Are Newspapers Really Dying? Not In Small Town America!
By Thomas D. Segel
April 23, 2009
Are newspapers dying in America? If just the circulation numbers of daily publications are examined, one could say a funeral dirge should be playing. In the past twenty years the population of the United States has increased by an estimated 60 million people. During the same years, daily newspaper circulation has declined from a high of about 62 million to just over 50 million today. In 1989 the nation could boast 1611 daily newspapers. Twenty years later there are only 1404 of these publications still rolling the news off their presses.
Just last month the 138 year old Tucson Citizen went on life support and started publishing day to day as new owners are attempting to purchase the publication. Once with a circulation of more than 60,000 daily copies, it has dropped to only 17,000 subscribers.
On March 16, 2009, the Seattle Post Intelligencer, Washington State's 146 year old daily newspaper delivered it last edition. The PI is now alive only as an online publication. The Seattle publication along with other declining news giants such as the New York Times and the San Francisco Chronicle all seem to blame their poor performance on the current economic recession. However, they were in a downhill race, even during the good times.
Harlingen, Texas could be called a medium sized city, with a population of 60,000 plus people. During all of the years I have made this city my home, The Valley Morning Star was the newspaper that was opened as I sipped my first cup of coffee each morning. For most of those years I either had articles printed on a regular basis, or reached my neighbors via a standing column.
That column has not appeared in print for some time now. The managing editor for the editorial section was given his walking papers after more than 23 years of faithful service. There is no longer an editorial board. The presses have stopped and the printers no longer report to work. Even the lady handling obituaries has been retired.
Now the Valley Morning Star still exists in name, but it is a skeleton of its former self. A member of the Freedom Newspaper chain, it is being printed at a sister publication site 45 miles away. There is nobody to proof read, little meaningful local reporting, and the content is primarily cut and paste items from national news services.
In an attempt to gain new readership the VMS has dedicated an entire section to pop culture items such as teen fashion, the latest movie heroes, TV highlights and what is hot on the Web. There are food stories, diet stories and an occasional picture of some local civic event. But, all in all, not much in the way of real news, national or local finds its way onto the few pages now being printed.
Today, a friend of mine told me that the Monday morning edition is so thin that when the delivery arrives he needs to run out quickly and step on it before the wind blows it away.
>> Continued -- Page 1 2 3
| 
