Op Ed: Musings of a Wannabe Reporter: the Decline of the Newspaper Industry

Unused newspaper racks clutter a storage yard in San Francisco.

Almost since I can remember, I’ve wanted to go into the newspaper business. Specifically, I’ve wanted to be a journalist. I’ve always felt a connection to the written word: book report assignments in elementary school thrilled me and I often finished them the same day they were assigned; I am a voracious reader, probably utilizing my library card more often than I do my credit card; and I rarely leave the house without a book or two tucked away for long train rides or delays at the doctor’s office. Watching my father flip through the New York Times every morning when I was a little girl made quite an impression on me: whatever could demand his attention first thing in the morning, as well as the attention of millions of readers around the world, was something I wanted in on. And let’s face it, there was probably no cooler heroine when I was growing up than plucky Lois Lane, who went after her story without thought of safety or consequence (though admittedly, not every reporter has a superhero to rescue her from any potential peril).

My childhood and adolescence were filled with ambitious attempts to start practicing my chosen craft: I wrote and edited the Bedford Avenue (the street on which I grew up) Gazette for several issues when I was seven years old before I realized nobody – save for my mother – was reading it. I wrote school book reports from the perspective of a newspaper book critic, and I started reading everything I could get my hands on. Sure, I didn’t understand half the articles in the Times or what Good Housekeeping (my mother’s primary magazine subscription) was talking about – what does an eight-year old really get out of Heloise’s Household Hints and columns on homeowner’s debt and contributing towards the health of your marriage – but I felt compelled to read everything I could get my little hands on. If a word was written, I probably read it.

From Upton Sinclair to Woodward and Bernstein

When I got a little older and learned about the potent power of the press, I became even more convinced I was on the right career path: it was muckraker Upton Sinclair who exposed the incredibly unsanitary conditions of the meat industry and poverty in early 20th-century New York, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein brought a president to his knees, and Seymour Hersh forced a conscience upon America during the Vietnam War. Journalists and writers have literally changed the course of history.

And to think that I, one day, could have the power to be behind that written word, with my name under the title, was frankly intoxicating.

I contributed to my high school newspaper, which was a rather dismal project: yeshiva high schools have an intense dual curriculum, and so extracurricular activities often get pushed to the sidelines, especially if the particular high school has a rather limited budget for such things, as mine did. My college newspapers were superior: Stern College’s The Observer and Brooklyn College’s The Excelsior are better-funded and more professional. But as I pursued my dream, and my interest in being a journalist rose, a funny thing was happening to this widely-admired industry: it began a steep decline thanks to the rise of perhaps an even more powerful behemoth known as the Internet. It isn’t Lois Lane who needs saving now, but newspapers themselves.

Over the past couple of years, once flourishing newspapers like Denver’s Rocky Mountain News, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, and the Baltimore Examiner have closed. The San Francisco Chronicle and Michigan’s Ann Arbor News are soon to be things of the past. In 2008, owners of the Tribune Company, which produces the Chicago Tribune and Los Angeles Times, filed for bankruptcy, as did the Sun-Times Media Group, owner of the Chicago Sun-Times and dozens of suburban newspapers, in 2009. The New York Times is disbanding the weekly “City” section, which began in 1993 as a way to convey uniquely urban experiences and has become a much-loved supplement to the paper; and has eliminated its entire stock transaction listings in its Business section in an effort to decrease the number of pages.

Jewish newspapers aren’t thriving aren’t faring too well, either, having to deal with tighter budgets and explosion of Jewish-themed blogs. The 88-year old Wisconsin Jewish Chronicle, will soon cut its staff by two-thirds and be published monthly rather than weekly. The 2009 American Jewish Press Association (AJPA) conference will, for the second year in a row, focus on strategies of survival for the Jewish newspaper, rather than offer its usual fare of lectures on journalism ethics, networking, and understanding Jewish issues.

Can Jewish Newspapers Survive?

Still, there is hope for Jewish newspapers yet. Shlomo Greenwald, Associate Editor at The Jewish Press based in Brooklyn, NY, declared, “Like everybody else, we are affected by the bad economy. But our paper’s saving grace may be that we are a niche publication, specifically one geared to the Orthodox Jewish reader. Therefore, perhaps we haven’t felt the pinch as much as more mainstream newspapers with huge staffs.” So while Jewish newspapers have certainly reduced the rate of freelance articles they accept, there is generally less fear among their staffs that the papers will cease to exist.

Many newspapers have shifted to an online format in an effort of survival, but attempts to charge for content have gone largely unsuccessful. Let’s face it: once news has gone viral, it doesn’t matter much to readers who originally reported it. Why should someone bother paying for information that will appear on blogs and other online outlets minutes after it appears on news sites that charge money?

Sure, I could merely adapt to online news and go with the flow; I’m young enough to learn the technology and there are many pros with regards to the shift towards online news. Investigative journalism is not only alive and well but thriving to an incredible degree, evident by the proliferation of websites like The Smoking Gun, ProPublica, and the Center for Investigative Reporting. Newspapers still offer breaking stories, insightful features, and regular columns (albeit in a different format) and stories that were once reported hours after the actual events can now be broadcast as they are happening, such as the emergency plane landing in the Hudson River.

The Internet has allowed for a wave of citizen journalists, or everyday people not trained in reporting or journalistic techniques holding those in power – politicians, major corporations, and others – accountable for their actions. Now, anyone with Internet access has power to expose injustices to a greater degree than before. All these developments are to be lauded, but the fact remains that the essence of journalism has changed into something diluted for the masses.

While it’s wonderful that anyone can be a journalist now, it’s also horrible: good news reporting does take talent and time to develop and most Tom, Dicks, and Harrys haven’t been trained to do so. The pleasure of flipping through a newspaper, savoring each story and taking the time to familiarize oneself with world events, has given way to the instant gratification offered by the Web. And with the fast-paced, time-is-of-the-essence aura that exists in America today, few people who are gainfully employed have the time to do so, if they even have the inclination.

Still a devotee of the written word, I searched for other similar paths to pursue. I am currently employed in a position of public relations at the Orthodox Union, and freelance to several Jewish publications. But my dream of being a full-time reporter for a major newspaper seems far away, or something of a relic from my childhood.

The eminent statesman Thomas Jefferson once said, “Were it left to me to decide whether we should have government without newspapers, or newspapers without government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.” I don’t know how much I desire what seems to be a situation of anarchy – albeit one with a prosperous newspaper industry – but I do share a similar sense of dread with Mr. Jefferson about a world with no newspapers.

Tova Ross is a public relations assistant at the Orthodox Union and a freelance writer. She lives in Westchester, NY.

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