I was just thinking this, how our perspectives seem obvious to us but might be completely new to others. I'm on the same wavelength about the degradation of media and community, but had no idea about the details of how we got here.
And btw, I need to give you credit for another thing, Michelle! I grew up in the era where newspapers were delivered door to door by a paperboy and I recall that little yellow receipt they would hand us, but I never knew before reading your article that it was called a "chit"! I wonder why I never knew that.
We are lucky here in that we have a local paper in this county (yorkdispatch.com) and the next one over (lancasteronline-pa.newsmemory.com). Each has its own approach, with York's paper going for a mixed digital/video presentation, while Lancaster's tries for a newspaper-on-the-screen format (not a good approach for comics, IMHO, but at least they have them!). So yes, stories on why the local town board is cutting its annual contribution to the library (why yes, it IS because of LGBTQ+ books, how did you know?) and 142 photos from prom season (I am not making up that number) are available for a reasonable subscription price (one of them through Apple News, believe it or not).
I agree completely, when I was a kid in the 70s my parents recieved 3 daily newspapers and 10 to 12 weekly and monthly magazines. We lived in the most isolated community in the country and my folks got the New York Times. Our tiny town of 5000 people had a daily newspaper. Every small town had newspapers. Now I live in the capital city that no longer has a printed newspaper. It happened fast, in 2005 and 2006 my wife and I both had paper routes for part time jobs. They were 90 papers each and paid about $800 a month for 2 hours of exercise walking from our house. It’s very strange, a palpable sense of disconnect. Many will never know what was lost.
i HAVE BEEN SUBSCRIBING TO THE SAME local newspaper for more than 50 years. I only get the paper version on Sundays. It's become pretty conservative over the years, but most of the writers on the opinion page are pretty civilized. We also have an even more local weekly paper covering city council meetings, police logs, and births and deaths!
This makes sense and you make many good points, Michelle. It's astonishing how things have changed.
Here in England, my local newspaper is now online only. But their site is littered with so many ads that it's unreadable. They also seem more biased in favour of the local authorities and their money-wasting projects. I dread to imagine how things will be in 5-10 years.
I am old enough to remember newspapers before the internet. My parents would get the Sunday edition for all of the extras that came with it. After I left home, I would read newspapers as often as I could but, then the internet came and everything went online.
They still publish a county newspaper where I live that is trying to hang on and there is a Richmond, VA paper that can be found by the entrance/exit to my supermarket. I don't read them anymore because they rarely offer me much news outside of my local area. I could care less what Governor Youngkin had for breakfast, if you know what I mean.
Because of the changing world, I am okay with using the internet to find out what is really going on in Ireland, Russia and Syria, rather than reading what the U.S. government propaganda news wants me to know or not.
The world is an ever changing entity and we need to learn to adapt or die, whether we like it or not.
The editor of our local Worthing mag is driven by a desire to knit community and a strong drive to raise awareness of the climate crisis. We've got a few of these indie, social-justice aware, local newspapers in UK. One year, our editor (I write a monthly column for Worthing Inside) got us all to write our monthly pieces around 12 of the UN sustainable development goals. This editorial instruction went to all of us - the retired pharmacist guy who writes about public health, the local historian who digs up forgotten incidents, the under 18s youth columnist. Only the sports reporter was exempt. We all managed to do it (that UN document gave helluva writing prompt lol) - and found several of us taking issue with the very concept of sustainable development and arguing instead for degrowth. The editor let us do it. We're getting ideas like degrowth and universal basic income out there into the community - and people are interested. For me, after years of activism, I'm finding this to be one of the most effective and enjoyable ways of doing something meaningful. The biz model is a free paper, supported by local indie biz or CIC or third sector advertising. https://independentworthing.co.uk/business-listings/inside-magazines/
I’m lucky to live in the Seattle area which still has a local, family owned newspaper, the Seattle Times. I continue to pay for a digital subscription long after home delivery ceased to be an option in my more rural outskirts. I used to get the majority of my daily news from them, but with multiple sources readily available the percentage has dropped, but I still read them almost daily. I suspect their days are numbered, but I hope not! Unlike the large corporate newspapers they actually endorsed Harris very vigorously!
The Times used to be considered our more conservative, business friendly paper while the Post-Intelligencer was the working man’s paper. Somewhat ironic since the PI was a Hearst paper. 20 or more years ago there was much hand wringing here when they agreed to a Joint Operating Agreement that allowed the Times to print both papers with each maintaining separate reporting and editorial staffs. We were afraid we’d lose effective news reporting without daily competition. Seems pretty quaint now.
I hadn’t considered it until your article, but I wonder if the continued existence of at least one local paper helps to account for Washington being one of, if not the, bluest states in the union.
