Guest: Newspaper Decline Threatens Democracy
Morris Goodman, a Dearborn attorney, resident and a regular reader of Deepsaidwhat.com, sent this letter over to us the other day, a piece he mailed to the New York Times in hopes it might run in their Letters to the Editor section.
We thought it was fitting to post here because the issues raised by Mr. Goodman apply to what is happening here in Dearborn. You can substitute the New York Times with the Dearborn Press & Guide, the Dearborn Times Herald and The Detroit News. It applies to them, as well. As a former newspaper writer and a voracious reader of newspapers, this is a topic that is near and dear to my heart.
We can all complain about what news isn’t getting covered or what business might be closing but we all really have a role in their preservation.
The letter begins below.
In a box at the very top of every issue of the New York Times is the historically famous slogan: “All the News That’s Fit to Print.” Perhaps in order to keep printing the Times should also run the slogan: “Patronize our advertisers. They think it’s fitting that we print.” Perhaps the American Newspaper Association should counsel all of its members to print each day the equally famous 1787 quotation from Thomas Jefferson:
“The basis of our governments being the opinion of the people, the very first object should be to keep that right; and were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.”
Instead of continually lamenting the seemingly unending decline of American newspapers and magazines, perhaps the beleaguered print media should be pro-active. It should tell its readers and advertisers how important they are to the preservation of democracy in America by their buying and advertising in newspapers and magazines. They need to be encouraged to get more readers and advertisers for America’s print media.
The reasons for the steep decline in print media readership and advertising have been chronicled for years.
Major advertisers such as the auto industry, home builders, and retailers of all kinds with falling sales have drastically reduced or altered their advertising budgets.
Clearly, there are more and more ways – the Internet and TV’s expanded cable offerings – people get the information they want about news, sports, sales, jobs, apartment rentals, etc. that they used to get from newspapers and magazines.
So people and advertisers are gravitating to these new outlets which are accessible, constantly updated, and cheaper for both the reader and advertiser to use.
But many consumers and advertisers do not consider who will do the investigative reporting that keeps our government and businesses honest if the print media either continues to cut back or even ceases to exist. However, I believe there are enough readers and advertisers who do understand the importance of a healthy, independent press that can be effectively harnessed to insure the “beacon of freedom” – a free press – is preserved, and even enhanced.
The July 8 Detroit News had an article about an effort by Birmingham, Michigan community activists to preserve the 131 year old Birmingham Eccentric weekly newspaper which was slated to close along with 4 other Oakland County, Michigan, Eccentric weeklies published by the Gannett Corporation. These activists grasp the reality that there can only be a constitutionally guaranteed freedom of the press if there is a press to begin with. So do millions of others, but they need to be constantly reminded of this concept.
Union tell their members to only buy union made products. Ethnic and religious publications encourage their readers to buy from their affinity groups. Americans are exhorted to buy American made products. Accordingly, newspaper and magazine readers should be encouraged to patronize the advertisers whose payments make the continued publishing of the printed word possible. Probably of more impact would be if readers told retailers of all kinds – restaurants, merchandisers, auto dealers and manufacturers, banks, etc. – that they will only buy from those who use the print media, if not exclusively, at least significantly in their advertising budgets.
Newspaper and magazine publishers have shown great ingenuity over the years to get people to buy their offerings. Hearst is purported to have contributed to starting the Spanish- American War to sell his papers. Now these publishers need to show the same ingenuity in getting new readers and new advertisers. Emphasizing the preservation of our democratic American way of life is not a bad place to start.
July 26th, 2009 at 4:21 pm
Another industry that has neglected to adapt to our “like it or not” changing economic climate.
July 26th, 2009 at 6:03 pm
Evolve or die. Newspapers are going to have to find a way to either make enough money or cut enough expenses to operate online only, without print operations.
