I'm Killing Your Newspaper and I'm Only Partly Remorseful
Looking for a first job/call in the PC(USA) is rather difficult these days (see this post), but I do thank my lucky stars that I’m not job hunting with a masters in journalism. The future does look pretty bleak — and scarily undefined — for print journalism these days.
In part, thanks to bloggers like me, but also thanks to more general changes in technology and availability of screens and instant news, newspapers all over the country are in dire straits. You’ve been under a very big log if you haven’t heard of this by now, which probably means you don’t read any news at all so you don’t care, but I do — both care and read news — and it’s a little tricky what to think about things.
I’m not for propping up businesses with failing business models — as I suggested in the case of Wordsmiths bookstore in Decatur which closed this month, by the way, and anyone who donated funds to them lost the charity creditors. But I am for a hearty healthy press since it does everyone good and keeps us all honest.
That said, a few weeks ago, I received a renewal notice for the print version of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that graces my front step every morning. And I don’t think I’m going to renew. Some of this is just timing: we’re moving at the end of May. But, also, though I read the newspaper every morning I’ve already read much of it in AJC newsfeeds on my feed reader. I’ve already read the national news — and probably of a higher quality — online. And the local story I get from several Decatur blogs.
I do really love the dead paper edition of the news, cause it’s easier to read if nothing else, but I can’t justify the ridiculously high cost of renewing the AJC. I recognize that when I read the print version, I read stories that I wouldn’t read if I was just surfing online. My horizons are further expanded by the print version. But that’s not enough to entice me to write that three-figure check for renewal.
While many bemoan the state of the business, others are making the distinction: print journalism may be dying a quick death, but journalism is still alive and kicking — it’ll be just fine. That makes sense to me. And I’d love to participate in a micropayment scheme to see how that works. Non-profit papers make sense to me as well. After all, I just made my NPR pledge once again.
So what’s a news-buff nice guy supposed to do in this economy? I don’t know. And to complicate matters deliciously there’s always the practice of Marva Dawn, who as a spiritual discipline does not read newspapers. I once heard Dawn say she understands the gospel message to be bigger than the hubbub of newspapers and it’s easier for her to be faithful without the din of the daily headlines.
Until my subscription runs out, I’m happy to read the AJC with my toast and coffee. After that, I just hope I don’t get any peanut butter on my MacBook keys.
image by lusi
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I’m also wondering Adam if distance and online learning will take the place of college and seminary?
I see a bright future where presbyteries across the land will have their own online seminaries for candidates.
Who knows, maybe online worship, churches, and preaching will also develop. I may not see this in my lifetime, but I think you will.
If you’re reading it via newsfeed, you should be paying to subscribe to it! How else are news organizations going to pay journalists? Until we figure out a different economic model, it’s very much worth supporting your local newspaper. We need MORE journalism, not less… And frankly, I think Marva Dawn is being arrogant to believe that she doesn’t need to pay attention to news. If you don’t like the AJC enough to pay for it, choose a different newsorg — but dig deep to support news. We can’t have a democracy without it.
I’m curious…how much is “ridiculously high?” Print media is not particularly expensive relative to electronic media. I get my dead-tree news for around 25 cents a day, which seems, if anything, ridiculously low.
Thanks for the comments, folks.
@David, I can’t find it right now but I think the renewal notice was around $150/year. So yeah, around 40 plus cents a day. It’s not breaking the bank, but, for example, it’s about what we pay for our YMCA membership and we use that tons more in terms of time, at least.
@Mary, yeah I’d be happy to pay a penny per newsfeed or something, but that’s not an option and until the business model supports something like that I just don’t feel bad about it. I don’t see how the economics of a dead tree edition is sustainable at this point. I’m happy to put my money where my mouth is, but I anticipate the paper edition declining no matter if I do so. Unless there’s a huge effort by the paper itself, seminary students aren’t going to prop it up.
After all, the money we pay for dead tree editions doesn’t cover the cost of production and delivery in the first place. I may be way off here. Please enlighten me. But I don’t want to pull another Wordsmiths and support a bound-to-fail independent bookstore with an outdated business model and no plan to fix it.
We made the decision to subscribe to the local paper when we moved to Boise, as a commitment to support the community we’re in and to be informed about said community.
But I rarely sit down and read it.
I’m far more likely to scan it online, when I’m needing a break from whatever else I am doing.
We subscribed to the NY Times when we lived in Decatur. But you can’t get a daily subscription here in Boise. So we just get the Sunday NY Times. And it is to the Times I look for most of my news, even if I have to use the Times Reader on my computer. If you haven’t seen that, it is worth checking out. Stories appear in similar form to the way they look on the page.