(HOST) Newspapers are a vital source of information, but lately many are in trouble. Commentator Tom Slayton has some thoghts about how small Vermont newspapers may help solve the puzzle.
(SLAYTON) Almost everyone knows that newspapers are in trouble, wounded because they’re losing advertising dollars and circulation to the Internet.
In response, many – including such icons as The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Boston Globe – have downsized their newsrooms, some drastically.
That’s bad news for us all, because newspapers still produce the majority of news. More than 80 per cent of news stories, according to one recent survey, originate in the newsrooms of print media.
However, not all newspapers are withering. Can you guess which ones are actually still doing quite well? Here’s a hint: there are a lot of them in Vermont.
If you guessed community weeklies, small and local, you are right. Newspapers like The Herald of Randolph, The Addison Independent, The Barton Chronicle, The Hardwick Gazette, The Stowe Reporter and others are prospering, despite last year’s economic downturn and the growth of the Internet.
It seems that small is not only beautiful; it’s profitable.
Earlier this month, 13 of those small and local papers met in Randolph because they wanted – and needed – to let their readers and advertisers know that they are alive and kicking. Several noted that 2008 – just before the bottom fell out of the U.S. economy – was their best year ever. Dick Drysdale, publisher of The Herald of Randolph, noted that community newspapers may be a bit slimmer, but there are no signs of death. Quite the contrary.
Here’s what Angelo Lynn, publisher of the Addison Independent, said:
"We were there yesterday. We’re here today. And we’ll be here tomorrow."
The trend is nationwide, not just in Vermont. Across the country, small newspapers are weathering the cyber-storm better than their larger brethren.
The reasons are twofold.
One is financial: small newspapers have lost less advertising to the Internet than bigger regional newspapers. They are smaller, less costly operations, and, generally speaking, they are carrying less debt. The other reason is editorial: community newspapers cover community news. They don’t just report on their small communities; they help build them. The Internet, for all its technical spiffiness, does neither.
Last winter, Julia Shipley, who teaches writing at Sterling College in Craftsbury, said, at a presentation on Vermont’s small newspapers: "These newspapers help me as a human being see what I am a part of."
Journalism is clearly going through a major transition – redefining itself in some key ways. It will be important, as we make this transition, not to lose the vital functions that a vigorous free press provides our democracy – making sure that
governments remain accountable and citizens remain informed.
Admittedly, the success of small newspapers does nothing to assuage the major structural problems that are facing journalism, problems that all of us who love newspapers have to be concerned about. On their own, small community newspapers cannot assure that we solve this puzzle. But they do give us a couple of clues about what readers still want.