By Elliott Brack
Editor and Publisher, GwinnettForum
JUNE 3, 2022 | Today’s media market is far different from the way it was just a few years ago.
There are fewer newspapers, which in our way of thinking is a blow for democracy. When any community loses a way for people to communicate with one another, our nation is in trouble. There are 11 counties without a newspaper, says Robin Rhodes, director of the Georgia Press Association.
Without a local newspaper, a community is hurt in so many ways:
- Perhaps the most important is that people lose touch with their government, which no longer has a key way to communicate developments with their constituents. But it’s more than that.
- Local citizens can’t keep up with the non-governmental news, the births, the deaths, the graduations, the weddings, the local football details and even the price of groceries.
- Another major element, the legal advertisements, which without a local newspaper, must appear in an adjacent county legal organ, are seen by fewer people.
- And how about those photographs that people save from newspapers, commemorating special events in their lives. There’s no way to share these treasured (and often through age, yellowed) remembrances.
What caused all this? The first element in many smaller areas was the arrival of Wal Mart in their hometown, or even in an adjacent town. Local residents, attracted by what they thought were lower prices, stopped shopping with the local grocery, or men’s shop, or pharmacy. And this soon meant a loss of advertising for the local paper, which resulted in fewer pages. Eventually, it put some newspapers teetering on the brink.
But the really big gun aimed at smaller newspapers was the Internet, which at first did not seem like a threat. But soon, it gained more users, and more online buying. Local retailers started feeling the pressure, lower volumes, a rise in cost, and again, curtailing if not elimination of advertising for the local newspaper.
The newspaper’s primary sources of advertising, grocery stores, department stores, automobile dealerships, and various forms of classified ads, led by real estate sales, were out the window. These were major sources of revenue. Grocery and auto advertising losses especially hurt the weeklies.
Meanwhile, the giants of the Internet, the Googles, the Facebooks, Amazon, eBay and other sites got fatter, taking away eyeballs from newspapers. Yet they have tremendous readership. And this has caused a drop in newspaper’s circulation, and for some, even going out of business.
The upshot is that where Georgia once had a thriving weekly newspaper industry, it is a shadow of its former self. Where one time the Georgia Press Association annual convention would draw 600 people to Jekyll Island, today its number is less than 100. It’s one sign of the time.
Recently we have noted Google, Facebook, IBM and other American giants spending big bucks on full page advertisements in major daily newspapers, to improve their images. While they polish their apples in big-city newspapers, they never think of the harm they have done to the weekly newspaper field.
How about these internet companies start paying attention to small town America? A full page advertisement in many weekly newspapers would reinforce Google and Facebook’s images in these communities. And the total outlay for a page of advertising would barely impact the Internet giant’s earnings report, costing in most small papers less than $1,000.
Ever happen? Probably not. After all, those Google and Facebook executives live in an entirely different world. They may not even know that small town newspapers exist.
That is really sad.
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
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