News is not free.
In fact, real news is very expensive, especially when gathered and reported by a team of professional journalists.
If you’re reading this in print, you probably know this already as you presumably paid for the newspaper you are reading. (Bless you.)
If, however, you’re reading this on a screen – on your phone, tablet or desktop – odds are you did not pay for it and probably wouldn’t pay for it if we charged for it.
Most non-journalists understand the problem with the news business at this basic level. Fewer people are reading print and more people “are getting their news online” where there just isn’t that much money.
While that’s true, it’s also a pretty clear indication that we’ve done a lousy job of telling this story and explaining how it happened and what it really means. And now, unfortunately, the hour is late.
In the past few months, newspapers across the country have made headlines of their own as they confront an escalating sense of existential dread in the face of continuously declining print revenue and relentless rounds of staff reductions and budget cuts. Most recently, the Denver Post, which is owned by the same private equity firm as us, published a plea for new ownership or a new business strategy on the eve of a major layoff.
Our Southern California publications have had to make similar reductions: Our newsrooms have been cut by nearly half in just the past two years.
Our business model is not just distressed or struggling. That’s putting it too lightly.
It’s broken.
And if news is to survive, it’s unlikely to do it in its current form, as a business that produces high-margin returns. This is not to say that legacy media is not profitable. Most newspapers are, in fact, profitable. They just won’t stay that way without continually cutting expenses to keep ahead of dwindling revenue streams.
And when the news media ownership’s priority is profit, the public service aspect of the Fourth Estate takes a back seat to the balance sheet.
That does not make for good journalism. Or rather, it makes for less good journalism.
It’s been a long slide from those golden days when newspapers were pretty much the only game in town. We owned the presses and we owned the distribution network.
If you wanted to get a message to the community – an advertisement, say – you had to deal with us.
There was plenty of money.
We liked to think that all that advertising was tied to the news, but in reality, it wasn’t tied all that tightly to the news at all.
Today’s digital economy has made that very clear as internet giants such as Google and Facebook dominate the digital ad space based on their ability to deliver content and advertising much more quickly and efficiently than legacy news media ever did or could.
What they don’t do is create content.
But they don’t have to, because there’s plenty of “content” out there, and it turns out that what’s really important is the distribution network (no presses required).
The advertising, of course, is not free. Advertisers pay for it, and they pay a lot. But instead of going to newspaper companies where it offsets the cost of newsgathering, it accrues to the tech giants.
This is a gross oversimplification of a much more complex issue, but suffice it to say that so far no one has really figured out the model for a self-sustaining digital business that supports the kind of newsgathering the American public expects, deserves and needs.
It’s more than a business problem, though, because news is more than just a business. A free press is vital to a well-functioning democracy. That’s why the founding fathers made it part of the Bill of Rights. It’s one of our fundamental freedoms, and it must be protected.
As American journalism declines, corruption blooms.
The Fourth Estate function of news media cannot be undervalued. The role of the free press to serve as a watchdog and to ensure government is accountable to the governed is an important counterweight to the expanding power and reach of the state.
Even those who denounce and decry the mainstream media must recognize that without real journalists in real newsrooms, all that’s left is fake news, or put another way, propaganda. The propagation of fake news on Facebook, for example, has been well documented, and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg told Congress last week that even his own data was pillaged.
More than just a business, news is a public service, and it must survive.
And to be fair, it will survive. There is too much demand for news and information and an obvious need for vetted, trustworthy reporting.
But change is needed, and quickly.
In a few rare cases, billionaires with a passion for journalism, have stepped up to buy major newspapers. That’s wonderful when it happens, but it’s probably not the solution to the bigger problem. (Although what newsroom wouldn’t want a benevolent billionaire as a benefactor?)
A shift to nonprofit status may be an option.
ProPublica, or closer to home, CalMatters are both good examples of digital nonprofits that fulfill the Fourth Estate function of a free press. In Pennsylvania, the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Daily News have become nonprofits as has the Tampa Bay Times (formerly the St. Petersburg Times) in Florida.
Or it could be a new business strategy that invests in the product and accepts lower margins to finance new initiatives.
Here in Southern California, where we have 11 daily newspapers and more than 20 weeklies, we’re working hard to preserve local journalism even as we try to develop new business models, from events planning and management to a digital subscription strategy that will soon roll out.
Journalism faces enormous challenges in adapting to new modes of media consumption. If the Fourth Estate as we know it is to survive, it will require ownership that is invested in its long-term success and a strategy that prizes purpose over profit.
We’re not giving up.
We do, however, need your support.
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Frank Pine is executive editor of the Southern California News Group. He can be reached at fpine@scng.com.