I loved this, Michelle. I didn’t put the emergence of Craigslist and the decline of classified ads together, until now. And I grew up in NYC in a house where the NYT was delivered on Sundays (different paper then), and one or the other of my parents would buy the Times and the NY Post throughout the week. I used to love the smell of newsprint and the feel of the paper, even though it was unwieldy for me to turn pages as a kid. Feels like the good old days now. Thank you for this excellent, thought-provoking piece.
Thank you for reading. I'd have done anything to keep newspapers alive. I couldn't even keep the one I worked for alive, even though I put much of my life into it.
I agree with you completely. The harsh, ugly reality also reflects a bitter irony. The Right continue to bleat invective about the "liberal news media," despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. The most-read paper is USA TODAY (Right-wing Gannett). The most-watched TV news isn''t "news" as such, but it's Fox (Right-wing propaganda). Talk radio is dominated by fascist ghouls who work their hardest to make Rush Limbaugh look liberal. Breitbart, NewsMax, and (until recently) InfoWars spread filth and deliberate lies online. Meanwhile, newspapers (particularly the smaller, local ones) are dying, as you note -- and I must add that even once-decent sources like THE NEW YORK TIMES have moved considerably toward the Center.
You are also correct about subscriptions in general. We used to have excellent programs on "regular" television. Today, everything decent is on one of the premium networks or channels, and people gladly shell out money to HBO, Hulu, Netflix, ShowTime, et al.
Now, alas, we must brace ourselves. Trump will almost surely move against the few remaining sources of news. I shudder to think where we'll be in a few more years...
Valid case made here and the death of the newspaper has been instrumental in the collapse of small town non-profits in many places contributing to the breakdown of communities.
We're lucky enough to still have 1 daily newspaper and a local a.m. radio station in my small-ish southern IL town. My sister was a papergirl over 30 yrs. ago for this paper too!
This is a specific and incisive perspective I hadn't considered. Thank you for this Michelle.
Thank you. I sometimes forget that what is so clear to me, because I lived it, may be a new perspective to others.
I was just thinking this, how our perspectives seem obvious to us but might be completely new to others. I'm on the same wavelength about the degradation of media and community, but had no idea about the details of how we got here.
And btw, I need to give you credit for another thing, Michelle! I grew up in the era where newspapers were delivered door to door by a paperboy and I recall that little yellow receipt they would hand us, but I never knew before reading your article that it was called a "chit"! I wonder why I never knew that.
We are lucky here in that we have a local paper in this county (yorkdispatch.com) and the next one over (lancasteronline-pa.newsmemory.com). Each has its own approach, with York's paper going for a mixed digital/video presentation, while Lancaster's tries for a newspaper-on-the-screen format (not a good approach for comics, IMHO, but at least they have them!). So yes, stories on why the local town board is cutting its annual contribution to the library (why yes, it IS because of LGBTQ+ books, how did you know?) and 142 photos from prom season (I am not making up that number) are available for a reasonable subscription price (one of them through Apple News, believe it or not).
I agree completely, when I was a kid in the 70s my parents recieved 3 daily newspapers and 10 to 12 weekly and monthly magazines. We lived in the most isolated community in the country and my folks got the New York Times. Our tiny town of 5000 people had a daily newspaper. Every small town had newspapers. Now I live in the capital city that no longer has a printed newspaper. It happened fast, in 2005 and 2006 my wife and I both had paper routes for part time jobs. They were 90 papers each and paid about $800 a month for 2 hours of exercise walking from our house. It’s very strange, a palpable sense of disconnect. Many will never know what was lost.
i HAVE BEEN SUBSCRIBING TO THE SAME local newspaper for more than 50 years. I only get the paper version on Sundays. It's become pretty conservative over the years, but most of the writers on the opinion page are pretty civilized. We also have an even more local weekly paper covering city council meetings, police logs, and births and deaths!
You’re so lucky to have those!
This makes sense and you make many good points, Michelle. It's astonishing how things have changed.
Here in England, my local newspaper is now online only. But their site is littered with so many ads that it's unreadable. They also seem more biased in favour of the local authorities and their money-wasting projects. I dread to imagine how things will be in 5-10 years.
I am old enough to remember newspapers before the internet. My parents would get the Sunday edition for all of the extras that came with it. After I left home, I would read newspapers as often as I could but, then the internet came and everything went online.
They still publish a county newspaper where I live that is trying to hang on and there is a Richmond, VA paper that can be found by the entrance/exit to my supermarket. I don't read them anymore because they rarely offer me much news outside of my local area. I could care less what Governor Youngkin had for breakfast, if you know what I mean.
Because of the changing world, I am okay with using the internet to find out what is really going on in Ireland, Russia and Syria, rather than reading what the U.S. government propaganda news wants me to know or not.
