Cancel in protest? Or stay with a local newspaper that's being strip-mined for profits?

[Eugene]

Source: Washington Post

Cancel in protest? Or stay with a local newspaper that’s being strip-mined for profits?

By Margaret Sullivan
Media columnist
January 27 at 4:00 PM

Jeffrey Miller might be the ideal news consumer: He’s well-informed, thoughtful and understands the role good journalism plays in American democracy.

And he has a question, one that might seem small, personal and inconsequential but that goes to the heart of a vexing problem.

For 20 years, he has subscribed to the print edition of his local newspaper, the Mercury News in San Jose. (He also pays for the digital versions of The Washington Post and the New York Times.)

He has watched “the Merc” decline from a vibrant, well-staffed watchdog and ambitious chronicler of its community to a sort of ghost — especially since the paper’s purchase several years ago by Digital First Media, one of the worst villains in the decline of regional newspapers.

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Controlled by a hedge fund, Digital First strip-mines its newspapers, drastically cutting newsroom staffs and squeezing profit from these operations with no apparent regard for journalism or their future viability.

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Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/cancel-in-protest-or-stay-with-a-local-newspaper-thats-being-strip-mined-for-profits/2019/01/27/90fe140a-201a-11e9-9145-3f74070bbdb9_story.html

[TexasTowelie]

1. Digital First Media made an offer to buy out Gannett.

As you know, I'm well acquainted with the newspaper sites across the country and I've found DFM papers lacking quality content in each newspaper. If the acquisition occurred it would have a very visible impact in Indiana, Louisiana, New Jersey, New Mexico, Tennessee and Wisconsin. Additionally, DFM is viewed as having a more conservative bias than Gannett.

[No Vested Interest]

2. I sympathize. Our local Cincinnati Enquirer has been cut in every way -Size, news articles

from nearby cities of marginal interest locally, etc., opinion pieces not worth reading
The Enquirer has a proud past; it was founded in 1841 or 1842, at one time was influential nationally.

My own grandfather came from the Detroit Press in the 1920's to work for the Enquirer, which has engendered in my a certain loyalty to newspapers. It is the only remaining local daily, where I grew up with three dailies in town.
I have been a daily subscriber for 58 years.

Only one of my four children reads the newspaper; the others get their news online or on television.

[safeinOhio]

3. I don't think there is a future in print editions.

Few young people like print papers, they go for digital. Of course this swing in ownership is not helping. Our hometown paper is at about 4 to 6 pages and the price is up to about 2 bucks.

[ificandream]

4. As a former newspaper employee

Having worked at a daily newspaper that's now a shadow of its former self, my thoughts are it would depend on the paper. Some papers are shedding all sorts of local coverage. I'd say find the nearest local paper that's doing a decent job and stick with that. But subscribing to a digital paper (I get the NYT and WashPost because of the situation in Washington) isn't really a bad thing, either. You're supporting true (as opposed to fake Fox News) journalism.