Newspapers and Communication

As a former journalist, it's with sadness that I've followed the erosion of the newspaper industry. Perhaps I feel like those who watched the horse and buggy industry vanish as a result of the invention of the automobile. (There's a great blog about the daily struggles of newspapers and it's called, Newspaper Deathwatch.)

Here are a few disturbing trends I've noticed in newspapers recently:

There's simply less news being covered. This is to be expected with staff cuts but it doesn't position newspapers as a valuable community resource to have fewer stories. Instead, I see a lot of syndicated stories. In some cases, it makes sense to carry a story from another community (like news from Washington DC). But does the use of too many syndicated stories promote your local paper as being a local paper or merely a distributor of national information? That's something the Internet does very well.

I see too many press releases that are reproduced word for word. This is lazy journalism. I was taught that you should always call the creator of the press release to ask at least a question or two. Then you should rewrite the release to put it in your own words. Right now, no facts are being checked. The release is simply being accepted as news. What value does a paper have if all it does is reproduce a document that's featured on a company's website?

A lot of papers have redesigned their layouts but weakened their voice. They feature the kind of big headlines and pictures we used to see only after a war or a disaster. While the bold graphics may catch the eye, why do I feel that their creation is more about hiding the fact that there's less news by making the featured stories cover more inches on the page.

Right now newspapers are trying to reinvent themselves while at the same time dramatically cutting costs. I'm doubtful that this is the right mix for an industry that needs to be embraced by local communities in order to survive..