By Elliott Brack
Editor and Publisher, GwinnettForum
AUG. 23, 2024 | Yes, to our dismay, newspapers are nowhere near what they once were. They have lost revenue, readers and scope. They are no longer respected for timely reporting of the key local news, primarily because many are no longer “daily” publications.
Major newspapers, many in state capitols, only run their presses two or three days a week. Though they all have a daily online presence, many also do not have the number of key staff reporters to adequately cover their geographic service area.
What is most worrisome about all this is that local governments are not sufficiently covered by the newspapers. That is nothing less than a kick in the shins for democracy. How can the people expect to have good government when the newspapers have given up on providing local governmental coverage? Without newspaper watchdogs….what is happening within our governments? We may never know. That should chill you.
Let’s look at what is happening in three city newspapers.
First: Little Rock, Arkansas. The Hussman family has innovated with their coverage of the state. As their website states: “The Little Rock Arkansas Democrat-Gazette has a digital replica edition that presents the news in an exact newspaper format on an electronic device. In most areas of the state, subscribers are already reading the newspaper on iPads supplied by the Democrat-Gazette. Monday to Saturday print delivery has been suspended, while Sunday delivery has continued in some areas.
Subscribers will receive one iPad per paid subscription. However, subscribers may also access the replica paper using their own tablet, smartphone or computer.”
Online delivery means that the Little Rock newspaper can keep its subscribers in distant areas of the state giving them the latest news. The paper cut its expenses of delivery by doing it electronically, by giving readers an iPad (or via computer) when they subscribe. It was innovative, and other newspapers are now using this method.
Look at what the Atlanta Journal-Constitution is up to. It continues to print a thin edition each day, but is going about its coverage differently. It has pulled having reporters in all the suburbs, and is concentrating their attention mainly on the City of Atlanta, and to a lesser extent, Fulton County. They no longer send reporters to suburban government meetings.
Look at the numbers: Atlanta’s population is 532,000, and Fulton’s is 1,079,105.
Meanwhile, the Metro Atlanta total population is 6,106,000. Yet the Atlanta newspaper is virtually ignoring its biggest local audience, the five million suburban people that live outside Fulton, much less the five million other Georgians. Gwinnett, with a million residents, and its government and people, are ignored in news coverage, as are Cobb (with nearly 800,000 residents), and the rest of the suburbs.
What’s happening in Minnesota? The Minneapolis Star-Tribune is now called the Minnesota Star-Tribune, signaling that newspapers want to expand and cover the entire state. In recent years, it has not cut its reporting staff, and is now staffing reporters in distant cities of the state. Like the AJC, it too seeks to focus on digital subscriptions, but instead of covering one city deeper, it seems to cover the entire state in a wider manner.
Every newspaper must set its own goals, choosing what its operators think best.
As for me, the AJC’s direction seems faulty. They cover one-sixth of their market (Fulton). That seems to be an unsound financial plan for prosperity. Yet they disregard (and insult) the other five million closest to them in the suburbs by thumbing their nose at them.
We hate to add this: this sullies the memory of Anne Cox Chambers.
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