these are things you have to have in your hands.
Coupons, of course, are already the stock and trade for many papers. The Sunday section is all about advertising and those coupons help direct traffic. But what about even more coupons on slick theme pages? Let's entice readers while helping local advertisers.
Comic pages may strike some as an example of the old school newspaper style. Think about it: Just how long have some of these newspaper comics been around? Dagwood just turned 75 and there are some older than that. This isn't a call to send characters off to the Comic Page Old Folks Home but a cry for new blood: graphic comics in color that might grab some of those younger readers we're so anxious to serve.
There's one more C involved: community. The newspaper has to be an even bigger part of the area it serves. That means standing up for literacy, education and fair play. There's nothing new about any of this-papers have been doing it for decades. Which means that it's also a time for marketing. Stop apologizing for so-called shortcomings and proudly declare the paper for what it is: a convenience tool that serves the busy American in a variety of ways.
Things are always changing whether we like it or not. But sometimes we get so caught up in that change that we fail to see the value of what we've got. Hopefully, we won't lose it.
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