The world is an ever changing entity and we need to learn to adapt or die, whether we like it or not.
The editor of our local Worthing mag is driven by a desire to knit community and a strong drive to raise awareness of the climate crisis. We've got a few of these indie, social-justice aware, local newspapers in UK. One year, our editor (I write a monthly column for Worthing Inside) got us all to write our monthly pieces around 12 of the UN sustainable development goals. This editorial instruction went to all of us - the retired pharmacist guy who writes about public health, the local historian who digs up forgotten incidents, the under 18s youth columnist. Only the sports reporter was exempt. We all managed to do it (that UN document gave helluva writing prompt lol) - and found several of us taking issue with the very concept of sustainable development and arguing instead for degrowth. The editor let us do it. We're getting ideas like degrowth and universal basic income out there into the community - and people are interested. For me, after years of activism, I'm finding this to be one of the most effective and enjoyable ways of doing something meaningful. The biz model is a free paper, supported by local indie biz or CIC or third sector advertising. https://independentworthing.co.uk/business-listings/inside-magazines/
Now that's inspiring! I'm taking notes
Here's another site, UK indie and progressive sheet with meaningful local news. Definitely not "what the Mayor had for breakfast" lol. https://www.brightsidepublishing.com/subscribe/annual-subscription-whitstable-whistler-only/
I’m lucky to live in the Seattle area which still has a local, family owned newspaper, the Seattle Times. I continue to pay for a digital subscription long after home delivery ceased to be an option in my more rural outskirts. I used to get the majority of my daily news from them, but with multiple sources readily available the percentage has dropped, but I still read them almost daily. I suspect their days are numbered, but I hope not! Unlike the large corporate newspapers they actually endorsed Harris very vigorously!
You’re so lucky!
The Times used to be considered our more conservative, business friendly paper while the Post-Intelligencer was the working man’s paper. Somewhat ironic since the PI was a Hearst paper. 20 or more years ago there was much hand wringing here when they agreed to a Joint Operating Agreement that allowed the Times to print both papers with each maintaining separate reporting and editorial staffs. We were afraid we’d lose effective news reporting without daily competition. Seems pretty quaint now.
I hadn’t considered it until your article, but I wonder if the continued existence of at least one local paper helps to account for Washington being one of, if not the, bluest states in the union.
Could be. A good newspaper has always (was always) an important part of civic engagement.
News deserts are a very real problem sadly.
I'm grateful we live in a place with a newspaper, but it's been gutted HARD by Gannett. I know it's only a matter of time before it inevitably folds
That company cheerfully murdered the paper where I worked.
Ugh that sounds about right for them
I loved this, Michelle. I didn’t put the emergence of Craigslist and the decline of classified ads together, until now. And I grew up in NYC in a house where the NYT was delivered on Sundays (different paper then), and one or the other of my parents would buy the Times and the NY Post throughout the week. I used to love the smell of newsprint and the feel of the paper, even though it was unwieldy for me to turn pages as a kid. Feels like the good old days now. Thank you for this excellent, thought-provoking piece.
Brilliant piece, Michelle. Thank you for writing and sharing your important work.
Thank you for reading. I'd have done anything to keep newspapers alive. I couldn't even keep the one I worked for alive, even though I put much of my life into it.
I agree with you completely. The harsh, ugly reality also reflects a bitter irony. The Right continue to bleat invective about the "liberal news media," despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. The most-read paper is USA TODAY (Right-wing Gannett). The most-watched TV news isn''t "news" as such, but it's Fox (Right-wing propaganda). Talk radio is dominated by fascist ghouls who work their hardest to make Rush Limbaugh look liberal. Breitbart, NewsMax, and (until recently) InfoWars spread filth and deliberate lies online. Meanwhile, newspapers (particularly the smaller, local ones) are dying, as you note -- and I must add that even once-decent sources like THE NEW YORK TIMES have moved considerably toward the Center.
You are also correct about subscriptions in general. We used to have excellent programs on "regular" television. Today, everything decent is on one of the premium networks or channels, and people gladly shell out money to HBO, Hulu, Netflix, ShowTime, et al.
Now, alas, we must brace ourselves. Trump will almost surely move against the few remaining sources of news. I shudder to think where we'll be in a few more years...
Valid case made here and the death of the newspaper has been instrumental in the collapse of small town non-profits in many places contributing to the breakdown of communities.
What do we think about subscriptions paying journalists directly like on substack
It’s just no replacement for a whole newsroom.
That is for sure
We're lucky enough to still have 1 daily newspaper and a local a.m. radio station in my small-ish southern IL town. My sister was a papergirl over 30 yrs. ago for this paper too!