As far as Jefferson goes, if he were in charge, the whole country would have free wireless access by now. I don’t buy the hyperbole that newspapers’ decline threatens democracy or our American way of life. In fact, we can probably thank newspapers for subverting efforts to establish or restore democracy in other parts of the world, not to mention advancing agendas that were and are responsible for a depreciation of our democratic American way of life.
PS. No matter how hard I try, I can’t in my mind replace the New York Times with the Dearborn Press and Guide or Times Herald. Sorry, I tried my best.
July 26th, 2009 at 8:23 pm
Nothing beats a sunday paper, other than that read it online!
July 26th, 2009 at 8:25 pm
Cancelled my papers: You are missing the point. no one is saying ditch the NYtimes for the local papers. the absence of a local paper means the politicians don’t have to worry about being honest. there is no watchdog without a local paper. the papers today don’t have the proper staff to cover a city. look at the crap going on in Dearborn. what has been reported is only scratching the surface. once the papers go, look out. and it isn’t just dearborn. i agree, the papers need to change their business model but we all will be a whole lot worse off without them.
July 27th, 2009 at 12:43 pm
Its an online world. Local papers need to adapt and change to local online news leaders.
July 27th, 2009 at 8:39 pm
As is usual in a large numbers of Mr. Goodman’s writings, he makes mistaken connections of cause and effect based on his personal bias (the politival kind, not a ‘bad’ or ‘evil’ kind of bias. The loss of newspaper readership can be tied more to the loss of content, and the homologation of a city’s democrat leaning and republican leaning newspapers into a single paper that reflects the only one of the sides, while pretending to objective. That leads half of the newspaper population to look elsewhere.
He also repeats a liberal side mantra that the press is needed to bring government to task, but of course only right wing leaning governments. One can make a very cogent argument that while the Watergate reporting achieved a good result, it caused the press to take on a new sense of power that is not balanced in our republic form of democracy.
One more rant, if I hear one more Democrat or Union figure speak of the need to buy Union, American, or Michigan products I may have an aneurysm and leave my children orphaned. Stop lecturing me and lectuing your own party and union members, when your choir is only driving American made cars I will then pay some attention to your exhortations. By my own observation in a West Dearborn neighborhood, at least 50% of our MEA union members are driving non-UAW (i.e. Toyota, Honda, Nissan, Hyundai) vehicles, and over 80% of the Obama stickers adorn these same nameplates — ahh the do as I say, not as I do hypocrisy. I doubt we would have had to bailout GM and Chrysler if all of the nation’s union members simply bought union made cars.
July 28th, 2009 at 9:07 am
Tyrone,
love your views on the american/union BS.
I would take it a step further when people talk about buying from local or small family business. This argument is also somewhat flawed. If Im buying from a home depot or lowes which employes hundreds and feeds our local tax base 20 times over what a smaller family business does, then the “math” is already done for you.
The buy american rant is also funny too. I have seen “buy american” bumper stickers on cars and trucks coming out of wallmart! Makes sense?
Small with the autos, if these companies who aren’t located in dearborn, auburn hills or detroit employ american workers in this country, then the argument rings false. Its an illusion that many of the average intelligence have bought into. And why?? because they nothing else to cling onto, other than throw away feel good statements.
george carlin says it best
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3S_XL3JKgI
I really have nothing against the unionized auto workers (if the company is or was payin, you were staying) However, Im tired of them on TV acting completly shocked that their jobs are gone. This is was happens in 2009 when you have zero education (high school doesn’t count) and really, zero skill.
July 28th, 2009 at 10:29 am
The solution to Buy American is for American products to be a combination of both high quality and competitive pricing. Asking people to buy something inferior on either of those counts is not going to work long-term. Similarly, the day small business offers greater convenience, comparable pricing (difficult) or vastly superior service (not so difficult) is the day big box stores lose some of their allure. This logic extends into the newspaper biz… If the product meets a need of the general public, it will move copies. If not, I’m not sure propping it up accomplishes much. The void in the market will be filled by something else. Whether the replacements (blogs, twitter feeds, cable news) are sufficient is another conversation altogether.